Two Of My Facebook Friends From Russia. We Don't Talk Much Anymore

Facebook Security & Skankiness | Take It and Blog Friday

Been a while since I’ve posted, so I thought I’d tackle this issue as posed by the Springfield Bloggers Association:

“So there’s been some discussion on Twitter this week about Facebook and its security issues. Some of us have even touted that Facebook is more skanky than MySpace. Many of us, for one reason or another, are considering shutting down our Facebook accounts, but none of us have bit the bullet quite yet…. tell us what side of the fence you’re sitting on. Why are (or why aren’t) you concerned about Facebook’s security? Or are you contemplating a leap from Facebook for other reasons? What are the pros for leaving? The cons? It’s a personal decision for each of us, but it’s definitely good to hear from a variety of perspectives.”

I never had a MySpace account, because I felt it was the realm of teen girls and bands trying to make it onto MTV, neither of which fit my demographic. When Facebook came out and it was revealed to be developed for teen girls and “causes” such as hurling insults at people perceived to be not patriotic enough, I figured why not? I was born and raised out in California, so it was reasonably awesome to catch up with all the people I’d written off this Earth from the early days, and for that Facebook is an effective tool, if not a horrendous time sink.

Privacy? I have two small kids, I gave up on privacy when they started walking in on me in the bathroom with a surprising regularity. I’ve supposedly locked up all the pics on Facebook, but really, how paranoid is that? Most of my behavior, while smart-ass in nature, isn’t really that scandalous. Nobody in their right mind is ever going to do Jell-O shots off of my body, so I don’t need to worry about it. And if my behavior truly WAS scandalous? There’d be no cameras involved. It’s sort of like my stance on identity theft – if anyone stole my identity, all they would inherit is a bunch of debt and a name they couldn’t pronounce.

The topic is relevant, though, since I’ve had my finger on the trigger for a while now, contemplating popping a cap in Facebook’s ass. Why? Besides aforementioned time-sink, it just seems to have run its course for me. I enjoy the voyeuristic capability of catching up with people by simply lurking onto their pages (c’mon, EVERYone does this. Yes you do, don’t start lying to me now) and I like seeing if my high school classmates have aged as horridly as I have, but it’s mostly just not that interesting anymore. I’m always on the lookout for witty and sharp updates, and like a junkie, I’ve learned to filter out all the people who announce tragic/cryptic life events on FB,  and focus on the funny people. And truth be told, even though I have 536 friends on there, I might have a hard time conjuring up a conversation with a good portion of these people in real life, should we find ourselves in a broken elevator with some time to kill. I’ve been known, in a booze-fueled stupor, to begin deleting friends that I just don’t communicate with, only to sober up sometime later with my finger on the delete key thinking “now why in the hell did I do that?” There’s rarely a soul confident enough to truly “clean house” and limit it to family and a dozen friends, because few have the stones to be THAT GUY, the one who unfriended 98.4% people for no apparent reason. It’s almost like a trap. You either gotta go all out and quit (like my brother Barbara did, only to come on again and curse the entire FB universe, dropping f-bombs like he was at war with the internet) or just accept that it’s a continually updating Rolodex of people who are in your life, real or perceived.

And lastly, I like Facebook as a means for getting this blog out there. The page (here) allows people with whom I’m not friends, or even know, to catch up with the posts on Half Past Awesome and a way for us to interact with each other. I’m on Twitter too, which I like in terms of finding the funny in people who make me laugh in 140 characters, but which often turns into a forum for groups of people watching the same television show (allowing for play by play, which I guess is either funny or annoying, depending on the person). That or they are forever announcing their arrival at PetSmart or The Dancing Mule Coffee Shop or being crowned mayor of Kinkos (I’m not so crazy as to wonder where exactly people are right this very second. I want to know generalities, people, not your bowel movement trending tendencies.)

I’m sure the relentless drain on my time will continue for a while, and I don’t really hate Facebook for causing such bouts of procrastination; I save that kind of loathing for myself, and there’s no shortage there….it makes for good material.