Facebook's Biggest Problem is the People that Use It

Like most new pop crazes, I initially resisted any social networking websites. My reason was most people used Myspace, a site fettered with exhibitionist pictures, for meaningless self glorification. This was way back in 2005-06 when Myspace reached its peak popularity (at least by my gauge) and you couldn't help but be aware of it. Prompted by everyone I knew asking me to join myspace, I felt the issue so important that I wrote a scathingly sarcastic satirical article about why I didn't join it that bequeathed me 15 minutes of internet fame. You can imagine how reluctant I was in 2009 to sign up for Facebook. I finally caved because its member base exceeded critical mass and it lacked the plethora of exhibitionist pictures and meaningless self gratification. It took me a year of using it to figure out what Facebook's biggest problem was.

Facebook's biggest problem reminds me of high school. Back when I entered high school I tried to split my social time between two groups: one that I considered "popular" and one that I considered fun. The popular group consisted of some friends and acquaintances who were largely concerned with image and that intangible high school social domination. When I participated in the popular group, I had to watch what I did or said or else I would be admonished by my peers for not conforming to their view of how to achieve their aspirations. The fun group consisted of mostly outcasts and others who had no popularity interests. When I was in the fun group, I was as much myself as I knew how to be and felt much better. As Jesus says "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other." I couldn't be myself half the time and someone else the rest of the time. I decided to spend my time exclusively in the fun group.

Please bare with me, as you will shortly see how this story relates to Facebook's biggest problem. Facebook's biggest problem is certainly analogous to this.

When I finally started a Facebook account, I was very self conscious about what everyone's perception would be of me. After all, it was a very visible site where you could not really hide your identity. My profile was pretty bland, portraying me as a professional and family man. I listed my interests and views, taking care not to list anything that might be potentially controversial. I made a few comments here and there, playing the bland Mr. Nice guy role wonderfully. My status updates were bland as well, consisting of my current activities or of some universally accepted quote. I quickly got bored and felt just the way I did when I was trying to hang out with the popular group in high school. I barely used Facebook for a while.

One day, I realized that most of the people who would judge the true me on Facebook were too preoccupied with a myriad other things to notice what I was doing. Other fears crept into my mind. What if a future employer was about to hire me and they tried to access my Facebook information in order to make a hiring decision? Well, I reasoned, they would have to acquire such information illegally, and if they did, and didn't want to hire me on the basis of that information, I wouldn't want to work for such a company anyway. From that day on, I started being myself on Facebook. I updated my profile with all my fringe interests, and even listed spiritual works of literature. My status updates were aphorisms I came up with myself or quotes from others with deep, profound meanings. It would excite me to anticipate what others thought of the real me, even if they didn't comment openly. I cared what they thought of my perceptions and thoughts, but I wasn't afraid of criticism. I wasn't afraid of criticism because I could defend or explain each thought or post without sacrificing any sense of self. I felt liberated.

Not too much changed, but I did start to form a deeper rapport with some select people. It was very few people, number wise. I wondered why, and then I realized what Facebook's biggest problem is.

Facebook's biggest problem is the people that use it.

I know that sounds elitist for me to say that, but let me explain. I'm a very perceptive person and I noticed certain trends on Facebook that disturbed me. Despite the fact that the program was supposed to be used for social networking--branching out one's ideas, thoughts, and favorites with many people that one wouldn't contact otherwise-most people only chatted with a clique they knew well in "real life." When people did comment or post messages on others' wall, the posts were very topical, lacking in content and meaning. I don't think they sent any meaningful private messages either. Other people would grow their friend's list, only to realize at some point that they had too many and would arbitrarily delete friends until they had a more comfortable list. To my amusement and chagrin, people I thought would definitely accept my friend requests didn't. Surprisingly, people I didn't think would accept my friend requests did. A couple people mysteriously dropped me from their friends list. Maybe they didn't like the real me? Maybe they were shaving their friend list?

Then something happened one day that really supported my election of Facebook's biggest problem. A Facebook friend made the observation in one of his status messages that every user falls into one of the following categories:

Gamers: Facebook users that do nothing but play the FB games incessantly and have their level ups posted all the time.

Bores: FB users that always post status updates regarding the prosaic activities they're involved in, day in, day out.

Pity Mes: FB users that contently post about how their the victim of this or that, expecting sympathy from the FB community. Pity Mes normally have depressing bands in their profile, like Nirvana and Dashboard Confessional.

Drunks: FB users that post about how they're going to get wasted, when they're going to get wasted, or how hungover they are the next day. Drunks always post drunk pictures and normally have a drunk profile picture.

Collectors: FB users that would be lurkers, except you see that they're constantly adding friends all the time. They do little else except see how many friends they can add.

Lurkers: FB users that you think just don't use FB, but they're really just lurking, not contributing anything.

Interesting /Weird: These are the people with the interesting status updates, insightful political discussions, cool videos, post great articles and links, post their own poems or other literature, deliver truthful comments to people. They are not afraid to discuss sex, religion, politics, spirituality, or anything else and do so in a tasteful, tactful way without offending anyone. If their ideas are challenged, they can defend their position without getting angry. These are the rarest people on Facebook.

The interesting/weird type described above are the only people who give any meaning to Facebook. Every person is interesting/weird if they are themselves. Unless people start acting like themselves, Facebook's biggest problem will linger, and Facebook will befall the same fate friendster and myspace did.