Facebook and social networking: The ultimate challenge we have to face. A witty article about anything.

The Guardian                                                                                              

Facebook and social networking: The ultimate challenge we have to face

I have decided to eliminate Facebook from my life, completely erased. And this is why you should too...

                Isabel Hendy

               The guardian, Wednesday 1st October 2012

Facebook – the huge booming, successful and thriving social networking site. A marvellous world of connecting regularly with distant relatives and long-lost friends across the globe, an exciting way to share achievements and keep updated online, and of course a knowledgeable place to learn new facts and information, Facebook has its benefits. Its ever-increasing popularity has now documented at an incredible 1+ billion users and has become a huge part of our everyday lives. But is it respectable and worthy of this title? There is a potentially worrying shadow lurking ominously above its bright blue façade.

I think most people will agree with me when I say – I think not. Firstly, people can become extremely addicted to the site itself and even I know that it actually can become incredibly stressful, consider why you are up at early hours in the morning arguing with someone you don't really know, ‘unfriending’ someone you’ve had a recent argument with or getting frequently pestered with infuriating status updates. I mean come on, who really wants to know how tasty your Sunday Lunch was or how extraordinarily big your new flat screen is? People just post information about anything and everything and eventually, it starts to get tedious, dreary and actually rather irritating.

Aside from this; Facebook encourages ridiculously embarrassing and atrociously bad behaviour. Have you ever stalked your best-friend’s-teacher’s-girlfriend, or been so hung up on why you don't have abs and a peachy bum like your closest frenemy? This is a sign of obsession and when you actually think about it, it’s really rather creepy! The site aids stalker tendencies and whether you’re being ‘Facebook-stalked’ or doing the stalking yourself, there’s nothing more embarrassing getting caught stalking someone’s wall and admittedly knowing things about them that they hadn't told you yet!

And another thing… it can really affect your mood, I mean one second you could be flying high because you just discovered you got an A in your Psychology Mini-Test, and seconds later you’re sobbing on the floor, on the phone to your best-friend, because your ex just changed his relationship status/un-friended you. The site encourages people to ‘tell Facebook how they’re feeling’ – this makes complaining way easy and it ends up being used as some sort of personal journal, creating a negative and undesirable news feed for all of us to look at.

Facebook friends. The dreaded two words. But, come on, we all do it, a new guy from your gym adds you as a friend on Facebook (even though you don't really know him) do you accept? Of course you do; but in all seriousness how many times do we accent acquaintances into our circle of ‘friends’, without even really knowing them? Have you ever had one of your Facebook friends walk past you in the street without even a nod of acknowledgement? Yet they are the first people to like your new photo or status update. It’s just wrong – what happened to face to face communication?

Now, Facebook’s privacy policy is somewhat controversial, there is a bit of a grey area when it comes to privacy shall I say, as your information is used for Facebook’s benefit. Even when you do make sure your profile is private as it can get, you still get randomers liking your photos! There is surely a lack in confidentiality here.

When  you see a news feed of all the countless, wonderful and amazing things that your Facebook friends are accomplishing and achieving, you often end up comparing yourself to others and consequently, continually feeling bad about yourself. This is unhealthy competition; you can become morbidly obsessed with competing for “likes” with your friends. Ever been waiting all day for someone to like your new status update or recent photo? You don't need someone to ‘like’ your posts, if people like you, they will tell you themselves!

Now this is a good enough reason to give up Facebook alone. Getting tagged – now we've all been there, log on to find out one of your friends has tagged you in a shameful party pic (the friend themselves looking exceedingly glamorous). I don't know how many times I have experienced this and I am certain the photos just get worse every time.

Seriously, I think we just need to abolish Facebook altogether, we would be so much more laid-back, stress-free people without it – at liberty from humiliation heartbreak and ultimately, embarrassment. 

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