Facebook Dilemma

I was pretty excited at the beginning when I found out about Facebook in 2009. When I lied awake, I would be stalking my friends, poking them, giving some comments or sending some greeting to friends and many more. I also developed the need to add more friends so my friends can see I am well-connected person. Well, 300 friends was my aim but now I've got more than that. I have approved 90% of friends requests. It's pretty daunting to know that I can be connected to people who just passing by from different parts of the world. I probably meet them one or two occasions ever in my life and hey, "We are Facebook friends!" The one that get me hooked all the time was the Cafe World game. After a couple months, I decided it was a waste of time. I still get many invites for this game.

These days Facebook's community is getting larger. Facebook is behemot. One of the largest, most all-encompassing sites online, Facebook is a virtual directory through which anyone with a computer can reach anyone else. It is by far the biggest social network on the planet, and that doesn't look to be changing any time soon. Most of the members are young adults from all over the world. Can you imagine? There are no boundaries at all! When there were big calamities, wars, accidents in small part of town somewhere in Timbuktu, you'll get the news within a split second (okay I am exaggerating it). The point is I know it before the news on the TV or radio. I am talking to the last details such as how many people injured, which part of the plane that got burned, how many people is suffering etc.

A couple of days ago, I read the article on how the Egypt revolution get started. And you can guess what is the tool the youth of Egypt used it? Facebook. They planned it carefully and connect their ideas using Facebook (Zuckerberg, your idea rocks the world). Because it is so powerful, The government shut down the internet for the whole country. But it was too late, their heart and mind had burned with the desire to toppled down the government.

Right now, I am on the edge of leaving this tool. There are lotsa reason behind it. Firstly, I became hooked of "showcasing what I have" to people in my friends' list. And I believe, that is one of the purpose of Facebook-ing. I always think getting the latest, the biggest, the most expensive stuffs are need to be reported. Okay, not only that I started to picture what the happy-me should look like on the photos.

Secondly, sometimes I neglected a good quality time with my daughter and my son these days. Although I found that it was a medicine to my boredom and loneliness after I gave birth to my son. I just can stand to sit for a long period of time breastfeeding my son for 10 times a day. I needed the latest update from my friends to keep sane. But I've spending too much already and sometimes I don't know what status I should post. Furthermore, I don't like if my daughter tell me to stop Facebook-ing cos she wants bed-time reading. It will happen someday. Spending so much time on the computer is encouraging the children to do the same thing like you. So, they think it is normal to ignore quality time with the family someday.


Thirdly, Privacy loss risks. I've shared everything to friends about almost anything. Sharing too much information can lead to identity theft, professional issues and relationship problems etc. And yes, talking about relationship problem I was amazed why people asking me whether I am 'Married" or having "Complicated", or "Engaged", "Single" etc on my marital status. I changed the choices every 2 months just because I think it is fun. I think, why would I want to post too much facts in this social network media? I prefer to create different identity in so-not-real-world. They asked me whether I have a problem with my husband for not stating that I am "married". So, for the well-being of everybody I now put that I am Married.

A couple of hours ago, I decided to block a couple of persons in my friends' list. I felt guilty after that but I overcame it by convincing myself this is not real relationship. And heck, I can use my rights to block anybody who I feel it is useless or never meet in person in the past 2 years. Unfortunately, one of the person I blocked is a wife of a friend who complained and sound a bit depressive in everywhere she went in this country. Oohh, God bless her soul and her family! She bragged about the imperfect world she is living. I just hope she can get a life :-). What a pain to read her sadness.
The rest of the friends I blocked today, they just don't create any impact in my life whatsoever. Never meet them before, or I am not going to have anything with their life. If I see friends with their whinning status all the time, I usually get them blocked. I can't stand to hear the negativities about a lot of thing when I know they are blessed to live in this world.

Facebook can also be rather irritating. I am constantly getting friend requests, messages, pokes, like, photos, game requests, application notifications, etc. This will never end. I got tagged too many photos of the products from a few online shops. And sometimes, the latest news are the new products launching. What a pain to see these.

The decision to leave Facebook may depend on how my project going to be in the next few months. I wouldn't have time to keep stalking to my friends' life. But who knows, I will probably use it for marketing tools ;-) It's fair, non?!