Farewell Farcebook…I think we should be ‘seeing’ other people

Okay, so maybe I was the gal who, a couple of years ago, reluctantly signed up to be a Fa(r)cebook User…

Pay special attention to the ‘User’ part, because I now associate it with the drug addiction term.

Casual Users seem to turn into addicts with these social network sites, and before they know it they can rarely complete an eight-hour work-shift without constantly checking their User accounts.

So anyway, at first I deemed this stuff strictly for teens until I was coerced by friends to join Fa(r)cebook.

And honestly? It was lots of fun to catch up with old friends and touch base with out-of-state family members.

The pictures were the most entertaining of all, and I truly enjoyed the hysterical posts of my kids.

Before I knew it I had acquired hundreds of “friends” and I felt obligated to check in at least several times per week to see what everyone was up to.

Slowly I became disillusioned after reading the Posts of the Pathetic.

Somehow this public networking turned into a Dr. Phil episode gone wrong with the whole rest of the world portraying the good doctor himself.

Drama would play out day after painful day, and yet I still Used.

A simple post like “worst day ever…” could spark a slew of support comments (within minutes mind you-does anyone work at work?) ranging from “OMG what happened?” to “Don’t worry you have a HUGE support system which spans America to freakin India-Abduhl has some words of wisdom for you”…

Truly, I’m just not a big enough person to do all this sharing and caring.

I so adore my private life, and the fact that Fa(r)cebook encourages you to tweak your profile and provide as much info as possible about yourself just screams ‘bye bye privacy’ to me.

Folks seem to have this unnatural attachment to public announcements, and it’s getting downright creepy.

Even the lowest level of hackers can track your every move on your computer, and the danger just lurks.

Proof is in the Pudding. Sure enough my daughter and son-in-law got to witness firsthand the downside of perpetual posting.

One friend lost a huge chance for a super career move due to past FB posts.

Yet another young couple jeopardized their unborn child’s identity by constantly updating their status as to the baby’s name and date of birth.

The kid wasn’t even born yet and he was saddled with thousands of dollars of credit card debt.

Swell.

Enter Red Pencil. The Red Pencil lives inside my head-always. Can’t be helped: Misspelled words bother the hell out of me…

Seriously? If you still don’t know the difference between ‘their they’re and there,’ well then maybe you should consider stalking only and refrain from any posting at all.

So I haven’t seen or spoken with you since high school and you just reminded me that you were the chubby kid in English class that was always the class clown who-you guessed it-couldn’t string a simple sentence together or spell for crap. Not so funny as a grown up, I’m here to tell ya.

No matter what the content of the post I just couldn’t get past the grammar errors.

Makes me wonder why the powers that be have not yet installed a spell check app so that ninety percent of their Users don’t look like fourth grade dropouts.

Hey, I’m all about enjoying an arsenal of snappy comebacks in the comment sections, and there were times when I would delight in reading some insightful nugget of information, but inevitably the boredom of scrolling through the drone of what is daily life just got to me.

Heck, I’ve seen actual slanderous statements put right out there for billions to see-geeze, dontcha know you’re being watched? And judged? And that this stuff stays accessible to sooooo many for sooooo long?

Go ahead, try and delete it. The FBI is chock full of computer discs crammed with incriminating web site histories.

Needless to say, when the kids deleted their FB accounts I followed suit.

Every minute I spent “socializing” is now spent enjoying a delightful walk in the woods, or a nice phone chat with a friend, or even an inspirational episode of “How to Prevent Gout” by Dr. Oz, all of which I find way more entertaining than perusing the personal lives of others.

Quite frankly I’m more than a little uncomfortable with the fact that my kids outgrew something before I did.

Fact is, ya gotta know when and how to quit without regrets and never, ever look back.

And the topper? This Thanksgiving visit with Jamie and Alex included hours of laughter inspired by… wait for it… sitting down with the good old fashioned photo albums.

Now THAT’S entertainment.

So farewell to thee Fa(r)cebook-my friends know where to find me… I’ll still be on the front porch answering my land line!