Facebook – Social networking or a public nuisance?

Now let us start by stating that Facebook is a great networking tool – after all I have enjoyed catching up with old Friends, distant friends and surprisingly people I see most days; what a strange phenomenon!

But why is it so successful? Is it that we can have a quick polite conversation with people we don’t really like – keeping enough contact with them that we feel like we are being a good friend without really having to engage them because in reality they drive us crazy?

Is it that we can say things on facebook that we would never dare to say in person?

How many of us have become friend collectors – adding people that we wouldn’t recognise in the street or even know if they happened to serve us in a shop?

Of course there are the other more attractive features of Facebook like being able to join groups with people we have never met before but share the same interests as ourselves such as the “addicted to Doctor who’ group.

Then there are of course the annoying things about Facebook, like the time I managed to ‘hug’ everybody between 3-5 times when I was trying to hug one person only once!

Or the posts to individual walls that all of a sudden appear on everyone’s wall, in fact I noticed that my first post about this group appeared on one person’s wall as coming from not me but another friend!

And what started off as a bit of ‘forwarding Fun’ has mutated into the curse of “Mortimer the travelling bear’, Vampires, slayers, Zombies and other numerous invitations to add seemingly useless applications!

The only application of much use is undoubtedly the StarWars one but then again I am a little biased.

The other day someone inquired of me how to delete friends without them knowing, ah parting is such sweet sorrow as they say – how do you write someone off without them knowing – well apparently you can and they won’t even know!

So as I write this post I know that throughout the facebook world my name is being deleted en masse and thankfully I will be blissfully unaware – not that I am worried because rejection has no part to play in my life but I must end with a warning to you all – if I find out you have deleted me you will be suddenly overrun with doctor who bobbleheads and invitations to join the “I grew up in Thames’ group.

Have a great facebook day and see you next week.