Facebook might be a global phenomenon and Mark Zuckerberg might be very very rich, but I still don’t get it. In fact it is a constant source of frustration and embarrassment to me.
On my birthday I received about 8 messages via Facebook. I was most touched. I even emailed back a message to a man in India who I haven’t seen since I was at school saying how lovely of him to remember my birthday after all these years. Well. Now I’m mortified because my children can’t believe that I wasn’t aware of the birthday prompt and so of course he knew it was my birthday.
I still hardly have any friends on Facebook and those that I do have are mostly my children or my children’s friends. I don’t know how I have become “friends” with some of my children’s friends and it is not normal. I really don’t want to know that “JL is hungry”, or that “TH is ill and angry”, or that “RL is so coooool”, or that “FB is SOOOOOO excited about seeing the Ting Ting’s”. It just makes me want to add that “I have just done a poo”.
It’s like playing an online video game where you have to collect as many friends as possible and then become a stalker. I hope the younger generation are dealing better with the possibility of rejection than I am. I nudged, or bonked, or poked an old boyfriend months ago and heard nothing. Finally the other day he accepted me as a friend. Well that took too long. Now I don’t want to be his friend anymore. I want an option that says “L has changed her mind, she has looked at your picture and you are now bald and wearing an anorak and you took too long to reply. Have a nice life”.
I think the site’s attempt to introduce personalised ads is sinister. It might be the leading social networking site, but people are on there to talk to their friends and look at photos, they don’t want to be sold something or targeted. On my homepage I have a gorgeous man looking out at me and a line that says “Are you single and 43?” Well I assume that now if I look it will have changed to “Single and 44” and I don’t like that. Having put down my “status” as single I have received “friendship” offers from a number of different men – one called “Iron” – a body builder, one called “Bunmeet”, one who lives in Nigeria, but would like to come over to meet me ( I assume I’d need to send my bank details first) and so on. It’s not good.
So what happens when you want to remove yourself from Facebook? What happens to the personal details of over 100 million of us? What plans are they formulating with the advertisers for the future and should we be very very scared. It’s Big Brother all over again.
Anonymous
November 13, 2008sounds like you have too many details on facebook in the first place. my birthday or single status have never and will never be there.
Dumdad
November 13, 2008But personal details can be fictitious and often are. That’s why I haven’t bothered to join up. Anyway, blogging and email are enough for me!
Janelle
November 13, 2008well quite. we’ll just call in that 60 ft policeman who can see into the queen’s bedroom…its shameful. i still forget to wish happy birthday even when i’m reminded…ok. off to stalk you on facebook now. .x j
A Mother's Place is in the Wrong
November 13, 2008Now why don’t I get those sort of people contacting me on my Facebook! “Bunmeet” sounds hilarious. I do know what you mean though – most of my “Friends” are connected to my Children in some way. M xx
The Dotterel
November 13, 2008I’m with you on this – I’m very suspicious of Facebook (for reasons I can’t quite fathom) and have resisted joining until this week. I’ve absolutely no idea what I’m doing, but it’s the only way (it seems) to see pictures of friends new babies and the like. Someone actually said, the other day, they’d stopped e-mailed because ‘everyone can just read Facebook’!
Adventure Mother
November 13, 2008I am also sceptical and am amazed at the amount of time my “friends” seem to spend on there. I don’t have time for games, to send hugs and tell people they are beautiful!
family affairs
November 13, 2008Oh. Is that the problem anon? I wasn’t supposed to fill in those bits – one of my children or my brother did it for me i seem to recall – I certainly don’t remember getting asked about my birth date.
SusannahS
November 13, 2008You can certainly go into your profile and tweak it to show as much or as little as you want. I have mine set to ‘private’ so only my Friends can view my page.
For the most part, I’ve loved Facebook because I have reconnected with so many old friends. But occasionally I get Friend requests from random people who are obviously trying to collect friends and look popular.