The Facebook Waste

“I’m a single mom now. I find out I’m pregnant again and the prick cheats on me and gives me an STD. FML.”

No, this isn’t a line from a drama crazed episode of “90210”. This is an actual status that recently graced my news feed. I wish I was making this up, but this is how bad things have become in the realm that is Facebook.

Lets face it, for the most part, social networking sites are completely pointless. They’ve merely become a tool for 16 year old girls to flaunt pictures of themselves giving the peace sign or for people to bitch about whatevers irritating them at any given moment. There's seemingly no sense of privacy anymore, and I constantly see my “friends” updating their statuses every 5 minutes, as if the world needs to be constantly alerted that their taking a shower, getting coffee or doing homework. Are these monumental events? Why do they merit any attention what so ever? It blows my mind that people actually spend their time clicking the thumbs up button for these stupid statuses, or commenting on such insignificant things. What REALLY drives me insane, is this absolutely ridiculous notion of “FarmVille” or “Cyber Café”. Do people honestly not have anything better to do then to sit at a computer and raise virtual cows and concot electronic pies? How about you tear yourself away from Facebook and go visit an ACTUAL farm or bake an ACTUAL pie?

I just can't fathom why this has become such a phenomenon. Perhaps we're just completely self absorbed and think that everything we do is of importance to everyone else. Maybe we just want attention and try to obtain it by posting hundreds of pictures of ourselves and wait for the gratification that Facebook brings when people post a compliment. Or could it be that we're just wasteful. We waste our time creeping on people's pages, many of whom we don’t even know. Instead of doing things of value, like reading or god forbid, paying attention in class, we get lost in pointless crap that’s posted on the site. People somehow aquire thousands of internet friends, but they lose a sense of human connection in the real world. Communication is done through the veil of the computer, not by physically talking to people face to face or even on the phone.

I am not completely innocent. I’ll update my status every so often if something major has occurred and I want my friends to know about it. I use it to keep in touch with friends I don’t see and family that lives far away, and I think it’s a great in that sense. I just refuse to let it run my life.

I can only imagine what society could have accomplished by now if the distraction of Facebook didn’t exist.