25 Reasons Not to Participate in This Fad on Facebook

Facebook is here to stay. It started out as a website to allow college students to keep up with their hometown friends while away at school. The incredibly popular site is now even more popular amongst 30, 40 and 50 year olds than with the Gen Y group. I log into Facebook on a daily basis but never reveal too much personal information.

I've been tagged by several people in their notes called "25 Random Things About Me". Other Facebook friends have not tagged me in particular, but have posted their note for their entire friend network to see. The facts that are revealed in those notes are sometimes way too personal for me to know. They are also extremely mundane and narcissistic, enough so that I wish I hadn't wasted my time reading it.

One acquaintance I knew when I was a teenager said in her note that both of her parents passed away within one year of each other. This fact saddened me for most of the day after I read it. To me, this fact is so personal and vulnerable that if the same circumstances happened to me, I would not share it with others whom I am not close with.

Another Facebook friend who is not really a friend of mine, but who I know through my sister posted her note for everyone to read. She said that she loves pizza and that she is the most financially responsible person she knows. Who cares that you like pizza? And that's great that you have a lot of money (translation: you are boastful).

If you have no other responsibilities on life and don't have too much of a social life, it might help to fill up your time by reading other people's life details. But if you have a job or other tasks that must be completed, these lists are detrimental to your time management.

Another example of revelations I would rather not be aware of comes from another girl I knew as a teenager. She posted her 25 Random Things About Me note for everyone to look at. In it, she told us how she almost tried out to be a stripper when she was in college.

She also noted a sad occurrence in which her parents wanted to send her on a trip to Europe when she was in college. She declined this generous offer to stay at school with a boyfriend who later Dumped her. Honestly, I don't think I should know this because I haven't spoken to you in about 25 years (this person had friended me as soon as I joined Facebook).

Because of the fact that too much extraneous information is out there on Facebook, and because of my naturally private nature, I will decline participating in this fad. I also don't like to brag about the great things that I have achieved in my life or the wonderful places that I have traveled to and I see that many people brag about themselves in their notes.

If you choose to participate, you can make your note private by creating a specific list of Facebook friends that you wish to share the note with. Then, after you create the note, at the bottom, you can choose only to allow that friend list to view the note.