Facebook, You Are Being Difficult

Facebook has become difficult. Now I don't want you to think I'm whining and blaming Facebook, because I realize it is a free service and I am under no obligation to even visit it. But we all know that Facebook is like bad Halloween candy. We don't really like it, but we mindlessly snarf it down because we're bored. But I digress; I was talking about the difficulty.

What's difficult about Facebook? I mean, don't I just scroll through and read things like, "Look at what I ate for dinner!" and "See my hot new boyfriend?" Well, sure. I do that. But there's more.

For starters, now Facebook has an option where people can add me to a group unbeknownst to me. I don't get added to cool groups, no, I get added to groups that try to sell me things. These groups claim to be "parties." Now, I've been to some lame parties, and I've even been to some lame parties where people tried to sell me things, but these groups are nothing like parties. If there was food, I would probably play along, but there's not even a cheese puff. The party consists of chatting with a representative for press-on lip gloss, and allowing her to clutter up my news feed for days.

What else is difficult about Facebook? The shared photos with slogans about vaccinations, child car seats, and 9 fashion mistakes to avoid. These make me grumpy because they're only there for shock value. There's no real conversation, no exchange of ideas. Nowhere do I see anyone saying, "That's a really good point. You've given me something to think about." It's more like, "You're an imbecile for the way you think, act, and believe!" And yes, I realize the internet is chock full of strangers calling my ideas idiotic, but these are my friends! I have two choices, ignore the bait, or respond and throw cold water on a perfectly good friendship.

Is that all? Oh, no, that's not all. Another difficulty is the emotional bruising I get when I read my news feed. Here's my internal conversation: "Who's that with Susan? That's not her husband! Did they get a divorce?" (Quickly check profile page.) "Hmm, guess they did. How sad. Oh, here's Lucy with another pitiful lonely status. Either she has no self-confidence or her boyfriend's a jerk! Here's a prayer request from Amber. Oh, how terrible! I can't believe so many bad things happened to her. Yikes! Who's that? Oh, it's a kid with cancer. I don't know him, but I feel bad him anyway." Sure, I might have encountered all this emotionally wrenching information without Facebook, but probably not all of it at once and not in so much detail. It's definitely a problem for a softie like me.

So why don't I quit Facebook? I could quit cold turkey! I could put the elephant in the room out of the room. Why don't I? Well, I might miss something.