A Little Tiny Change Of Heart

In reading my old posts from last year about FaceBook, I realized that my feelings towards the site was a lot harsh. I will admit it! But, no… I’m not saying that all of my points on the subject was rash and untrue. But, I will and do admit when I’ve had a change of heart on something, in the rare times that I do. I am honest, after all. ;-)

But let me start with what I haven’t had a change of heart on. One, I still feel that the app-game drama on FaceBook is a trip and a half. People are still very selfish, when it comes to sharing items in app games, yet demanding items from others. Two, there are still plenty of superficial mass-photo sharers, who do so to prove how much fun they’re having in their lives, instead of just living out that fun without stopping every five minutes in a club or party to post pictures. And no, I’m not talking about those who post a lot of  pictures of their children, family gatherings, and so forth. I’m talking about the party-crowd who have a flip-book of any given party night, desperate to prove that their lives are grand. This is only annoying to me, because their massive posts of pictures often drown out the low amount of messages and pictures of my friends and loved ones, within my news-feed. And before you argue it, this was my gripe and post WAY before FaceBook added that handy new feature where I can select which group of people’s statuses I wish to see in a news-feed. So this point and annoyance is no longer relevant. :-p

And thirdly (this is the huge gripe), there are plenty of people who still post offensive/racists/political rants in statues. I believe that people do have a right to their opinions and soap-box, that’s what personal blogs are for. But, I don’t think it’s fair to me, a person who is minding her own business and drinking coffee in front of the computer screen, only to do a spit-take because someone decided to post in their status (which also comes up in my news-feed, btw) “Mexicans GO HOME!” for their morning greet. :-(

However… even though my past rants of the flaws on FaceBook is true and this kind of behavior is quite easily found within the web-community, I had unfairly judged the entire site on a lot of crappy members there. And for that, I am truly sorry.

What I had failed to realize is, unlike other web-communities out there, each individual has a say on what or who they allow within their account. In other words, I wised up and learned how to use the damn site,  simply deleting all ranting racists from my friend list… problem solved. And if I had added another one to my list, without knowing it, I remove them again without issue. As for the party-photo people, if they become too annoying (which they do) I remove them. Really… I don’t know why I thought I had to keep them on my list, being that they weren’t good app-gaming pals or people that I was friends with otherwise. And if people want to be selfish within app games, then I just remove them and the game itself. I have a new policy on Facebook apps now. If people aren’t fair with sharing items, then the game is no fun to me. And if it’s no fun, then I don’t play it anymore, simple as that.

So, in all of my rants and frustration of before, the answer to my gripes of last year would have been: delete, delete, delete.  :-p

But in deleting over fifty people last autumn, this has made FaceBook a more pleasant place to log onto. I actually had fun within it, this winter! So, I may not have changed my mind about the site completely,  I will still gripe about the site and it’s flaws, from time to time. Especially when the admins screw up things, while trying to add new useless features that no one wants or uses, and everyone is screaming at the same time “I can’t get into my inbox here! Can you? What’s going on!?” But, I did learn to work with the site and make the most out of it. And in this way, it doesn’t seem so harshly bad as my last year posts claimed. This is where my heart did a little turn around. For me, FaceBook is not crap-on-a-stick anymore, but it’s not the best site in the world either. WordPress still rules all! :-p

I guess there’s a lesson within this, somewhere. That sometimes it’s not the idea of a site that’s bad, but the quality of people within it or the ones you choose to keep on your list. Of course, this doesn’t clear all other sites and forums, being that people have access to you, regardless if you add them to a friend-list or not. But for FaceBook, it’s one of the most user-controlled type of sites, making it a lot better than other web-communities. ;-)

-D