Facebook. The social media giant that brings people together yet can pull people apart–from both each other and reality. Facebook. The place where millions of teens throw hours of their lives sitting inches from a computer screen chatting with friends, instead of actually spending real quality time with them. Facebook. A world I complain about so much, but find myself coming back to time and time again.
1. Likes. What are likes? What is the point? You are merely just acknowledging the existence of a status, a photo, a quote, or a video. Congratulations, I found your idiotic post somewhat relevant to my life. “Oh, I love how your hair looks today, let me LIKE it.” It should be harder than a mouse click to let somebody know you care.
2. Little Girls. I personally cannot stand the existence of preteens on Facebook. Believe it or not, the last thing I want to do is log on and see 12-year-olds caked in makeup and hair dye posing in what is left of their clothes-every day. Facebook is giving younger children a reason to try and act mature and cool. Would you be swearing, complaining about boys, and flicking your mother off when you are still getting spoon fed? It’s something to think about the next time your friends’ little sisters shoot you a friend request.
3. Trending Topics. I am not going to lie, I take part in this, but it is really annoying when my entire news feed is the same status, rewritten in different ways. Yes, I understand the Giants won the Superbowl, that school starts tomorrow, that there is a thunderstorm, and that today is-surprisingly- Christmas. There is no need to state the obvious every time something eventful happens.
4. Birthdays. What has become of birthdays sickens me. I find the hundreds of “happy birthday” posts on peoples’ walls extraordinarily uncompassionate. You scroll down and read the same meaningless line over and over. If you really cared about someone’s birthday, call them! Tell them in person! Send them a card! I could care less what you do but leaving a 14-character note means nothing. Just the other week, on the day of my actual birthday, I received countless “happy birthday”s on my wall, but I could count on my fingers the number of friends that actually told me in person. Maybe I’m taking it too personal, but that just annoys me. Facebook has taught us to take the easy way out, and the empathy is obviously lacking.
5. Creeping. I use this term loosely, as one can define creeping as merely glancing at somebody’s wall, but for me, I find it really weird when somebody likes your second ever profile picture, or a video of you singing back in 6th grade. Don’t you find that awkward? I mean seriously, you have nothing better to do in your life then scroll through my profile and finding the most embarrassing posts of me? Fortunately, this does not occur as often to me as I see it done to others as I scroll down my news feed.
6. Facebook Games. I absolutely hate with passion the fact that there are online games on Facebook. I log on to see what is up with my friends, post been what’s happening, and chat. Believe it or not if I really wanted to play games, I would get my Xbox, not click on boxes and plant tomatoes. I’m sure I have racked up hundreds of game invites over the months, waiting to get declined. Stop asking me to play your stupid games. I go on Facebook–for Facebook.
7. Inappropriate Pictures. Please ladies, I’m being honest here when I say this, as much as guys loving staring at the pictures you post every 20 minutes, PUT A SHIRT ON. I have seen countless teenage girls on Facebook who have at least one time in their life took a picture that is a little too revealing for my taste, and then had the audacity to post it on the cyber world for all to see. Guys, save your “abs pics” for later. Yes, we know you “hit the gym” every day from all those statuses you post, we get the point. Ladies and gentlemen, if you are going to do that, take your photos to Instagram or Tumblr, not our sacred Facebook.
8. Facebook Fights. I, along with many Facebook users, enjoy sitting back, throwing some popcorn in the microwave, and scrolling through hundreds of comments of everyday people arguing, threatening, and fighting over the dumbest things. It’s amazing the insults that can be thrown around for saying one wrong thing that somebody doesn’t like. If you are going to sit behind a computer screen and post “flames” and “disses,” you must be a real tough kid anyways.
9. Checking In. Facebook has had some pretty dumb ideas, but the Check In feature is pretty useless. There aren’t many people around that enjoy letting all 800 of their friends know that nobody is home right now and that I’m chomping down McDonald’s at 12:30 on a Saturday. It creepy, it’s not safe, I doubt anyone truly cares where you are, except if you friended your mom.
10. “Like This” Photos. The thing I absolutely, positively hate the most about Facebook is the spam photos people “like” to feel more secure about themselves. For example, “Like this if you love God” or “Like this if you brush your teeth” or even “Like this if you are on Facebook.” It saddens me that people are stupid enough to spend the time to create such idiotic pictures, let alone like them, and spread them through the Facebook world.
As you can probably tell, it’s the little things that bug me about Facebook. Don’t get me wrong, I come back 365 days a year. There is no easier way to connect with friends, but sometimes, I just sigh, look at what has become of our society, and ask myself “Is this REALLY what people do with their lives?”
A Person You Don't Need To Know • Jan 23, 2016 at 3:18 PM
I completely agree, and I’m a freaking teenage girl. It irritates me so badly how people in my school are all about Facebook or Instagram (or as I call it, Instadamn) or Twitter. Personally, I only use Google + and Quotev. Every once in a while (not even once a month,) and I just sit back and face palm at how stupid some people are, thinking that somebody cares that they took a selfie in the school bathroom, or that they are currently eating ice cream and having a Friday Movie Night with their bestie. Honestly, it just is really disappointing how people you don’t even talk to whatsoever will go on Facebook, find your account, and be like. OMG you’re my bestie!! Friend me?” when they haven’t said a word to you, or they are just flat out the most annoying person that you’ve gotten in fights with in the past. Especially some of the groups my friend invited me to… I swear to God, they are the most stereotypical jerks you can think of. One person going as far as saying “Watching a new sex tape with my sister!” I’m just here like “Dude, nobody cares. That doesn’t even BELONG here.”
John • Mar 30, 2013 at 11:46 PM
You forgot privacy invasion, Datamining, and the fact it takes a court order to get Facebook to remove your personal information from their servers. There are so many more reasons to hate Facebook.
John • Nov 8, 2012 at 11:35 PM
Wow, this article. Look, I hate to be rude, but the fact is, this article is pretty rude.
Do YOU have better things to do than sit there and judge people?
Now I know what you’re thinking – what right do I have to question your life? Well, that’s the issue. You spent most of this article just judging people.
Not all of us have a lot of friends to connect with at every moment of the day. Sometimes it’s nice to just keep up with someone online when you’re stuck with other responsibilities. Sometimes it’s a good alternative to logging into an e-mail account if you only have a short message, or if you can’t text someone. Some of us have issues communicating with people in real life. Some of us like to be able to give our two cents somewhere where it’s not an issue of ‘who heard you?’.
And if you participate in these same activities, you have even less of a right to judge.
Everyone has a right to put on THEIR page what they want. If you don’t like seeing somebody’s profile, unfriend them. If you don’t like the site, delete your profile already and quit whining about all of the things that make the site what it is. Nobody forces you to have a Facebook.
Arsalan Sheikh • Oct 30, 2012 at 10:03 AM
Really interesting article and very innovative..
matt • Oct 30, 2012 at 10:00 AM
i DISAGREE with this article… Facebook is more about connecting with family and friends… especially across the world. You like their photos and statuses to show that you are interested in their lives!
Joe Retondo • Oct 30, 2012 at 9:58 AM
I feel facebook can be a nice way to connect with close friends and family I feel if people use it in a safe way it can be fun as well.
krista • Oct 30, 2012 at 9:57 AM
Young girls use facebook as a confidence booster because we are very insecure. Having people comment and like what we have to say or what we are doing just makes us feel better about oursleves. Its the truth.
Eve Mason • Oct 29, 2012 at 10:17 PM
This is beyond true. Hands down the most annoying things about Facebook! And it’s sad because we’re all offenders of at least one thing at one point or another! I have a feeling Facebook is going to dwindle out sometime in the near future for all those reasons. Good job George 🙂
Are you serious? • Nov 5, 2012 at 2:15 AM
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A Student • Oct 29, 2012 at 8:58 PM
i feel like you’re criticizing the people who use Facebook more than Facebook itself. But still, I agree with a lot of what you have to say.
Madeline • Oct 29, 2012 at 8:46 PM
LOL Love this. The exact same things that bug me.
Shen • Oct 29, 2012 at 1:10 PM
Praise the word George. Exactly how I feel about Facebook. It’s taking over people’s lives.
Former Student* • Oct 29, 2012 at 9:40 AM
These social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have became a staple in everyday life. I couldn’t agree more on your 10 reasons but that’s our generation — we live and breathe social networking now — we just need to be more aware and smart on whatever we do before we press that infamous post, like, send buttons. There is a saying: “Think before you speak, ” I guess now its “Think before you post.”