Calling All Facebook Members to Stop the Spam!

Okay, I'm finally tired, which means the blog will be short tonight. I've spent the past two and a half hours manipulating settings and resetting passwords on Facebook, Google, and this blog. On evenings like this, I wonder if Web 2.0 applications are anything more than time wasters? Usually, my time spent social networking on Facebook is cyclical. Much of the time I have to remain out of the cycle because friends from twenty years ago think it is a hoot to send "Facebook Spam" to me. I'm defining Facebook Spam as all of those things that are thrown or flung at someone who is unaware and unwilling to spend time accepting/allowing the requested actions/gifts.

Flair was cute the first few times I received it. A little green patch was nice at first, considering I seldom am able to keep real plants alive for lack of water. Who can kill a virtual garden? Well, looks like I probably will. I discovered that my little green things were planted on a virtual plot of ground within the walls of Facebook, and they were turning brown and wilting for lack of virtual water. Go figure. Why doesn't someone just come up with a dead brown plant request so that I can get it over with?

And who the heck invented all of the quizzes based on the 1980s that are on Facebook? I really, really, really have no time for those. They don't even tell you what your score is unless you sign up for their phone service. Wait. That's it! That's the catch! Facebook isn't a free social networking tool!!!! What is everyone thinking? I have no idea what the primary purpose of the Facebook founder was, but he has turned it into a capitalistic nightmare. Everyone is out for more than his or her fair share of the almighty American dollar, placing us in our current, tenable financial position. How much money is enough? At what point will this particular network founder say enough is enough? No, I'm not blaming Facebook for our economic woes. That would be a logical fallacy. I am using it as an example capitalism at its finest (or worst, depending on your ideology).

Looks like I'm not quite finished talking about Facebook. Every time mainstream news media catches wind of a potential privacy issue related to the networking site, Facebook goes and pulls a stunt like this. Just last week the media reported that Facebook's new policy states it keeps all of information you post (which incidentally includes this blog on my notes page) on Facebook EVEN IF YOU DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT. After some trash talk in the media, Facebook wants its members to feel like they have a say in how the site is run. Well kudos to them. If you believe them, then I invoke the words of Bill Engvall, "Here's your sign."