500M reasons to hate Facebook, but I really only have one

Facebook and the quiet underbelly

Let’s be real folks, you’re addicted to Facebook. You love the attention you get when you cheerlead in a so-called private environment. Only your friends can see you put your friend or the issue of the day on ‘blast.’ You can make people laugh with off-beat commentary, and there is no one to blast you back – hence the phenomenon and growth of private Facebook groups.

If you’ve not had the pleasure of being invited to one of these anon groups, then you’re probably known as a big mouth, are unpopular, or you’re not an anti- with the rest of your professional anti- friends.

I don’t mind folks hiding in public on Facebook; by all means, chatter away to your heart’s content. What would your ‘friends’ do without you to distract their day? I don’t even mind that Facebook is so important to your daily life that you have the app on your phone too, alerting you that someone paid attention to something you said.

After all, if your Facebook friends don’t affirm you, who will? God bless the book of faces that make up your universe, who needs humans all up in your face laughing and cutting up, or even agreeing with something upsetting- it’s more fun to hide your addiction in public for all to see.

You’re not invited to your own conversation

No, what really pisses me off about Facebook lies more in the anonymity and growth of private groups. Many of the sites I read including the one I publish have amazing content, argument, and address important topics, but the comments are typically not really engaged, much less other websites linking to content and writing opposing views or counterpoints.

This is how the web became so connected in the first place. Once upon a time you could bounce from site to site watching the debate happen in real time, which is slowly dying. But is it?

Quite the contrary – comments on your site may look empty, but hop on Facebook and guess what, there are 270+ comments being shared across Facebook and maybe even more, depending on the story. Factor in the private groups where those who are always afraid of blogging and putting their opinion on the record are hiding and whaling either for or against your opinion, but you’ll never know it because you weren’t invited to your own conversation about your published thoughts – God forbid you join in where the conversation is presented.

So yeah, I hate Facebook because it’s given the world a place to hide their feelings and professional opinions on important topics being discussed where they can actually make a difference.

Personally, I’ve never sweated comments, I see them spread across the web, but sometimes I really miss the opportunities we all have to make a difference right here in public.