Whining about Social Networking for Whining’s Sake

Alright, I’ll admit that, again, I don’t really have a grand scheme or big driving idea behind this post. I mostly just wanted to see if I could arrive at an answer to a baffling question I reintroduced to myself earlier today: why do I have a Facebook account? Or a Google+ account? To worsen the situation, I recently signed up for a Tumblr account as well. As a friend of mine so eloquently put it to me today, “You’re just retarded if you don’t have a Facebook.” At one point I would have agreed with him, but I’m not so sure anymore.

Facebook definitely has some great things going for it. Contacting friends has suddenly become a matter of flipping open a laptop or queuing up a cell phone application. I can share several forms of media with friends, including music, video clips, et cetera, in addition to uploading photographs with ease. Its features and those of its competition, however, are not what make me doubt its place in my life.

I am really concerned with the general unimportance of privacy recently. Aside from the site’s constant collection of data from user activity, which brings in nice barrels of cash from marketing agencies and the like, many of the people on my “friend” list don’t seem that concerned about sharing too much. Many people, even frequent users, don’t seem to be that savvy with the site’s privacy features, and also include phone numbers, even addresses, in their profile information. I, thankfully, have gotten a good handle on those settings, as I often abuse the concept of a “personal” profile on websites.

There are several other nitpicky things that make me uncomfortable for being so inclined to linger on these various sites. For one, I’m not a big fan of being constantly available to scores of people. I won’t pretend to be a skilled socialite, but there have been countless times where I’ve just signed in to Facebook to make a quick post or read posts from pages I follow and been forced into drawn out conversations with people I barely know. Not a big deal, I know, but the time adds up, and I always find myself banging my head against my desk (figuratively) for not using it more wisely. I enjoy some occasional time off the grid.

My biggest concern, which I have been dancing around for 300+ words now, will probably paint me as a hypocrite, but the way in which most people in and around my age bracket use social networking sites to portray themselves is a (moderate) annoyance to me. I get the sense that we all feel pressured to appear incredibly intriguing, fun and attractive, all at the same time, carving out fictional identities for ourselves in the process. I really don’t feel the need to take a picture every time I go out with friends, even if we are doing something noteworthy. I’ll also make posts expressing sadness or anger, forgetting that I’m sharing thoughts with an audience seeking happy clichéd aphorisms and exclamation points, and get accosted for it. Last qualm’s my fault though. I should use my diary instead.

That rant’s long enough, right? What do you guys think? I know there are several other issues I haven’t covered, as I feel this drone is way too long, so leave me some comments.