My Blog Entry About Facebook

Attention Facebook users!  Below is a rant about putting rants on Facebook.

People need to understand that ranting on Facebook, especially about other's behavior on Facebook, is NOT A GOOD IDEA.  It's like going to a party with friends and spending the whole evening telling everyone why you don't like parties.  It's rude and does two things:

1. You affirm those people who agree with you

2. You insult those people who like parties

You convince no one.  You hurt many.  Publicly.

If you are protesting against the things people post on Facebook, just TAKE THEM OFF your newsfeed.  If you post publicly that you don't like their statuses, you're going to lose a lot of friends.  Facebook is utilized to share what is going on, including thoughts, with many friends instantly, and people do just that.  If you don't like what they share, GET OFF Facebook.  Ranting that you don't like other people's statuses does only two things:

1. It encourages others who agree with you that they are "better" than those people

2. It insults those people who are the perpetrators because they were sharing something about themselves with you and you criticized it

This is truth.

Facebook is a website that you have the choice to look at or not.  If you can't get away from statuses that bug the heck out of you, remove the offenders from your newsfeed and, if necessary, put them on your Restricted list.  They will NEVER KNOW.

If you are trying to evangelize, I applaud your efforts.  But in declaring war against something in a tiny status on Facebook, you do two things:

1. You please your friends who agree with you (which in some cases is the majority of the people who will see the status anyway)

2. You offend, and increase the stubbornness, of those friends who disagree

Facebook is not a great place to have a debate.  That's not Facebook's function, and it fails in its usefulness when used thusly.  Perhaps another subtler, more effective method of evangelizing would be more to your purpose.

If you must rant, GET A BLOG.  I have three and they're great.  Start an anonymous blog, if you like, and post a link to your blog entry about Facebook – no one has to know that you're talking about your friends.  Unless you tell them.  Which is about as rude as posting it publicly on Facebook.  FACEBOOK is about SHARING, but so is any conversation, and a well-adjusted person should know better than to insult friends in front of other people.

Or you could tell your friends how you feel sometime, in person, casually, privately.  Politely.  Considerately.

But that's too much trouble.  So if you don't want a blog, I guess you can be rude on Facebook as a last resort.

So ends rant.

–An ironic, satirical rant about Facebook meant to hurt no one and intended to cause a laugh or two.  I have a right to my opinion but I don't HATE those who disagree with me.  I'm a Christian and I don't hate.  God LOVES EVERYONE.

If you're not at least smirking by this point, I'm very sorry to have wasted your time.  The ironic thing is I'm not really even taking my own point. . . .