The Facebook issue, once again, but this time with feeling!

Perhaps I had a bit too much caffeine too late in the day, but here at 10:30PM at the end of an otherwise lovely weekend, I feel the need, once again, to address the “Facebook situation”.

But let’s talk about something else, like music.  That should make the conversation a little easier to understand.  There are nearly limitless choices for your listening pleasure out there.  Some of you may even prefer not to listen to any music at all.  And that is ALL good.

Now, it may come to pass that one day, a dear friend, like someone really important to you, might say, “Hey, friend!  Listen to this GREAT music.  I mean you REALLY have to listen to this music, because it is SO good and I love it so much!”  And the hope is that you and your friend will be able to enjoy this great music together and have this as a space where you can share your mutual affection.  The two of you can exist together enjoying this music together and it will be this really nice connection as you share something wonderful.  Sounds great, no?

Except, what happens if you listen to this music, which your good friend REALLY LOVES SO MUCH, and then, after really giving it a chance, you decide, you know what?  I’m afraid I just don’t like this music so much.  Does this mean that you can’t be friends?  Does this mean that you will never get to find out what’s going on in your friend’s life?  Because you don’t listen to the same music?  I mean, that’s REALLY crazy, right?

Except, that’s exactly what happens to people who don’t like Facebook.  It’s not that I don’t like the people on Facebook.  Hell, I’m related to a lot of them, and others are great and dear friends for many years.  But, for fuck’s sake, IT’S NOT THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN, ALRIGHT?!?!?

There may not be as many choices for communication as there are choices for music.  A lot of people I know who use Facebook A LOT, don’t like Twitter.  And Tumblr is so wonderful, but no one is making a movie about that any time soon.  But you know what?  Email works pretty good, text messaging, Google Groups, WordPress, Posterous, Last.fm – I mean, this is just to name a few.  Also, there’s this thing called a telephone, if you really want to get technical.

But no – everyone uses Facebook because everyone else uses it.  DO YOU KNOW HOW STUPID THAT IS?!?  DO YOU REALIZE THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE?!?

And it makes me feel like I am trapped in a room with Top 40 radio playing the SAME THREE SONGS over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over…