So there have been two recent diaries talking about whether someone should be on Facebook or not. All the talk about keeping in contact with friends, the controversy over privacy and the terms of use, and all the rest, really glosses over the main issue here. That is that you shouldn't be on Facebook if you're old. When I say old, I mean over maybe 27. As a rule of thumb, if Facebook didn't exist when you were in college, or of college age, then you are too old to have it.
When it comes to technology and new products, the progression goes like this:
- New (cool) product comes out.
- For a few years it's the awesomest thing ever.
- Middle school girls and old people find out about them, and start using it en masse.
- Said product loses its edginess and becomes overwhelmed with stupid generic corporate stuff
- By the time CNN is hating on you...it's over.
Example: Before Facebook groups were about candidates for Congress or being sponsored by big companies, they were things like "Fans of [high school name] Football" or "[girl's name] is SO HOT" or "I tried to ford the river but my f**king oxen died" (if you don't get this last reference, you are too old for Facebook). Facebook events are most properly "FRAT PARTY" or "I got drunk and lost my phone, need people's numbers" (if you haven't been in the latter type of group or event, you may be too old for Facebook). Now it's "buy my product!" from some company who paid $100,000 for some consultant to tell them they need to "utilize web 2.0" to "tap into new markets" and use "viral marketing" and etc. Now it's all slick and shiny, like Super Bowl commericals. Do you really need more of that in your life?
Another Example: The "News Feed" in Facebook. Once upon a time it didn't exist. Then it was just basic stuff about only friends. Now there are ads for my credit score, someone writing on someone's wall saying "OMG look at this vid of you [insert inscrutable url]" which is a link to some shady website which puts malware on your computer, and announcements about what blockbuster videos my friends rented. Okay, I haven't seen that because none of my friends use blockbuster (I would say they use Netflix, but that's not quite it either...), I only saw that on the news, but I do see whether my friends ordered from Dominos or Campus Food. And there are "people I may know" who are random kids from my high school I talked to twice in my four years there.
Anyway, long story short, Facebook is getting old and needs to die. Most of my friends have seen this coming for a few years now, but it is really becoming apparent these days. Once upon a time it was like a massive inside joke for college-age people...it was cool because it was edgy, everything there was geared towards that group, and it was it's own little world. Now it sucks, because it is like Hollywood - it tries to appeal to the lowest common denominator, to have something for everyone. And so it loses anything good it had.
If you are an old person reading this, you can have a Facebook account...but you don't need to "be on" Facebook. Just have it be an online address book, but don't do anything past that. No posting stories or status updates, or "25 things about me" or whatever. And if you need an email address or phone number, use it to find the info. But past that, Facebook isn't really necessary. Once upon a time it was much more, but those days are over. And by now people have moved on to the new thing...but I can't tell you what, or else you old people would invade that and ruin it too.
/rant