Getting Closer to Abandoning Facebook Altogether
Even way back in the 1990's, I was constantly trying to get family and friends to get online with a webcam so we could keep in touch as easily as possible. Due to my career, friends and family were spread out all over the globe so webcams and the internet seemed to be the obvious solution to effective communication. I always felt there was a need for a program or website that allows people around the globe to keep in touch.
MySpace tried to fill this need but failed miserably. Before long, MySpace was filled with annoyingly cluttered profile pages which assaulted both your eyes and ears whenever you jumped to a new profile page. It was difficult to use, it had no flow, it was archaic in design and features (even for those early days), and the application simply went the wrong direction until it inevitably collapsed.
Then came Facebook. Now, this, was much closer to what I envisioned for people to keep in touch making the distance of thousands of miles to seem like only a few. The 'Newsfeed' idea was good. Simplicity in design was good (although, this interface has always been a bit clunky and outdated). There is no way for our friends to assault us with hokey, lame music and headache-inducing backgrounds like in the old MySpace website. This Facebook web application had some potential.
Then came the problems... poor design... security issues (including copyright infringement)... lack of security options... constant rumors... advertising... complicated settings menus... more advertising... complicated hoops to jump through if you are a web developer hoping to easily link to your own website or business... even more advertising... it quickly has become a depressing place to visit.
My 'Newsfeed' today is a neverending column of advertising, snippets of news articles my friends think would interest me with absolutely no thoughts or comments written by my friends to enlighten me on how this news is affecting them or why they are sharing it, and poorly designed little square image files with poorly written, misspelled, corny sayings in multiple fonts as though the new graphic designers of the world are very young, inexperienced primary school students (very reminiscent of the primitive and poorly executed MySpace). Mixed in with all of this nonsense are the most ridiculous and unbecoming photos of grown adults constantly making contorted, unflattering faces like I would expect to see from rambunctious, immature, very young children. Only on exceptionally rare occasions or on a holiday do I see anything worthwhile from my friends on Facebook. The rest of the time is silence or pointless shares mixed in among all the other junk I mentioned above. Actually, now that I think about it, I see far less junk and a better class of junk in my email than I see in my Facebook 'Newsfeed' everyday.
Today, I am forced to use Facebook mostly and almost exclusively for online groups (hobbies, interests, health support groups, etc). I'm also forced to use Facebook for email since people can't seem to string together anything more than a text message that more often than not needs deciphering and which is always misunderstood because... well... text messaging street-string-lingo is simply an exceptionally poor means of effective communication. Personally... I will never text message... I am better than that. And, if you do message me in Facebook (as opposed to an appropriately detailed email), it had better be clear and concise without me needing to play "20 questions". I abhor ineffectual communication and, to be honest, it really pisses me off because it unnecessarily wastes my time and energy and causes all sorts of unnecessary confusion.
My purpose of being involved in Facebook was (and still is... there is still a sliver of hope) to stay in contact with those people I rarely see in person anymore... whether it be due to distance, due to differing schedules, due to life changes, and/or due to my own poor health which limits my mobility and ability to socialize in person.
Facebook was supposed to be the place where we could share things among these close friends so we could effectively, pleasantly and warmly keep in touch. It was supposed to be a place where we could let everyone in our close circle of friends know how we are doing, what we did today, and what we would like to do tomorrow, about fun things, about interesting things (Remember... the way families once communicated when they gathered around the dinner table each night? If not, try it.) Facebook, believe it or not, once was like this but this has slowly changed and inevitably failed over time.
As I see it, rather than allowing only true friends and family to become friends with us in Facebook, people have allowed EVERYONE and ANYONE WHO DESIRES to become friends on Facebook and overpopulate their 'Friends Lists'. This is like turning the family dinner table into a public banquet hall. As a result, I suspect nobody is willing to share anything about their lives anymore because now everyone will see it. So, what is the purpose of Facebook if anyone and everyone is overpopulating everyone's 'Friends List'?
Are your discussions (which includes choice of vocabulary) at home the same as your discussions at work? Are your discussions with your family the same as discussions with an employee at the local store in town? Are your discussions with close friends the same as those with casual acquaintances? Do you talk about the same topics with your close personal friends and family as you do with casual acquaintances when you go out for a night on the town? If your answer is no to any of these questions then you should not be mixing these people from different areas of your life in your Facebook "Friends List"!
Facebook is now the world's largest public bulletin board. It is no longer about your day... it is no longer about keeping in personal contact with family and friends... it is no longer about effective communication and socializing. By inviting anyone and everyone into their 'Friends Lists', people have turned their Facebook pages into public bulletin boards regardless of 'Security Settings'. In turn, they have severely limited what can and should be said on this public bulletin board. In this respect, Facebook hasn't failed, society has failed due to lack of foresight which is something most humans should begin to understand in childhood and which they should and are expected to master during puberty.
There seems to be a serious lack of foresight, in general, but this is especially so within the confines of Facebook... also, there is a clear lack of integrity... a clear lack of standards and values... a severe lack of personal responsibility... even a gross lack of class and dignity not to mention a serious lack of genuine understanding and caring. Instead, our social circle has evolved into a disorganized, poorly communicated, often misunderstood and always misguided bulletin board for the world to see.
Facebook has failed us in some lousy design, some security issues, some copyright infringement issues, and lack of personal control over our accounts all of which only amounts to some bellyaching by its users and all of which can be easily changed. The bigger problem is that society has failed in effectively utilizing Facebook and, as a result, Facebook's original purpose no longer exists and cannot succeed.
Each day I'm getting one step closer to abandoning Facebook altogether. I have an app on my desktop which automatically lists the top 15 websites I visit the most each day by tracking my browsing history... Facebook isn't even in this top 15 list! I don't even want to visit it anymore and I rarely link any of my blog entries to Facebook today (I typically only link the family-related subjects).
I'm this close (as I squint and hold my thumb to forefinger up and apart, only enough to allow some light to spill through) to abandoning Facebook altogether.
MySpace tried to fill this need but failed miserably. Before long, MySpace was filled with annoyingly cluttered profile pages which assaulted both your eyes and ears whenever you jumped to a new profile page. It was difficult to use, it had no flow, it was archaic in design and features (even for those early days), and the application simply went the wrong direction until it inevitably collapsed.
Then came Facebook. Now, this, was much closer to what I envisioned for people to keep in touch making the distance of thousands of miles to seem like only a few. The 'Newsfeed' idea was good. Simplicity in design was good (although, this interface has always been a bit clunky and outdated). There is no way for our friends to assault us with hokey, lame music and headache-inducing backgrounds like in the old MySpace website. This Facebook web application had some potential.
Then came the problems... poor design... security issues (including copyright infringement)... lack of security options... constant rumors... advertising... complicated settings menus... more advertising... complicated hoops to jump through if you are a web developer hoping to easily link to your own website or business... even more advertising... it quickly has become a depressing place to visit.
My 'Newsfeed' today is a neverending column of advertising, snippets of news articles my friends think would interest me with absolutely no thoughts or comments written by my friends to enlighten me on how this news is affecting them or why they are sharing it, and poorly designed little square image files with poorly written, misspelled, corny sayings in multiple fonts as though the new graphic designers of the world are very young, inexperienced primary school students (very reminiscent of the primitive and poorly executed MySpace). Mixed in with all of this nonsense are the most ridiculous and unbecoming photos of grown adults constantly making contorted, unflattering faces like I would expect to see from rambunctious, immature, very young children. Only on exceptionally rare occasions or on a holiday do I see anything worthwhile from my friends on Facebook. The rest of the time is silence or pointless shares mixed in among all the other junk I mentioned above. Actually, now that I think about it, I see far less junk and a better class of junk in my email than I see in my Facebook 'Newsfeed' everyday.
Today, I am forced to use Facebook mostly and almost exclusively for online groups (hobbies, interests, health support groups, etc). I'm also forced to use Facebook for email since people can't seem to string together anything more than a text message that more often than not needs deciphering and which is always misunderstood because... well... text messaging street-string-lingo is simply an exceptionally poor means of effective communication. Personally... I will never text message... I am better than that. And, if you do message me in Facebook (as opposed to an appropriately detailed email), it had better be clear and concise without me needing to play "20 questions". I abhor ineffectual communication and, to be honest, it really pisses me off because it unnecessarily wastes my time and energy and causes all sorts of unnecessary confusion.
My purpose of being involved in Facebook was (and still is... there is still a sliver of hope) to stay in contact with those people I rarely see in person anymore... whether it be due to distance, due to differing schedules, due to life changes, and/or due to my own poor health which limits my mobility and ability to socialize in person.
Facebook was supposed to be the place where we could share things among these close friends so we could effectively, pleasantly and warmly keep in touch. It was supposed to be a place where we could let everyone in our close circle of friends know how we are doing, what we did today, and what we would like to do tomorrow, about fun things, about interesting things (Remember... the way families once communicated when they gathered around the dinner table each night? If not, try it.) Facebook, believe it or not, once was like this but this has slowly changed and inevitably failed over time.
As I see it, rather than allowing only true friends and family to become friends with us in Facebook, people have allowed EVERYONE and ANYONE WHO DESIRES to become friends on Facebook and overpopulate their 'Friends Lists'. This is like turning the family dinner table into a public banquet hall. As a result, I suspect nobody is willing to share anything about their lives anymore because now everyone will see it. So, what is the purpose of Facebook if anyone and everyone is overpopulating everyone's 'Friends List'?
Are your discussions (which includes choice of vocabulary) at home the same as your discussions at work? Are your discussions with your family the same as discussions with an employee at the local store in town? Are your discussions with close friends the same as those with casual acquaintances? Do you talk about the same topics with your close personal friends and family as you do with casual acquaintances when you go out for a night on the town? If your answer is no to any of these questions then you should not be mixing these people from different areas of your life in your Facebook "Friends List"!
Facebook is now the world's largest public bulletin board. It is no longer about your day... it is no longer about keeping in personal contact with family and friends... it is no longer about effective communication and socializing. By inviting anyone and everyone into their 'Friends Lists', people have turned their Facebook pages into public bulletin boards regardless of 'Security Settings'. In turn, they have severely limited what can and should be said on this public bulletin board. In this respect, Facebook hasn't failed, society has failed due to lack of foresight which is something most humans should begin to understand in childhood and which they should and are expected to master during puberty.
There seems to be a serious lack of foresight, in general, but this is especially so within the confines of Facebook... also, there is a clear lack of integrity... a clear lack of standards and values... a severe lack of personal responsibility... even a gross lack of class and dignity not to mention a serious lack of genuine understanding and caring. Instead, our social circle has evolved into a disorganized, poorly communicated, often misunderstood and always misguided bulletin board for the world to see.
Facebook has failed us in some lousy design, some security issues, some copyright infringement issues, and lack of personal control over our accounts all of which only amounts to some bellyaching by its users and all of which can be easily changed. The bigger problem is that society has failed in effectively utilizing Facebook and, as a result, Facebook's original purpose no longer exists and cannot succeed.
Each day I'm getting one step closer to abandoning Facebook altogether. I have an app on my desktop which automatically lists the top 15 websites I visit the most each day by tracking my browsing history... Facebook isn't even in this top 15 list! I don't even want to visit it anymore and I rarely link any of my blog entries to Facebook today (I typically only link the family-related subjects).
I'm this close (as I squint and hold my thumb to forefinger up and apart, only enough to allow some light to spill through) to abandoning Facebook altogether.
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