What I’ve Learned from Facebook

What have I learned from Facebook?

The easy answer is nothing. The slightly more complex answer is, well, still nothing.

I took a three week break from Facebook and I was surprised at how easy it was. Here’s a place I dropped into every morning to see what other people were saying and talking about. How, I wondered, would my mornings ever be the same without that deep, meaningful social interaction?

Guess what? They were.

How so? Because for the most part, no one talks on Facebook; people just talk and brag and talk and struggle to impress and there’s no real interaction in that. It’s thought to be social networking, but it’s not, by my definition, anything close to social.

What I thought I’d miss, I found, was something I didn’t want in the first place. How very Wizard of Oz-ish of me. . .

“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.”

While I missed a few people with whom I share interests, and a couple of special interest groups, I didn’t miss the majority of the messages that are splattered across the timeline message feed. And to be honest, it felt good not seeing the inane messages of some. If you’re familiar with Facebook then you know what I’m talking about: the posts from people who believe themselves to be next Robin Williams, George Carlin, Steve Martin or Phyllis Diller when they’re more along the lines of Steve Urkel, Carrot Top, Gallagher or Sarah Silverman.

You put up with it because, hey, they’re ‘friends’, right?

Maybe Facebook isn’t really so different from real life, eh?

So, to sum it all up –

1. Three weeks away from Facebook was not so difficult.
2. Facebook takes a lot of time. And I’m not so sure that I’m willing to give it that much time.
3. To the friends I missed on Facebook: I missed you!
4. To some of the others: you’re still there, huh?

There’s a quote and I can’t verify who originally said it so take your pick between Robert Quillen or Will Rogers.

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like.”

Facebook is sort of like that. It’s too many people saying things they haven’t the foggiest notion of to impress friends they don’t know.

I guess I like the old fashioned way of getting to know someone.