As I approach my first year of being on Facebook (yeah, I know, I’m usually a little behind on these “trendy” things), I thought this would be a good time to examine some of the things that truly baffle me about it (and its users).
So if you, like me, know more about your ninth-grade crush’s life than you do your own husband’s (because Crush Boy posts more status updates), read on.
1. Friend requests.
What is the deal with people who:
A) Send them to you out of the blue, with one or no friends in common
B) Reject you even though you have at least five friends in common and you’re sure they remember who you are, or at least where they would know you from (high school, a workplace, etc.)
C) Sit on your friend request for weeks without confirming or ignoring you as a friend. (This last one is particularly annoying if you see their status updates show up on your news feed. That means they’re ON Facebook but they’re choosing not to confirm or deny you. Get off the fence, people! Ignore me or don’t but stop being passive/aggressive about it. I give people a week and if they still haven’t responded, I remove the request.)
2. Crowd-following status updates.
My previous post addressed this. You know the status updates I’m talking about:
A) The Cryptic Status. “Black.” “4 :(.” These usually involve old memes given new life as a status update designed to confuse people not in-the-know. These get old very fast.
B) The Bandwagon Status. “If you love the troops, put this as your status for the next 24 hours.” Then there are the ones who try to lay on a guilt trip. “99% of people who love Jesus won’t put this as their status. Will you?” People who repost things like this make me wonder if everyone else were jumping off bridges, would they be next in line?
C) Fun with Tags Status. If someone’s going to tag 3 people in their status, why don’t they write on one of their friends’ walls instead? Or write a note? Not everybody cares about their reindeer games.
3. Group and Fan Abuse.
A) More Fans Than… Groups
I admit that some of these started off funny (“Can This Pickle Get More Fans Than Nickelback?”) although they grew tiresome (“Can This Onion Ring Get More Fans Than This Onion Ring?”). Enough, please.
B) Making a Stand Groups
“I dont care about your farm, or your fish, or your park, or your mafia!!!” Well, then, group members, why don’t you hide the posts of your fellow farmers and mafiosos, and get a life like you tell THEM to get.
C) “Socially Aware” Fans
Mary Hall became a fan of “Making Drug Tests Required to Get Welfare.” Thanks, Mary. Sorry I don’t feel strongly enough to care about becoming a fan of this.
So, in conclusion and in summary, I do love Facebook. But some of the things people do on it make no sense to me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go update my status with “Blue unicorn :(” and join a group called “can this sausage roll get more fans than cheryl cole” and ignore 10 friend requests, and…and…
Is there anything that puzzles YOU about Facebook? Leave a comment (and I promise not to dissect it). 🙂
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