Facebook, Friends No More
Junk: 07.01.07 
Culture
Recently I discovered that I know grown adults using the colossal waste of time called Facebook. After this discovery I am evaluating whether or not I can still call them my friends. In fact since the crowning achievement with these social networking sites is to obtain as many “friends” as you can, I am contemplating starting a “no longer friends” list that contains all the guys I know that use Facebook. “Why?” you say, would I consider disowning them as comrades. Well for starters using Facebook as a grown man is far from masculine. Facebook is equivalent to scrap-booking, a hobby enjoyed by teenage girls and housewives. If I ever went over to a friends house and found him pasting pictures, notes from others, and newspaper clippings into a scrapbook I would quickly snatch the book run for some type of flammable liquid, a match, and set the thing ablaze. That is the kind of faithful friend I am. However, since I can’t do this with Facebook I will instead post their names as “Friends no more.” I just can’t be associated with such pansies.
22 comments ↓
IT WAS NICE KNOWING YOU KERRIN.
your best post so far…
Social websites deserve a trouncing and a mocking for sure… but I’ve reconnected with people on Facebook that I haven’t seen or heard from in years. You don’t know what you’re missing…
i’m sure these “reconnected” relationships are very meaningful… sounds a little sentimental for a man’s man, macho, action hero, movie star!
i think i struck a nerve with the scrap-booking comment.
Facebook *is* a huge waste of time for most people. You can tell by how many Facebook apps they have installed and how often they update their statuses. The biggest dangers are (1) living life online instead of offline and (2) breadth of relationships at the sacrifice of depth. Once you realize these, you can avoid them pretty easily.
With that said, I have been able to peak at photos of a trip I couldn’t make with friends. I also reconnected with someone who is start-upping like me and who is already rubbing elbows with the founders of Digg. I’ve learned a bit in our conversations (email and phone) and that wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Facebook. It has its uses–you just have to make sure you don’t get used by it.
Subscribed to your blog now. Write something positive once in a while; you know, something symbolic, using Disney characters.
I’m going to shut off the laptop and go hit the beach…
ian, i think you are on the defensive. buck up!
Ok - scrapbooking?! seriously dude? OMG - you really are missing OUT! either that - or you’re getting exactly what you want - crazy argument
@Coach Deb,
Thanks for checking out my nonsense. I am not looking for a “crazy argument” but rather, post as a punk-like response to the blognation that exists today. taking me seriously would be a mistake.
oh man! Dave C is on Facebook?? Wow! I gotta add him to my friends! Thanks for the tip Kerrin!
@Nick, another “fake” virtual friend for you. and your going on my list.
i’m sure you’re happy to know rob has nothing to do with online social networks. i do enjoy them to reconnect w/ high school friends across the country—and yes it is meaningful :). glad i’m a girl so i don’t have to be on your list. but then would you have ever called me a friend to begin w/?
@Mary, Of course you are my friend… I’m really not that mean. I will admit I don’t have many friends but that is my fault not anybody else’s.
Oh yea I searched for Rob on Facebook and was glad to see that he did not succumb its ways.
So, is ‘MySpace’ acceptable?
@Mel, It’s the same thing as far as I’m concerned. I just mentioned Facebook because all the cool kids use it. Myspace is so 2002.
your blog seems a bit like scrapbooking to me…just a thought
@wardali, Thanks for the thought provoking thought. But I find it off base. The primary component of this blog is me writing my worthless thoughts…which would be similar to a journal, more so then a scrapbook.
You still could be right… I am a hypocrite.
uh… so there goes this experiment…
@Andree Kless au contraire… the experiment is now extended
Kerrin! I’m so glad you started an online diary. I can’t wait to hear your worthless thoughts daily in my RSS Feed.
Oh wait…someone just poked me. I gotta go.
As a matter of integrity, you should now admit here that you are actually a Facebook user and attempt to explain yourself.
@Trav, You may have missed previous comments in this thread. Such as this one, before I extended my worthless thoughts and blog rebellion to facebook, where I clearly claim to be a hypocrite, ’nuff said?
PS. Integrity has nothing to do with the previous statement. What you got?
Curmudgeon! I’m still laughing.
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