Technology sure has come a long way. We don’t talk we text. We don’t have reunions with friends in person we do it on the computer. We don’t channel surf on the television like before we surf the web. Life has seriously changed when you get asked out on a first date, dumped, told “I Love You,” or get fired from your job via text message. We just don’t know how to properly communicate anymore. It’s lazy, rude, and ridiculous to always have the newest form of social networking do the talking for you.
I hear so many people say Facebook ruins lives! So many people are cheating on their spouse and significant others because of this internet crazed site. You can look up old flames, old friends, family in far away lands, and old co-workers. You can secretly spy. You can see what everyone is doing in just minutes with their lives. Some people give you the play by play and some people are a little more private. I don’t really care if you are getting a coffee, the morning paper, lunch, napping, or fighting with your man or woman. I just care to read it because it’s “juice.” We are by nature voyeuristic. We are nosey. We want to see what everyone around us is doing. I am guilty of throwing a few cryptic comments to a jerk exe or two in my status headline, but I will never give the over one thousand friends I have accumulated the private details of my personal life. I choose to put up lots of quotes, my latest blog entry, and my pictures. Not my bra size, my phone number, my address, or the invitation to come stalk me while I’m out and about. People, lets use our heads.
Facebook has definitely helped me out a time or two. I caught an ex boyfriend cheating! Yes, cheating. Shocking to find that on FB, right? No, of course not! But, in the end FB lead me to the truth and I caught the lying, cheating man who was living a double life. So, a shout out and BIG thanks to Facebook for allowing us and some “Idiots” to put up pictures on their pages!
I have been hit on by married men, men with girlfriends, and even creepers I do not know too well. I have had some scary people using an alias to re-friend me and take the time to friend about one hundred other friends of mine on their list to make it look legit. I have learned real quickly that people are odd and interesting. Sometimes people are scary and stage five clingers with nothing but your life on their radar. Watch out it could happen to you. There’s people that spy and those that creep. Know the difference in the two. It could be life changing or harmful to you. Don’t be afraid to block someone, if they are annoying you why do you care if you hurt their feelings. Give me a break.
I’ve heard of double marriages and the spouse finding out through facebook that her husband married another woman in Disney World because she found the photos. I bet that Facebook “Photo Album” creation was his worst nightmare! Again, does this mean Facebook ruins lives? I say “No.”
Here’s what happens: A comment gets posted to your wall about how hot you look these days and it sparks the devil on your shoulder. A girl tells you that you are so funny and she loves your updates and you start to look at your “now” girlfriend like she’s boring and doesn’t appreciate you. A married man or woman says that their spouse is never there for them and they want to meet you for lunch just to catch up and talk because it’s been forever. You are in a relationship and your ex boyfriend that you were madly in love with goes from “In a relationship” to “single.” Now, you start to rethink your own love life because maybe it’s destiny and you are meant to be together again. You sit on the computer for hours looking at happy couples and wondering how she or he got her or him and why you haven’t found the one or that’s not your life. And, lastly, you wonder what you would do without Facebook, because lets be real, it’s kind of addicting.
Good things come from social networking too. It’s not bad if you can control yourself. You can see friends that live far away and pictures of their families. You can talk for free rather than having a huge long distance phone bill; you can keep tabs on your family and children. You can network for jobs and opportunities. You can meet the love of your life. You can spread your message to the masses. And, you can not take it all so seriously.
For the people who rip FB to shreds and think it is devil spawned I say “No.” Do not blame a computer site for people’s crazy inappropriate behavior. People need to take responsibility for their own actions and be sensible. If you get caught cheating on FB, you are the problem, not the woman or man who put up pictures of themselves and you couldn’t resist the urge to have them. If you are married and marry another woman at the same time, you are not stupid you need to seek serious psychiatric help. Facebook didn’t make you say “I do” to the other woman when you already had a wife and kids at home. That’s a monumental screw up! Eh?
It seems to me that Facebook doesn’t ruin lives, as emotionally crazed humans we manage to do it to ourselves. Everyone has issues and there’s a title for every outlandish, selfish behavior we can think of nowadays. Again, “No,” just grow up, be smart, stop being selfish, flick the devil off your shoulder, and just act dignified. Stop making poor excuses for your poor actions.
Facebook is not the core of our destruction, we are. Maybe Facebook is making us take a long hard look in the mirror at who we really are and what drives us socially. It’s all about temptation and how you handle it, accept or reject. No website in the world can make decisions for you that lies in your hands. If you look in the mirror and don’t recognize your own face maybe it’s time to deactivate your Facebook and reactivate “The Good Book.” There’s no better account than that one. Maybe that’s the only friend you need and the only friend that can help you.
