Facebook... Thy Name is Fraud

Followers of my blog already know I am not a fan of Facebook (see Brave New... What?!? blog from 2011). I had given it a brief try several years ago and found it so appallingly loathsome I jumped that ship o' fools vowing never to go back. Fast forward to 2014.

One of  the downsides of writing my book is my publisher insisting I needed a "Facebook presence." So I went to my dormant account, set up a page for my book, and reluctantly re-entered the Facebook world. I vowed to keep an open mind. Maybe I would finally "get" why everyone thinks Facebook is so fab, finally figure out what I was apparently missing.

Since returning to Facebook in 2014 I probably visit the site two to five times a day. I am astonished at how much stuff my "friends" post on a daily basis.

Most of it is either embarrassingly trivial, revealing what I imagine to be a person having a very boring day with too much time on their hands (read a book!!!). A lot of it is pretty impersonal, just links to articles and videos, etc. Some of these can be interesting, I admit, but would have more meaning to me if my "friend" had sent it to me personally by email with maybe a few words about why it had meaning to them. Some posts are embarrassingly personal revealing a clueless braggart or a raging drama queen.

I only have thirty-four "friends" on Facebook and sure as hell don't want anymore. It is the ultimate "Emporer has no clothes" experience for me. Fast food friendship for sure, potentially destructive as it is devoid of the key nutrients required for true healthy friendships.

Well, I know I have firmly established myself as a dinosaur now and am treading perilously close to the tar pits, but being me, I shall keep going. True friendship requires work and one on one time. "Liking" someone's post is no substitute for this. A true friend is a precious person, worthy of personal attention, not someone to be clumped in with casual acquaintances or people you've never even met. ( Yes , I know you can sort your "friends" in levels of importance on Facebook. More smoke and mirrors I say.)

I get in touch with my friends one on one via e-mail, texts, and (gasp!) phone calls. I want to hear their thoughts and reactions. I want substance, not a "like."

Many would say Facebook is harmless and I am taking it all too seriously. While it is clear to me that Facebook is here to stay, I will not go quietly into that dark night of superficial sharing and folks I've never met being called "friends."

"Following " Facebook is the ultimate trip  over the cliffs to death by meaninglessness courtesy of Pied Piper Mark Zuckerberg (exhausted long ago by laughing all the way to the proverbial bank). Take the time spent on Facebook and invest it in cultivating real friendships near and far. One true friend is worth all the illusory Facebook ones, believe me.

Here's what I think: Maybe Facebook is good for something I have yet to figure out, but it has nothing to do with real friendship. (I won't even dignify "Twitter" with a blog. The word TWIT covers it perfectly.)