What's with Facebook?

Natalie>Chris: Chris !!! I’m glad that I got to bond with you and the rest!

As I scrolled down on my Facebook homepage, the post above caught my eye. I stopped scrolling for a second to look at it more closely. When I saw that there are 7 comments on it, I swiftly mouse over on the ‘View all 7 comments’ link and clicked it.

Chris : YEAH! We should do that more often!

Alex: What a fun bonding night! And the part where Natalie screams was so funny!! Haha!

After the second comment, I looked away immediately with disgust. Why they didn’t call me to go along together? Why don’t I belong to a group of friends? Am I not your friend? ARGH!!!!

With anger I scrolled down further, ignoring all those posts that are related to Facebook games and photos. I can’t help but to wonder why some people love to post something that are not important and to me it’s just all about seeking attention. One post reflects this:

Diana: I may be old fashioned, waiting for the right guy with flowers to come instead of approaching men but who cares?

To me this is a statement that shows the desperateness of a girl trying to sell everyone the ultimate reason why she is still single. Bullshit. Trying to prove myself that this girl is definitely desperate, I clicked on her profile to look at her previous wall posts. And true enough below are some wall posts that she wrote:

Diana: To make a guy smile any woman can do that, but to make a woman smile only THE RIGHT ONE can do that.

Diana: When I don’t talk, call or text you doesn’t mean I don’t think about you.

Diana: Bitch! The next time you wanna accuse someone a boyfriend stealer, PLEASE look at yourself and ask your STUPID boyfriend why he flirted with me first!

I just don’t get it. What’s the purpose of FACEBOOK anyway? Is it a place where you promote yourself and to gain sympathy? Why do people keep updating their wall post with silly stuffs? Sometimes I really wonder whether Facebook is still the social networking website where you keep in touch with friends without those annoying Facebook games and adverts.

Oh. Talking about friends, I clicked on ‘Profile’ and move the mouse cursor on top of the ‘See all friends’ link. I didn’t clicked on it straight away but my eyes lingered on the number that is shown beside the link. 671. 671 Facebook friends. That is a big number don’t you think? And it’s a big number of lies. Numbers that merely shows how many people I know, seen before, heard of, talk to and even those that I didn’t know. In reality, there are not many of whom I can really call friends.

With doubts on my mind trying to figure out what friends really mean I checked the dictionary that was pre-installed on my laptop;

Friend:

Noun

1. A person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically one exclusive of sexual or family relations. –used in polite address to an acquaintance or stranger

2. A familiar or helpful thing.

3. A person who supports a particular cause or organization

4. (in battle) an ally

5. A member of the Religious Society of Friends; a Quaker.

Why do you address an acquaintance or a stranger as a friend? Hmmm this is so weird. And so I checked the dictionary again for both the word acquaintance and stranger;

Acquaintance:

Noun

1. The fact or state or being acquainted.

2. A person one knows slightly.

Stranger:

Noun

1. A person whom one does not know –a person who does not know, or is not known in, a particular place.

2. (stranger to) a person entirely unaccustomed to (a feeling, experience, or situation).

3. A person who is not a member of the House of Commons.

Both of these words are not even close in meaning to a person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection. Then why do I still have 671 so called friends on FACEBOOK? In fact, there are some “friends” that I am not in talking terms but are still on my friends list. Honestly, I don’t know what to do now? Do I remove them from my friends list or to block them from viewing my profile but still keeping them on my friends list? Or do I shut my Facebook account forever?

Being on Facebook really makes me think a lot. Questions like why do I even have a Facebook account? Why do people want to be on Facebook but then restrict anyone from viewing their profile? Apart from that, why there are some that put false information on their profile. Now concerning on profile information, why do some people exploit all these for their own benefits? Why some people waste their time so much on Facebook? What’s with Facebook anyway?

All these questions make my mind go crazy!! It’s as if I am trying to answer the question: who came first? The egg or the chicken?

Tired from figuring the answers to my questions I logged out from Facebook and shut my laptop down. Then, I off the lights and tucked myself underneath the warm blanket and close my eyes.

***********************3 days later*****************************

I logged into my Facebook account and as usual scroll down on my homepage to see recent updates of my “friends”.

Chris>Natalie: hey Natalie! You free this weekend? Let’s call the gang out together and have another awesome bonding night!! :P

Diane: there are only 3 things I love most : myself, myself and MYSELF! If you can’t accept it then please go to hell!

Alex: oh what a good game by the Germans tonight! With that unexpectedly good control of the game they brought England down 4 nail. GOOD job!

Looking at those wall posts I can’t help but to smile. To smile at the bonding of friends. To smile for the silly desperate girl. To smile at how a guy reports on a football match on Facebook as if he is the official broadcaster.

I can’t stop smiling. I have been thinking a lot for the past three days and now I know what I should do. I clicked on “My Profile” and mouse the cursor over the “view all friends” link and clicked on it. Then I opened each and every single friend’s profile that I have on a new tab. All 671 of them. Today is going to be a very long day I told myself as I start to type: “Hey you! It’s been awhile now! How are you? How’s life going on? Keep in touch ya! :D” on Alex’s wall which happened to be the first on my friends list. And I was still smiling.

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This story above is only a fiction.