My New Years Resolution is to stop using Facebook.
It's not indefinite since there are some friends I'm connected with who use it as their primary means of communication. If I absolutely must contact them then I'll have no choice but to login, but until that day comes I'm done with Facebook. D-O-N-E. I've wasted countless hours doing nothing on that site probably amounting to several weeks worth if not more. While Facebook can be characterized as a social networking tool, I find it to be more of a menacing time vortex where I'm constantly logging in, checking profiles and commenting on aimless blurbs. The worst part about it is when my so-called "friends" socialize with me in this virtual space like we're best buddies yet are inexplicably unable to meet with me in person for even thirty minutes after not seeing each other for over a year. Wow. Seriously?
Look, I know everyone has busy schedules and tons of priorities. I have mine too. But what really started irritating me is how Facebook has become a social crutch for a lot of people out there where they no longer want to interact with people the good old-fashioned way in person. No, they'd rather Facebook someone and apparently it's sufficient.
That's not to say social networking is entirely meretricious. Services such as Meetup, LinkedIn and Apple's Ping have some real intrinsic value through their services, but when the NY Times reports Goldman Sachs valuing Facebook at $50 Billion I can't help but to cry out bullshit.
