Facebook

Earlier this week Facebook really made me angry. Not so much the entity itself but the people who use it and how it's being used. I swear I'll explain but let me say this first. Yes, I am the girl with the Facebook app on her Blackberry, and yes, I do check it at work... occasionally.

I posted the following as my status announcing my frustration:

"Emily Hall

is going to delete Facebook off my phone and will not be signing on anymore. I just cannot handle seeing you post your for all to see horoscope again, or spell "this" without an 'h', or whine... for the hundredth time today. This is ridiculous. Does no one have anything relevant to share?"

And in return, a number of people commented but one in particular stuck out. (Ahem, Mr. Director-Man):

"Its your fault for thinking you need to have mind-blowing material every second of everyday in the palm of your hand... Stop checking facebook so much. Remember when there was no facebook? Get back to that, and you'll be happy."

I'd like to point out, I don't actually check my Facebook that much. Daily? Yes. Hourly? No. Also, I have a bachelor's in Communication with about 27 hours of that degree consisting of media literacy classes. The point of media literacy is to understand and be able to communicate effectively via any medium... social networking included. As such, I firmly believe and do not expect that anything (read: anything) with user generated content will never, in it's entire lifespan be comprised of "mind blowing material." And please allow me to clarify what I meant by "relevant." Relevant = something that anyone other than yourself and your mother care about; including but not limited to photos of your kids, interesting articles, something you're thankful for, trip plans, trip photos... anything other than you having something to whine and complain about.

What I do expect is for the people I choose to surround myself with (even in the online setting) to not suck so much. And that's exactly what they're doing. I do not care what your horoscope has planned for you today, I hate the way you type/speak, I really don't like any of the songs your 'deep and meaningful' lyric posts come from, and you couldn't come up with something witty if your life depended on it.

On top of that, I do not want to see your vague "if I post this people will ask questions and make me feel loved" status updates, I do not want you to justify your drama with your baby daddy's other baby mama, and I do not want you to give me updates on whatever MTV/BET bullshit you're watching right now.

I love my Facebook. I get to talk to my Mommy on it, I can keep tabs on my little brothers, I get to laugh at my little sisters pictures, the ladies in my family and I even have a little book club going and when I feel all warm and fuzzy I can view the myriad of pictures of me and my husband at the drop of a hat.

I will not allow you to ruin this for me. Hence, you will be deleted.

If you would like to petition your deletion from my page that would be fine, and might even amuse me enough to make you not-deletable. In the mean time, "but we had chem together!" isn't a good enough excuse to keep you around. People and their hurt "but I thought we were friends?!" feelings be damned.

This is not a "beware you will be deleted!" blog. This is a "I'm reformatting those I surround myself with and don't feel like having all your crap in the electronic version of my life."

In short, I will not be completely signing out of Facebook... I will simply be improving my own experience.