I realize it is a great way to promote businesses and all that fun stuff, but I don't have a need for that. That's what real websites are for. And as far as keeping up with family and friends, I like doing that the old fashioned way. Ignoring them altogether.
Actually, you can't even call it a 'social' network. It is more like an 'anti-social' network. If I can see what my brother in Connecticut is doing without needing to call him or anything like that, then what is social about it? I can just stalk him without ever calling. I don't like that.
The other thing I don't like is that it is guaranteed to happen that someone is going to post something on my wall that my mother would end up reading. Not acceptable. Or worse, my wife would read it. lol Maybe I'm just odd, but my personal life is called 'personal' for a reason. I don't like having my personal life become my public life because someone decides to post some retarded comment that my potential employers, business associates, and family gets to see.
I just don't see any other point in it. I've kept in touch with anyone I've ever wanted to speak to again. I went to a very very small High School (graduating class of 50 kids) and there isn't one of them I care about knowing what they are doing with their lives now. I didn't get along with them 18 years ago and I'm pretty sure I won't get along with them now. And yet with all of these really good reasons not to be on Facebook, I still get weird looks when I tell people they will have to send me an email instead of just looking me up and 'Facebooking' me, whatever that means.
The really ironic thing is that for the past three years I've been working for a technology company that develops social media applications similar to Facebook and others. lol But I've got way more use for video conferencing and media hosting stuff than posting on a wall, so what we develop makes more sense. Still... One of these days I'm going to rejoice when Facebook isn't the standard and you aren't looked at as odd for not being on it. It's not like I'm not on the internet at all. I've got a fairly large digital footprint without Facebook and 500 tweets a day. lol
On facebook you don't need to know anything about where I am or what I'm doing to embarrass me in front of people. All I need is for some guy to post on Facebook "Hey man, remember that time we blew up the chemistry lab in High School and had to hide from the cops for like three days while we smoked all my brother's pot? That was awesome!" and my work life would become very difficult. He doesn't even have to have video to prove it is true. Just look how fast that clown with the buffer burn technique for removing overspray removed his Facebook link from his profile because it got hammered by haters. Some people have nothing better to do that make life difficult for those they dislike and that is a risk you take by putting your personal life out in the public. Someone could easily just dedicate an entire day to filling up your wall with stuff that you will have to find out about several hours later after all of your friends and family have already read it. Its not worth it to me to take that kind of risk when a phone call or email once in awhile keeps you far better connected.
