It is not often that I complain about Facebook, er, OK I actually complain all the time but rarely write about how annoying that site can be because if I did it would quickly turn into a book instead of this sweet, humble blog. The last time I did so was several months ago about the "Boobquake Idiocy." (It's a good post, click the link and read it too.)
The most recent derangement is a fun (assume I wrote fun sarcastically because, um, that is exactly what I did) little game where you email a person with a number and then that person will post an anonymous comment about what they really think about you using the number as an identifier as opposed to something clear, such as an actual name. On the surface, it sounds about as much childish pointlessness as passing a note saying "check this box if you like me, or check this box if you want to rip my guts out with a rusty spork." Then the reality of the game sets in and we start to see where it all goes wrong (even without a rusty spork).
First off, this game can be fun if you are in that same category of people that passed the above-mentioned notes. For the rest of us it is the same as listening to one of our friends chat away on their phone, only being able to catch one side of the conversation. Granted that you have to expect to get stuck reading some of that kind of posting from time to time, but now with this game going on I have to scroll through at least a couple pages of posting in order to maybe (maybe maybe maybe) catch a post that I actually want to read (and those are always hit or miss on a normal day). Might as well call it McFacebook because most of what it is feeding me is worthless fattening fluff with no nutritional value. Sure, some of the juicier bites might taste good but it is only putting unhealthy weight onto your karma and turning your mind into a lethargic lump.
Second, if we assess the game within it's own value system and pretend that it is a valuable and productive pastime, it still breaks down even within it's own rules. The main point of it is that you can receive either validation or refutation about your character anonymously, yet still in a public forum to give it a sort of voyeuristic quality. However (always seems to be a however) the majority of the posts I have seen (and I have seen way too many) have also been "liked." So out of curiosity to see if my suspicions were correct, the people who "liked" those posts were always different people for each of the postings (the few exceptions I found to that were from people who tend to click "like" for everything that people post and were easy to filter out). However (hmmm, another however can't be a good sign) there are a lesser number of people who actually then comment a reply to these posts. While there is no way to be 100% sure that people are giving up their secret identities by doing such replies, it is a safe bet that a high majority actually are because that is how stupid human nature works. If you happen to be playing this game as the poster of secret comments to numbered people I would love for you to read though your posts and count up the number of people who outed themselves compared to the ones who did not and leave me a comment with the totals (even though we wouldn't be able to be sure that you are not "adjusting" your numbers because you obviously like the game and may want to falsify support for it, or not and give us accurate numbers, but who can say for sure with things being so "anonymous").
Thirdly, for playing such a game on what is supposed to be a social site, it is really more of an anti-social game. While games meant for only 2 people are fun for them, it gets rather boring and tiresome watching people play tic-tac-toe, and even more so when you only get to see one persons side of the game.
Fourthly, I have only seen 2 negative posts out of about 100 in the last 2 days. While this does make sense because most people are not Facebook friends with their enemies, it tends to turn the game into more of a sad cry for validation and it seems that they are receiving just that.
(Afterthoughts)
If you need validation that bad, buy a damn puppy!!! (And I am still giggling about the phrase "McFacebook.")
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
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