Facebook Hates Me

I don't know what I did to deserve it, but Facebook really gets a kick out of teasing me.

If I've already shared this tidbit before, please forgive me. It's classic Facebook vs. Shannon material, so I'm risking telling the story twice. But I really don't think I previously told you (you = my blog).

One time I made a comment on someone's post, and after some passage of time I noticed a tiny blue thumbs-up next to what I'd typed. That kind gesture warmed my heart through to the bone. Of course I wanted to see who had approved of my super-funny comment, so I casually let the cursor hover over the "like". Imagine my dismay when no name was displayed -- just an eye-opening, demotivating note: "No one currently likes this." Awww, dang. What a cruel prank to make me think someone liked what I said. =/ Ha ha. Very funny, FACEBOOK.

Another time while perusing the daily FB news feed I purposefully clicked "like" on a friend's humorous photo. The following message immediately popped up: "You don't have sufficient permissions to do that."  Seriously??? Not only are my comments largely unliked, but now I'm not allowed to like anyone else's posts?!

These incidents may possibly be linked to the reason I'm not a fan of the "like" button in general. I think it's kind of a cop-out. Without an actual comment at least briefly explaining what the person thinks about the topic, who's to know it's not just a sympathy click? And how does anyone know for sure that the"like" button was intentionally pressed in the first place? I'm sorry, but I think it's kinda lazy to simply "like" an adorable photo or thoughty post. It doesn't mean I don't sometimes resort to clicking it myself when I can't think of anything clever to type, but I never do so without a hearty dose of hypocritical guilt.

I don't like to make it a habit of repeating my "good material", so I usually save it for my blog. That means I don't post much on Facebook. Maybe it's a subconscious fear of judgment or worry over the inevitable silent rejection from loads of familiar people. Or it could have something to do with the fact that Facebook itself enjoys picking on me! Every time my ego gets a nice boost, I know to soon expect an emotional smackdown of equal or greater value. It all evens out, and that's why I'm the same insecure girl at the end of each day. Poor little Shan. Oh well. At least I can laugh at myself in the process. =)

While on the topic of Facebook, it's a sad fact that social networking (along with texting and online chatting) is rapidly taking the place of personal, face to face communication. For example, my sister was recently at a store when she saw a couple she hadn't seen in years, even prior to the days of easy internet stalking. As they acknowleged one another, she expected to pause and have a bit of friendly conversation with them. It was not to be. Instead, they basically breezed past as they spoke to her. They commented on how cute my sister's new baby is (the carseat was draped with a blanket, obscuring any possible view of said cute infant). But since they're friends of hers on Facebook, they'd already "seen" the new wee one, and felt like they'd been sufficiently in touch just by trolling through pictures and status updates over time (maybe even occasionally going out on a limb and clicking "like" on something she'd posted!) This apparently left them feeling like there was nothing to catch up on, even though they had not seen each other in person for many years. Pret-ty sad...

How do we stop this?! I don't know, but I have the feeling it's only going to get worse.

Sorry this wasn't very short.