Is anyone else getting a bit frustrated with Facebook? Seems a lot of rules that limit socialization for a social media network. Facebook says it's trying to protect its users by ridding itself of anything that might possibly resemble SPAM. But it is taking the social right out of social media, don't you think?
1. You can't have more than 5000 friends. What if I'm popular? LOL I recently had a discussion with someone on Facebook who said that anyone who believes you can have that many friends doesn't understand what the word means. I don't believe Facebook is for people who are such good friends they'd do anything for each other. If Facebook were just for very close friends, why allow you 5000? Would be more like 20...MAX. And if you were really close, why would you need to keep in touch with them on Facebook anyway?
Furthermore, did you know that you can get into Facebook Jail if you comment on too many of your friend's posts in one day? Liking too many of your friend's posts in one day? I know because I'm an Ex FB Convict. :D
2. Most of my friend's won't ever see what I post on my wall. How will they know what I had for dinner? No, seriously, how can we share a friendship if they can't see what I post? Or I them? The fact is that most people meet people on Facebook and would like to get to know them better because they have several things in common. How are we able to get to know someone if we only see 1/10 of what they ever post in our newsfeed? Some people are on Facebook to keep up with family who are too far away to be *close*. How can we keep in touch with them if we only see their posts once in a great while? I can't tell you how many times someone posted a serious prayer request and I had no idea what was going on. I had to scroll down thousands of posts in order to find the one or two where they began to explain a problem they were having.
3. Most of my fans will never see what I post on my fan pages and most of the fan pages
I've liked will never be able to have me see most of their posts. I liked the pages because I wanted to see what they posted. If I no longer want to see them, I'll unlike or unfollow the page myself. I can't tell you how many times I've found a fabulous article or meme that one of my friends shared from a Facebook page I liked and realized how many of their great posts I missed out on!
Facebook would like us to believe that this is because there are too many items in our newsfeed and we can't see them all. It's actually because they would like to charge us for ads. I don't blame them. This is a business for them after all, but why not be up front about that? Why send you to Facebook Jail simply for liking too many pages or friends' comments?
By the way, I've tried Facebook ads and found them sorely lacking. Certain things do well as a Facebook ad, but most do not. Further, most people in my demographic (including ME), ignore the ads and never *see* them. I've paid for ads that were shown to a few more of my own fans that most of them selectively ignored because they do so for ALL Facebook ads. I know this because I took a few surveys. Again, if Facebook is only for personal use, why allow ads at all? Why allow us to have business fan pages? Because it has grown to be a large business for them (and they are absolutely entitled to do that). My only problem is that I believe they should be up front about it and by explaining the rules instead of keeping them hidden so nobody can figure them out without extensive trial and error and MONEY.
4. Facebook doesn't like YouTube. Most YouTube videos I share never make it to my friends' newsfeeds. In fact, Facebook doesn't like links of any kind. They make it a point not to show too many of your friends and fans any articles, blog posts, or any other links that take people off Facebook. So even if you are sharing an article of great importance to your friends on your own personal wall about a ministry or a devotional, you will not reach but a small fraction of your friends. I've had several friends in a trial that could have used some support and uplifting only they never saw the devotional or blog post I shared because it contained a link outside of Facebook.
5. Facebook made a recent change whereby most of my newsfeed now consists of ads and promoted posts leaving me hard pressed to find too many of the things my friends and fan pages have posted at all. My newsfeed now reads like my inbox which is full of SPAM about things I have absolutely no interest in whatsoever.
It seems Facebook is taking the social out of social media more and more with each passing day. And it appears that, as long as people are paying for ads, Facebook doesn't care much if you are being spammed. What's your Facebook Pet Peeve?