NOT the Site of the Day: Facebook

Today I made the joyous decision to deactivate my Facebook account. Joyous because I cannot remember the last time a site has so annoyed me.

I resisted joining Facebook for a long time. It just seemed so trite and I've never had much patience for social networking sites. I tire of them so easily. But people kept telling me to give it a go, so in January of this year I finally did and jumped onto the Facebook bandwagon.

And it took me less than three months to bail the hell off THAT wagon.

So, why my hate for this much-loved (and, as I have also discovered of late, much-reviled) site? Well, some of the MANY reasons why I detested being a Facebooker include:

1. It's The Stepford Wives Online Social Forum! The utterly mundane and piss-boring posts by so many people about things they're doing that I would never, ever, EVER be interested in the first place. It's scary just how mundane most people's lives are - and they have the nerve to think I'd actually be interested! Not to mention the all-out chirpiness of it all. It's all so glib and so relentlessly cheery and...well...creepy.

2. Much Ado About Nothing: For all the talk about what wonderful 'networking' one can do on this site (one of the primary reasons I joined) it's all bloody nonsense. Real networking is so limited. Yes, there are some great organizations with profiles on the site and some good causes that can be spread. But they're almost an afterthought in the mental twilight world that is Facebook. And most people really don't care. For the most part, it's just an excuse for social exhibitionism and voyeurism to run rampant and without threat of prosecution.

3. Oops, There Goes My IQ!: The sheer banality of most of the posts coupled with the ENDLESS silly games that some people play on the site ('Mafia Wars', something about a damn zoo and other such mindless crap) and which one - of course - has to be bombarded with, was astounding. It gave me the distinct impression that, for the very first time in my life and barring a few forgettable social instances, I could actually feel the physiological sensations of myself getting more and more stupid...Absolutely scary.

4. The 'Who-the-Bloody-Hell-Are-You?' Game: Never before have I had so many requests from so many people that I either (a) can barely stand it if they're in the same hemisphere as I or (b) I don't have a cooking clue who they are, to simply be their 'friend'. Friend indeed - back-handed slap is more like it.

5. Is This Communication?: On a more serious note, I sincerely have huge doubts regarding the actual value and quality of the communication one gets in the online hell that is Facebook. For one, I was taken aback at how essentially dumb some of the communication was by people who I (once) thought and assumed were actually smart. It was a genuine shock to me.

For another, me listening to what a person had for breakfast or what their precious child did in the school play or how fabulous they think their God is, and which is broadcast willy-nilly to the entire world, is neither personally gratifying for me nor is it real communication. It's just tedious narcissism, quite frankly.

Put it in an e-mail and communicate with me one on one. Even if it is about your breakfast or your child or your God - I'll be more receptive. At least then it validates me as being a real friend to you, and not just one of your hundreds of Facebook 'friends'.

It's the dumbing down of society.

It's the elevation of being trite and glib to that of being smart - when it is not nor should it ever be.

It's further confirmation of the mindless instant gratification era in which we live.

It is the Big Brother TV show syndrome subliminal to one's social interactions.

It is a limited concept given too much online importance and too much value.

It's for some, and not for others.

For a far more amusing and brilliantly scathing attack on Facebook, please follow this link at the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-ostroy/i-hate-facebook_b_178867.html 

The rant against Facebook by Andy Ostroy, a political analyst in New York City, is seriously funny. And seriously true. It's a fantastic diatribe.

As for me with regard to Facebook, it's a case of over and OUT!

Thank goodness.