I should’ve seen it coming. I should’ve hit delete immediately. I should’ve done anything but what I did. Accepted an offer to join this phenomenon sweeping the country called Facebook.
My girlfriend told me about it. It’s an online place where old friends can reconnect. Or old enemies. Or people you forgot about. For the same reason, people you wished you could forget. One can post precious photos of themselves with their beloved dogs. Or sporting habits such as scuba diving, karate classes, plane jumping, or anything mindless. People have walls that they use to write stuff back and forth. These are walls that “Anyone on the site” can view. I see lots of people using this to send personal messages to other people. I can view them even though they are stupid (in my book, not theirs). Many folks do not realize that the entire community of facebook can view what’s written on your wall, and are doing so.
So why do I hate this site? Because it’s cutting into my precious time in a huge way. I’m trying to work. And I’m getting less done. At least 3 times per day somebody new is requesting my friendship on this site. In order for them to bother you, they must write to your face (the place where you have a personal space on this site) and request your friendship. As soon as you “confirm” that they are your friend, they start posting silly things to you. Or instant messaging you when you do visit your own personal face page. If I don’t reply to these IM’s, I feel like I’m an asshole. Yet replying wastes time I’m supposed to be working.
I ignored the first few people that requested my friendship on this site. The site sent emails to my regular email address saying “so and so has requested that you be their friend on facebook. Click here to accept”. Then certain well known designers and band managers chirped in with the same request. I cannot ignore my peers, I have to accept them. So now every salesman for every lighting company is contacting me. Stage hands from Peoria just want to say hi. And I swear I don’t know half of the people asking to be my friend. But rather than upset them that I would be “too good” to have them as my friend, I accept them.
People I have fired in the past wish to be my friend. People I went to high school with want to contact me. Worse of all, every time I click on my mac to accept one of these friend’s requests, the facebook site bumps me off my own email and I have to resign on again. More time spent when all I wanted to see was if someone had responded to the lighting plot I sent 2 hours ago. These messages are being transferred to our i-phones now. Does this mean I will have to pay for more minutes. I certainly hope not. But I just do not know yet.
This site has to be a horror for employers. I can see their employees easily spending an hour a day surfing this useless jargon, just to see that a friend of theirs has just discovered the wonders of “In and Out burger” for the first time. Plus on this site, you can view pictures of everyone that’s on anyone else’s list of friends. The site even tells you (and shows faces of) people you probably know in the same business because they are friends of your friends. I get the feeling some people are just trying to see how many friends they can accumulate on this damn site. I imagine it’s near a thousand. That’s how many I would have if I bothered to request friendships from every acquaintance I know on this site.
. I’m busy working, and every time I get an email my mac gives out a little “bing” noise. Since I don’t want to miss an important work email, I will always check it. And find myself wasting time with another request from an associate who wants to be my friend. If you wish to send me a good old fashioned email, I will gladly reply. If you google my name, you can get my email addresses in less than a minute. So excuse me if I don’t answer or accept your request. Please don’t take it personal. I just have work to do and don’t want to know what anyone had for breakfast.
