I Hate Facebook

I just realized that I hate Facebook. It's a social networking site, more grown-up than MySpace because it started as a site networking around college connections. Here's how it works: I go to Simmons, so I belong to the Simmons Community first, then I can join any other communities that are listed as "open" (an example being the recently famous "1,000,000 Strong for Stephen Colbert"). And I could even go back and, if I had an email address for it, join IPFW's Community. Same goes for my high school. Haven't seen it stretch as far back as elementary school but, if that school gave you email addresses, it could conceivably happen.

But regardless, I still hate it. Here's some of the reasons why:

• If it's social networking, then why don't I talk to people on it? Most of the people I've befriended on it I never communicate with via Facebook. I see them at school, I talk to them over the phone, I email them if I have something to say. So I end up being their Facebook friend but never communicating with them through it.

• Since I don't use Facebook to communicate, what good is it for? Well, it could be used to share web-based information, multimedia, links, etc. But Facebook is a bit clunky for it. The YouTube videos are resized and very small. Embedding videos and links in Facebook's messaging service takes forever and causes frequent errors.

• Really, what good is it for? Hmm . . . it's good for stalking and making social situations awkward. See "How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook" by Cory Doctorow from Information Week. I've got one person on my Facebook friends list that I can't wait to take off--but only after I know I won't see him anymore because I'd just rather not be asked the question "why did you take me off your list?"

• Is Facebook really that different from MySpace? Sure, you can't pimp your page but Facebook has a lot of crap that you can add on. Really, it would be better to describe this crap as tschoske--all it ends up doing is occupying space on my profile page. On Facebook, I have a zombie. It fights other zombies and gains points. But it's no fun to fight zombies--it's like playing text-based games but the text never changes, you just accumulate points. And there's no end to the crap that you can add on. If there's any difference from MySpace, it's that Facebook pages will never reek of a thirteen-year-old girl's bedroom, with loud clips of the latest pop songs blaring and bedazzled wallpaper blinging.

Now I know that there's a lot of people out there that enjoy Facebook. My friend, Ted Fehskens, and his family use it all the time. I watch them chat away with each other, sharing news about their life and links to funny web pages or clips. But I'm sure there'll come a time when they stop. To me, Social Networking sites are a fad. You start off at one site, have fun adding information about yourself and building up a group of friends--but then another site comes along that you think you'll prefer. So you switch and have to do it all over again. Maybe it's just the social network hermit in me, but I don't want to have to be that socially active. I have my group of friends and I know who they are. And I don't give a damn about telling you what my favorite movie is.


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