My Love Hate Relationship with Facebook

I’m a fan of technology. Always have been. Elgin and I were early AOL adopters. We had email addresses but no one to email because most people we knew weren’t connected yet.

I’ll admit I was late getting to Facebook. I had a Myspace account, was on a few Ning groups, I was blogging and really didn’t see a valid reason for joining. Especially when it was promoted as a way to connect college students. As Facebook evolved, I finally became a user.

It’s been a mixed blessing.

What I love about Facebook

• Connecting with family and friends
• The ability to share a message with wide circle of people
• Facebook advertising totally rocks
• Ministry does take place on Facebook. A few days ago I prayed for clarity on a business matter and this woman gave me the answer I was looking for. She had no idea she had just been used by Holy Spirit!
• People do share some good stuff on Facebook; so it can also be a place to learn. 
• You don’t have to all statuses show up on your wall

What I hate about Facebook

• It’s noisy! OMG, the more friends you have the more chatter you encounter. I’m a member of a few Facebook groups and some people post five, six, seven posts…one right after another. There’s something to be said for talking too much. Your voice loses something if you’re always talking. People will tune you out. I know I have. The ear becomes desensitized because you’ve just become another source of noise. Write a blog and get it all out in one thorough, well-defined post. (Dismounting from my soap box now.)
• Privacy issues.
• Dishonest and unscrupulous people. One person went through my friends list, added them to theirs and tried to run game on them after they had been outed as a fraud. (Hmmm, with the new timeline feature, I wonder if my friends list is still hidden…I need to check.)
• Bleeding on Facebook. I know some of them are cries for help but other folk vent stuff no one should know about.

Being on social media networks requires your discernment be up and running and then listen and act on what Holy Spirit shows you.

There you have it; my love/hate relationship with Facebook.

Have a great weekend everyone!