Facebook Friends?

I've been debating lately whether to keep facebook, and simply reduce my list of friends again, or get rid of it entirely.  My list of "true" friends is actually quite small, the rest simply fall under the heading  of "acquaintances, or people I met somewhere".

My initial intention when starting facebook was to keep my friends list small, and personal, just my family and very close friends, but then it grew, and before I knew it, the list was over 100, I deleted the people that really didn't need to be on there, and brought it down to the chosen few, but then over a year or more it gradually crept back up to over 100 again, about 80 more than I really wanted, sorry, but honestly how many people on my page actually take any interest in what I do, or what happens in my life?  Or, more to the point, how many people do I really want to know all my business, most of them could care less about what I'm up to in my life.

Facebook is like opening the door into our private lives, where people can come in whenever they like and just poke around, I honestly don't know how wise that actually is, and I don't think I've ever been that comfortable with it.  I know that Niki and Danni are both starting to hate facebook, and question why they bother to have it.

Facebook has become a place where debates and discussions, sometimes heated discussions take place, a place where you can lose friends as easily as make them, it's become somewhere to advertise and promote your business, something I'm afraid I'm guilty of, as I post links to my blogs on my facebook page. It's a place where you can post something in haste in a moment of anger or dispare, and then regret it later, but by then everyone has already seen it.  "Airing your dirty laundry in public", my Mum would call it.

I'm constantly refusing friend requests, and no one likes being turned down, so all facebook is doing for me is probably making people dislike me!

Facebook is also the perfect tool for the narcissistic among us,  providing endless opportunities to flaunt yourself shamlessley, as evidenced daily by those that litter their pages with hundreds of photographs of themselves, usually taken by themselves.    Facebook is a representation of ourselves, and it's actually a pretty accurate record of what we're truly like, but do we really want to be that closely scrutinized by every Tom, Dick & Harry?.
I think people sometimes forget that everyone everywhere can see the idiotic nonsense they post. I've had more than my fair share of lapses in that area, but fortunately not with inappropriate photographs.

I'm also throughly annoyed and irritated by those that use disgracefully composed sentences, being too lazy to use correct words, instead using single letters and symbols, bastardizing the English language into something almost unrecognizable, as a writer I find it offensive.

I must confess to the overuse of the tool that enables one to block certain peoples posts from appearing on my page,  so I don't have to see them unless I choose to, because they annoy me so much. Why are they still there, you may wonder?  Well, because even though the posts are annoying and stupid (to my way of thinking) I don't want to offend or hurt anyone by deleting them, and therefor making myself even more enemies.

I've never really exercised much restraint in freely giving my thoughts and opinions in my blog, but then no one has to read what I write, its a free choice to do so,  If I gave it a second thought I might wonder how many people have me blocked from their facebook page, I know of a couple, but its of little matter as I really don't miss them.

Facebook can be a good indication of who your true friends are.  With my friends, the ones that I consider to be true friends, they know who they are, they take the time to tell me they're sorry Danni's little dog died, or send kind messages when I'm troubled or sick, they make time in their busy schedules to drop a quick line just letting me know they're thinking of me, or simply add a comment or click the "like" button on one of my post's.   I appreciate those friends, their time, thoughtfulness and kindness.

Then there are the rest! Some care but just don't have the time, and some are not in the least bit interested, and I have to wonder why they're on my list at all, other's just want to be nosy and know whats going on, and then there are the narcissistic one's that use facebook to simply show off.  I'm pretty sure everyone on my list knows which category they fall into especially if they've bothered to read this.

Like it or not, facebook will be around for a long time, the question is how much longer will I be on facebook?