Facebook Folly and my self proclaimed manifesto.

I don’t know how many of my friends on Facebook will actually read this blog post. I have said some things about FB before on here and it has become a more relevant thing more and more.
First I have to admit something, I, like everyone else who has a FB account, am nosy and I want attention. That is really what FB is about isn’t it? Being nosy with out actually participating in other people’s lives and getting attention from others is the very foundation of FB?
So what do you do when people that you are friends with start really spewing out things that are negative or so self centered? FB invented this nice little feature that allows you to “hide” people so that their pictures, status updates, and game scores don’t show up. I have used this feature and then from time to time I would search thru those “hidden” people to see what they have been up to. The issue that got me really thinking is that I had actually forgotten about some of the people that were “hidden”. I honestly forgot that we were “friends”. So that would lead to the assumption that I should just delete them and allow them and myself to go along our merry ways but I just couldn’t hit that delete button. The reason? Because I am nosy and though I don’t want continually barraged with their me me me status, their more than 5 times a day status, their status that has swear words, their status that makes them think they are cool because they double every last letter, I still want to have that ability to look, on my time what they are doing and when they are “partyingggg” (stupid isn’t it?)
Oh, and I do know I will sound slightly hypocritical at times because right now I have been updating on an almost daily basis that I am leaving for a trip to Maryland in a couple of days but those will stop soon enough and I will continually work to make sure I don’t fall into the traps for which I am railing against others.
What I am about to say will be used against me, I am sure, but this is what I feel and I will make no apologies for it.
I don’t care if it is your status or not…stop being so rude to other people when they tell or ask you something or don’t like what you have said. You expressed your stupid opinion now let other people express theirs. Oh and go ahead and un-friend me or block me or whatever I don’t really need friends that only value themselves and not the opinions of other people.
I don’t really care about Fishville, Farmville, Cookville, poker, word jumble, or Mafia so stop asking me to play them so that you can get a chicken for your coop or a new waiter for your diner or a new bazooka.
I will unhide you when you can prove to me that every status can actually be written in plain, concise English and not some redneck hickville language you picked up because you spent more time playing in school than actually learning anything. Yes, I am expressing my opinion about your stupidity so hide me at will or just delete me.
If you are continually being emo, quoting song lyrics, putting up passive aggressive status then consider yourself hidden until I can figure out what I want to do with you.
You will be deleted if you continually complain about your children and then ask me to “like” or play something. Get a life outside of the virtual one and raise your children.
I am not the best Christian. Over the past months I have done some things that I regret and while trying to become better I have to live with those things. One thing that I have to deal with is this issue of negativity. It is so easy to be negative all the time because things aren’t going our way. I was passed up for a promotion after 3 times of trying for that particular position and I admittedly was not happy and put too many negative things on FB. I did a great disservice to a church and myself in December when I said some things that could have hurt the testimony that others see in that church. We are inundated with negativity all day long and while it doesn’t hurt to ask prayer for some trial i.e. death of someone, a pressing matter putting your negativity can only lead to one thing, people only thinking about you as being the negative person. It is sad to say how much of this goes on. I have one FB friend that is so mindful of this and in some of the hardest times she has sought to only praise God. She will never know how much it means to me, when I was losing faith, to see her situation and her love and praise.
This could fall under the category of negativity but I also get so distressed when people are tearing down others in their daily multiple statuses. A while ago a tv special aired that delved into the practices of IFB churches. I am not defending nor condoning the practices but there was so much mud slinging and name calling that if you even sided one bit with one side you were deemed a witch monger and if you didn’t agree with what the other side was saying you were deemed “an unsaved liberal”. I was afraid to say anything because I would have been branded which was funny because I agreed on some level with both sides. You know what is funny? Not one thing has been said by anyone after that first initial 4-5 days. (My thoughts are that if you believe in a “cause” so much you will continue with it even when the hype has been diminished).
A friend mentioned today that he was thinking about closing his FB, which he then amended to taking down pictures and not allowing postings to his “wall”. I fully support him if he chooses to do that. I have his number if I need to call him or email if I want to talk.
But what can I do? Back in February I gave up soda because I was too addicted to it. And right now I am thinking that it would be a good thing to try it with Facebook.
So on June 1, 2011 I will be “giving” up FB for a month. I won’t post any pictures, give you a status, like or comment on anyone’s wall. Then I will decide. And if I lose friends over this then so be it.
You can still follow me at sugarwithanedge on Twitter or read this blog.