How I used Facebook

As I'm sure most people know, Facebook is fairly handy. You can keep tabs on what your friends are doing now, stay in touch with old friends, and even have a laugh at their expense. I joined Facebook in November 2006 for just those reasons. I thought it was cool at first, but it became an addiction. For about a month, it was all I could do. I spent hours perusing profiles and tagging everyone I knew. It took a while, but I got it under control.

I updated my profile a few times a day. I tagged a few photos that a friend uploaded. I occasionally updated some of my personal information. After a while, though, I began to find that things were getting pretty repetitive. Dedicated, I stuck with it. About a year later, Applications were born. I thought they were cool, too. Soon, they too became enormous time-wasters, especially with them getting more and more pathetic. I was still a fan of the social networking site, but there was a problem. My Inbox was constantly being infiltrated by ridiculous invitations to play Scrabble, battle fish or some other odd thing, or become a Vampire. I don't want to become a Vampire. Not when I'm online simply trying to escape from daily stress. Save it for World of Warcraft.

I had had enough. About a week ago, I came to a sudden realization. Facebook is stupid. I hardly used it to communicate with people anymore, as anyone I cared to talk to was an 'Enter' away on MSN. I found that I was only going on Facebook because I had the account. I felt obligated to update my status or see what my friends were doing simply because I could. That didn't seem right to me. In my opinion, the whole point of social networking is the desire to widen your circle of friends. I no longer had the same desires as that Sunday afternoon back in 2006.

Needless to say, I'm no longer a user. There may come a time when I miss clicking through the profiles of people I'll never see again, the walls that I'll never write on, the status updates I'll never take seriously, the invites that I'll never read, but I doubt it. The whole site has lost some of its credibility, I think. It was fun while it lasted, but it's over, and I think I'm better off without it.

Alica Mathias describes Facebook as a time-wasting, in-joke fueled venue for stalking one's friends and potential romantic relations.

Couldn't have put it better myself.

If you use Facebook (or don't), I want to hear your opinion. Leave a comment, or take the poll. Just, whatever you do, don't let it change you!

Follow-up Note:

I found this video on YouTube today... it pretty much sums up my opinion of Facebook. Enjoy!

The First of Many

Hello, people in the interweb.

If you're reading this, I honestly can't believe that you have nothing better to do with your time. Unless, of course, you're reading this in the future, and my skills as a blogger have improved. In which case I thank you. This is my first post for this blog, but not my first post altogether. I have had several, less-than-successful blogs in the past, all of which have crashed and burned. I truly hope that I can break free from my chains with this one, and create something I'm proud of. I've been itching to write something for quite some time, but never really had the confidence/motivation/ideas/creativity (pick one) to do so.

I plan to write this blog for years to come. I don't expect fans to develop or anything like that. This is just a form for my musings. With that said, I hope to post at least once a week, about pretty much anything, from movie reviews to politics to my opinions on dogs peeing in public, so please, check back. You may see something you like. I encourage comments on my blog, whether you like it or not. It tells me what to focus on, and what to stay away from. Most importantly, it tells me that I'm not wasting my time. If no one ever reads this, then I might as well be writing in the Maed journal that I keep in my sock drawer. Over the next little while, expect to see changes here. I'm still trying to find my niche, as it were.

I'm happy to be back in the blogosphere, and I hope, for the love of God, that I don't run out of things to say.

Thanks for reading!