Fangirl Fridays: The Love/Hate with Facebook

My Fangirl Friday is about Facebook. Yes, Facebook. Actually, I must warn you, this isn’t all fangirling. I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook, and we are going to explore this after the jump.

What I LOVE

Facebook is fun! The one thing I love about FB is the funny memes, funny stories, and funny videos. The things people come up with! Back in the day, before FB, we would never have been exposed to all this silliness from random people. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve hopped on FB, read something funny, and it instantly brightened my mood!

Hahaha! This is so me!

I love the social aspect. Facebook connects people. That’s their motto, isn’t it? Well, it does. It’s so much easier to wish every Tom, Dick, and Harry you’ve ever known “Happy Birthday!!”, isn’t it? I also like keeping up with people that I don’t normally see often. I enjoy my Facebook friends' funny little stories, and I often read them in that person’s “voice”. It's fun to see pictures of their family and from their vacation. I enjoy all of that! The beauty of FB is that when you feel like socializing, you can jump on there and *voila!*, you can like, comment, and converse in a thread to your heart's content. When you don’t feel like “hanging”, then you don’t get on FB. Easy!

Furthermore, I’ve met and become friends with a lot of people all over the world through Facebook. Of course, before FB and the internet, this would never have happened. I met all of the Saucy Wenches on the Sookieverse Blog. We then started a FB group to discuss random things, which was convenient for me because I was FB fluent at that point. THEN, some of us formed another group based on our love of the Fever series. It was here that we grew even closer and eventually this blog you are reading was formed. We owe it all to the internet, Sookieverse, and Facebook!

What I HATE

Here comes the downside.

Facebook is addictive. To be honest, I am on it way too much. Yes, I can admit my faults, and this is one of them. It’s so hard to not just click it and see what’s “going on”. Maybe it appeals to my nosiness? LOL!

  
On the other hand, there are times that I purposely will not get on, just so that I can really enjoy my Real Life or get things done without distraction. I should do that more often! I bet my husband would agree...

So, on Facebook, people post quotes or emotional posts sometimes. They may have one particular thing in mind when they post (or nothing at all in mind!), but there's no telling how many people are reading that and thinking that it sounds like something that may pertain to them personally. And there's no way to clear up that misunderstanding! I hate misunderstandings, in general, so this is definitely a huge pet peeve of mine with FB. You just have to take it all with a grain of salt, but that is easier said than done.

I feel you, Dean. 

The fact is that written text cannot convey a person's true meaning. You can try, with emoticons and punctuation, but even that won't help sometimes. Clear communication depends on body language a lot more than you think: the expression on someone's face, the tone of their voice, and their overall body language. These are all important social cues that you completely miss out on when communicating through text.

Texting AND Facebook

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve just wanted to quit Facebook, for all the negative reasons I've listed. Then, I take a step back and realize that maybe I'm overthinking. Even if I'm not overthinking, maybe I just shouldn't let it bother me. Really, who cares! Let people do what they do, and if you don't like it, don't look at it! I consider this a lesson in personal growth (albeit one I'd like to get past permanently!). More importantly, I can't forget about all the good reasons to be on Facebook and all the people I would miss if I wasn't on there at all. 

What do you think? Is Facebook fun or more trouble than it's worth?