The guy sounds like a bit of a curmudgeon (not that there’s anything wrong with that). As a previous poster noted, if one doesn’t like Facebook, one shouldn’t BE on Facebook. To post a long rant against it is the e-equivalent of the man who protesteth too much. To paraphrase the Staple Singers, “If you don’t give a heck about the man using Facebook, just get out the way and let the gentleman do his thing.”
There’s nothing inherently immoral about Facebook. You can use it for good, even: I use mine to send out Scripture readings from the Catholic liturgy every day, and Scripture studies every week. And, while Facebooking can be (and usually is) a vacuous activity, it doesn’t have to be. That’s what self discipline is for. Either you are prone to develop self-discipline with your time, or you are not.
As far as “friends” go, I tend to keep my list extremely short: after two years on Facebook, I only have 48 “friends” though I get requests daily. I’m highly selective who I let into my circle: mostly family and people well known to me. If I had narcissistic tendencies, I suppose I could have hundreds of “Friends,” but it wouldn’t be Facebook that would have made me that way, but my own own weak will and insecure personality.
I have two friends who use Facebook to advertise their ministries; actually, it’s more like incessantly “pimp” their ministries. I’m a Christian and I enjoy hearing about how God works in other people’s lives, but I’m to the point where I’m going to delete one of those two friends.
I’m not saying you’re like that, btw!
I have a cousin-in-law who decided he needed to start his own ministry. Why? Because he has “so many facebook friends.”
No joke.
That's a great idea. I might have to go in and delete everybody who is not either a family member or part of my "mafia". :-)
The guy sounds like a bit of a curmudgeon (not that there’s anything wrong with that). As a previous poster noted, if one doesn’t like Facebook, one shouldn’t BE on Facebook.
I think the precipitating factor for his rant is the pressure exerted by the people in your life (and by the spam emails) to join FB.
It gets really old being treated like there’s something wrong with you because you refuse to join FB, Twitter, or other social networking sites.
You get the sales pitches from your family and friends who assume you haven’t joined because you’re ignorant of how wonderful it is. (This is particularly annoying when they whip out their smartphones during lunch to give you the tour of their FB page. So much for pleasant conversation!) You also get the guilt trips from people who say they “just want to” see pictures of your kids and keep up with your life.
I keep telling them I’m a conscientious objector to social media...I’d rather see them in person or talk to them on the phone.
Lots of people love their FB. That’s cool for them. I just want the people I know to quit pestering me to join.