Facebook in some ways is the ultimate HS or college party. Everyone has a front to present. So it's not surprising that it might make a lot of people feel bad because the reader is seeing everyone's outside and comparing it to their inside.
Very true. In HS or college, how much you'll enjoy it depends on your perspective and what you expect from the crowd as well. I never mingled with the shallow crowd (boy, that really sounds pompous; but it's true) because I knew I wouldn't get much out of that experience.
But like HS and college, Facebook has its own variety of groups you mingle with and those you avoid with a 10 foot pole.
That said, I avoid all of Facebook with a 10 foot pole except for the occasional cross post with my blog.
You totally missed out on toying with the shallow crowd. Shallow people are just that, shallow, so they're rather easy to calculate. Since they usually annoy me to no end, I'll sooner or later resort to the people equivalent of cow tipping. I act perfectly well adjusted, and for a moment, a glint of madness, just enough that they question things. Best case scenario is that they question their facilities of judgement and become less shallow, worst case is that they don't like me anymore because I bewilder them, but then my goal wasn't for them to like me.
Could have gotten a little over the top. I was tired as hell when I wrote that.
Judge it as a mix of petty revenge and mindgames if you want, but it helps me to deal with incredibly superficial people just fine. In fact, after making them question their modus operandi, they tend to become a lot more agreeable. Of course I could go the regular route of either ignoring them, putting up with them or agressively lashing out at them, but at the end, that doesn't improve the situation for anyone. They'll go their merry ways, irritating everyone.
And before that transition happens, they'll strain very hard to put you in a box, and that's kinda cute.
Anyways, you're good at quips, I tip my propeller hat.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Just like in HS/college, what you see on FB is dependent, to a large degree, on who you choose to mingle with/friend. I AM on FB. But not constantly or even daily. And a lot of my "individual" friends share the good AND bad. Lost a job/got a new one. In the hospital/made a full recovery. And yeah, here are my vacation pics.
