Facebook is dumb, and I should really just let it go

[hollybrooke]

First of all, before I start on this rant, could someone tell me why WGN Morning News was just playing the "Jem" opening?! (Apparently, Robin Baumgarten used to watch it when she was in college. AWESOME.)

Okay...this is going to sound stupid to make a big deal about, and I'm not really trying to make a big deal about it. But I don't like how when you make a comment on someone else's status or picture upload, you get a notification about when everyone else comments on it. And then if you so happen to open that email notification, you get to read that message.

Case in point? One of my Facebook "friends" (for lack of a better word, because I really haven't kept in touch with her since high school) that I was friends with back in high school uploaded a bunch of old pictures from high school, and I happen to be in one of those pictures. A prom picture. A group prom picture. Because I had no date. And I was notified of this because of the stupid tagging feature. And now everyone else who has commented in that link likes to reminisce about the fun time they had at prom and all throughout high school that I obviously don't remember because I wasn't included. It's stuff like this which is why I didn't want to go to the ten-year reunion last year. Why pay money to hang around a bunch of people whom I didn't get along with, and to hear about all the fun times they had while I wasn't included? (Of course, it didn't help that a lot of my friends during high school were a grade level or two below me, so that explains a lot of things.)

It's like....wow, Facebook. Just wow. I had no idea how much a stupid networking site could make me dredge up old memories that just make me feel like shit. I try to escape those lonely times, and here you are, rubbing it in my face. Thanks a lot, Facebook. I should've never commented in that link.

I just keep telling myself that the friends you make or keep after high school are the ones who truly matter. God, I hate Facebook sometimes for crap like this.

Comments

[goob712.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean.

I get very annoyed when I get facebook friend requests from people I went to school with... because except for some VERY rare exceptions, they didn't speak to me or know me or give a shit back then, so why should I include them in my life now? It's very obvious they're just being nosy. I feel like the object of inspection, like they're just adding me so they can poke around and find ways to judge me. Isn't that what high school reunions are for? Check out all the people you went to school with, and figure out ways to feel superior to them.

I don't play that game. They're all a bunch of strangers to me. I've come such a long way from high school, I'm not even the same person anymore. And since I live 3000 miles away, it's not likely I'll run into any of them by chance.

There were 425 people in my graduating class. Of my 255 friends on Facebook (every single one is RL) there are only two people from that class. This is because my life began AFTER high school. Who cares what those people are doing.

[promisemewings.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't really like friending people on Facebook unless I know who they are and if I know them IRL. I ran into a problem on MySpace with friending random people (one guy turned downright stalker-ish).

[trewesterre.livejournal.com]

You can turn off a lot of the notifications. It's under settings somewhere.

Although I'm starting to move some of my info off facebook. I'm considering taking down my pictures and perhaps hosting them somewhere else too. There are just too many privacy concerns I think.

[promisemewings.livejournal.com]

I agree, I'm just weird about privacy settings like that. But thanks for letting me know I can turn the notifications off.