'Oldest Living Blogger' babbles on....

I posted a couple of pieces on here today about Facebook, mostly because I had promised a cousin in Atlanta that I'd look into it, with a view to signing on. But after doing some 'homework' on the subject, now I'm not so sure it's my kind of parade. 

Generally speaking, I've resisted becoming a 'groupie' for others' popular causes, and one of the reasons for that is because I've been a 'loner' most of my life. I've lived and worked in remote locations with very few co-workers or companions nearby, and have become accustomed to finding my own amusements and hobbies. I've also been single more often than married, so I've not been completely domesticated nor trained in the arts of compromise required for sharing accommodations with another. For most of my younger years, I was more of a 'fighter' than a 'lover', and being a mean little bastard isn't conducive to warm friendships, as a rule.  I've more often enjoyed casting a jaundiced eye on the passing scene, and offering caustic comments on it. It's only quite recently, in my declining years, that I've mellowed, and tried to learn
how to smile.

All of which is the long way of saying Facebook and its 'friending' and 'following' and mutual-admiration society all seems rather foreign and uncomfortable to me.

And while doing that 'homework' I must confess that the amateur psychiatrist in me took careful note of the remarks about the kinds of characters most attracted to Facebook. It would seem that those are desperately seeking something which they very probably aren't really finding there to the extent which they perhaps had hoped, but continue because something is better than nothing. And I'm not unmindful of the fact that the main object of that whole exercise is to expose the users to advertising which it is hoped they will be sufficiently influenced by to patronize the businesses sponsoring those ads, and thus make money for Zuckerberg and company and the advertisers. In that sense it's similar to Google and its ads for generating revenue. It isn't an altruistic public service, after all. And Mark Zuckerberg doesn't need my help to avoid the unemployment line. He probably doesn't need yours either.