Facebook annoyances

I like Facebook. I don't love it but it's convenient. It's easy for me to keep in touch with friends that live farther away whose lives are pretty busy. I like being able to share pictures, videos, etc. with a large number of friends all at once. However, Facebook has it's drawbacks that are mostly to do with people on Facebook and not necessarily anything that Mark Zuckerberg is doing.

1) Apps. Good God how I loathe them! I briefly played around with Farmville and enjoyed it but it just became tedious. I used to not mind that I got daily notifications from people on my friends list about whatever app or Facebook game they were involved with. That was before I got an iPhone. The frequent alerts on my phone that "so-so would like for you to join them in Chefville" or whatever started to really piss me off. I sign onto Facebook once or twice daily only to find dozens of notifications from friends spamming me with their app requests! Just, stop, or I shall engage the "Unfriend" function.

2) Discussions of religion or politics. I get that your faith and/or political beliefs are important to you. I also defend your Constitutional right to say whatever the hell you want to on your own status update. However, do not act surprised to discover there are people on your friends list that don't agree with your rhetoric. You must also attempt to check the behavior of the crazed zealots you are friends with that DO agree with you when they start in on the adult version of schoolyard bullying. President Obama isn't a foreign-born secret Muslim, a woman isn't a whore just because she takes birth control, and Separation of Church and State was a decision made by our Founding Fathers. Just because I don't agree with you and I prefer to live in the realm of reality and facts does not give you license to question my intelligence or patriotism. Nor does it give you the right to disparage my education, race, and socioeconomic background because of my beliefs. 

3) Status update histrionics. *sigh* Where do I even start with this? Before I do, let me confess that I have been guilty of venting on Facebook in the past. Sometimes, you just need to let off steam. Afterwards, you feel better and then foolish for posting an expletive-laced diatribe against a coworker, friend, or family member in such a public fashion. The problem are those that do it constantly. You know who you are. Everyone has that friend on Facebook that updates their status cursing out someone they recently dated or bemoaning how crappy their life is. On a daily basis with constant updates throughout the day all along the same thread. These same folks also hijack OTHER people's status updates to bitch about how much their own lives currently suck. Case in point: I had a friend that posted a humorous update on Facebook about being stuck in traffic. After several friends left hilarious comments on the status, one friend decided to hijack the status by complaining this person had been a bad friend by not calling or checking on her. She was serious when she did this. What followed was an example of extreme bitchassness that could only exist on a social networking site. After turning a funny status into one huge guilt trip, myself and others came to my friend's defense that this sort of hijacking was just not kosher and that she needs to take the theatrics back to her own page. The entitlement of some Facebook users is just mind boggling, which leads me to my final issue.

4) Overt displays of narcissism. Social networks have turn us all into selfish assholes. That's the reality. Just like with AIM ten years ago, everybody assumes that the world really wants to hear our witty deduction of "Is the hokey pokey REALLY what it's all about?!" or how that the world really gives a shit that I ate a lox and cream cheese bagel at an awesome bagel shop. Yes, we all want to entertain our friends but when your entire identity is wrapped up in your Facebook page, it's time for you to log off and reevaluate your life. When you post pictures of yourself scantily-clad just so your male friends can comment about how hot you are, then I suggest that you seek therapy for low self-esteem. There's hundreds of millions of Facebook users. None of us are any more special than the next, so stop acting like as though the world revolves around you!

People, let's try to remember one very important fact: employers and universities check Facebook and other social networking sites to see if you have a profile. If they're lucky, you're moronic enough to have your profile set to public. That way, they can see ALL your business, good and bad. Don't be an idiot, use Facebook responsibly.