(This is an addendum to "BGB Blogcast #41 – 55 Minutes of Fun".)

I remember when I first heard of Facebook just a few years ago. I thought to myself "Wow…this is going to be exciting…social networking between schools! And it's semi-exclusive! Facebook rolled out right around the same time MySpace did, and I had told myself I would not get a MySpace account…a promise to myself I later broke. At the time, to get into Facebook, you needed to have a school address (which I didn't since Morehouse doesn't have alumni addresses and I figured no one I knew would even be on there.

Flash-forward two years later, a Facebook expansion to include major corporations and my new job at Big Company, Inc. and now I'm finally on Facebook.

And counting the days, hours, minutes and seconds until I cancel that account. Why, you ask?

Most of these social networking sites (MySpace, Orkut, Friendster, etc.) fall in the trap of just letting you add people as "friends" all willy-nilly. I've been fairly piecemeal about who I add, trying to track down cousins, high school friends, college buddies…OK, let me stop there. There's only two college-age cousins of mine whom I know. One I've mentioned on the blog — Chef Nigga. He rejected my invitation, the little ingrate. The other cousin, Figure 8, is grown and livin' it. Last I saw her, she was some yelping little brat nipping at the ankles of her grandmother. Now she's…well…an adult.

Damn, I feel old.

Anyway, you have all these "friends" (I saw one profile with like 900+ friends…who the hell KNOWS that many people?)…and, well, having them isn't so much the problem as it is having them now try to question you. For me, it's my current lifestyle (even though I haven't seen or talked to most of these jokers in ages), my hobbies and even my music choices. Like I need some jack-faced trick I hurled insults at in grade 12 trying to get a number on me because I like Buddhism and No Doubt. She actually sent me a message saying that I need to stop listening to "that White shit". Oh, and of course, all the "why didn't you pledge" questions. I'd say damn near everyone I knew from HS or college pledged in some sorority or fraternity. Personally, the idea of joining a frat doesn't appeal to me. And if I get one more question about it, I'll just tell them that I didn't pledge because I don't have$600 and a propensity to get my ass whupped for brotherhood.
Capiche?

And looking at the pictures of them in high school and college with friends of mine and such…well…it's bringing back some bad memories about high school and college that I thought I had forgotten. And that pisses me off.

To add insult to injury…now my "friends" can see my every move on that site. Facebook recently introduced the notion of the "mini-feed", so people can view your profile and see everything you've said, people you've added, places you've commented, etc. It's all pretty stalkerish, and enough people made a fuss about to get them to add privacy elements…but guess what? I can still see all of my friends' actions, and I really don't want or care to know all of that. I guess I can always avert my gaze when I log in, but it's still not something that should be switched on by default and that can't be turned off.

There's supposedly a planned Facebook exodus on September 15th. I just might join in that.