Still kickin'

Just checking in to make sure everyone knows that I didn't in fact die but more just got lazy and completely neglected my blog. And by lazy I really mean Final Fantasy 13 came out. I have been thinking about a lot of things to blog about lately but in the end I almost always had an idea related to Facebook. The website once predicted to destroy all mankind and corrupt children the world over is now completely mainstream and in every facet of our lives. It was even the first site we bypassed our work filters to get to. Facebook is here to stay but it's not always a good thing.

Long ago I wrote a post about 5 things that I hated about Facebook. Since that whole favorite 5 list craze is now gone (thank goodness) I will structure this post a little differently. Let's start with 2 things that I strongly dislike but sadly am guilty of participating in myself.

First things first. Joseph and Becky are getting married!! Technically I wasn't the one who created this but I did lend my name to it and I am marrying the girl so since we are to be as one this is also my fault. Yes we have the oh so common (especially in Mormonville) marriage group. People get married here so much that I literally see a new update about one of these daily. It really brings to light how poorly we keep in touch with people. Nobody knows anyone else's address. At least my group was mostly for kicks and we just shared a few pictures and didn't even ask for addresses on it.

Which brings up the next thing which I am fully guilty of. Remember when your parents used to complain that instead of visiting your friend you called? And then it was using AIM instead of calling. Then back to calling but this time from a cellphone. Well now you jump on Facebook or Twitter or something similar. I am fully guilty of this. My brother chastised me when compiling addresses because I Facebooked people instead of calling them. Most our invitations are mailed out and I just today remembered to call my friends who aren't on Facebook and even then I just texted them. It reminds me of the other day when there was a crisis at work and someone was trying to reach my supervisor. He actually got on his Xbox and went into game to message my supervisor and it worked! Wow, maybe I should write letters again. For you kid readers a letter is this thing you write on paper. We used to prefer to write in cursive because it was frivolous and fancy. Then you put it into a folded piece of paper called an envelope. then you put... crap I'm over 140 characters I've lost them anyway.

Next up is the one thing from my last list that somehow survived. Everything else ended up being a fad but Mafia Wars lives on. Or more generally Zynga is taking over the world one farm at a time. Never heard of Zynga? What about Farmville, YoVille, Mafia Wars, Vampire, PetVille or Cafe Wars. If you've been on Facebook you know of people who always seem to be finding those darn eggs they just can't use. It may seem tempting to take those eggs off their hands or help them build something but don't do it, it's a trap! these "games" are nothing more than timer bars with micro-transactions built in. Yes you can play for free but how else will you get that shiny new tractor. I work for a game company that uses the micro-transaction business model and they make a ton of money feeding on addiction. Ooh a new costume is released; let's buy 50 boxes that have a chance of dropping it. Or let's buy the new cute pet. A recent news article reported a boy was so addicted he spent all his money and then stole his mom's credit card to rack up a $1,400 bill on the game. I got to admit though the system works and it works oh so very well.

Even more scammy than Zynga are those stupid gift card and other giveaways everyone participates in. Really? Best Buy is just handing out $1000 gift cards just for being a fan of them? Really? You actually believe this? Come on common sense people! If it were IKEA on the other hand that's got to be legit. Oh wait? That was a scam too? But 37,000+ other people tried it so it must have been real. that IKEA one was snatching 5,000 new suckers per hour! you would think we'd be smarter than that. If it takes you off Facebook, asks for personal information, is too good to be true, or any of the multiple red flags these things send up it is a SCAM! Oh and there is no super Disney secret, funniest video ever, or super hot girl you need to be a fan of to find out more about either. Those are viruses or porn. Maybe you knew the girl one was porn but there are easier ways to find that. The worst part is people because fans of these "just to check them out" but claim they actually never went to the site or participating for real. Guess what? You just opened your entire contact list to spam. This in turn might get a handful more people to "just check them out" and boom your are advertising for criminals.

To end on a less serious note I bet I can find 1,000,000 people who think Obama is a Communist onion ring and thereby is more popular than Justin Bieber and Nickleback combined. Is it just me or is it sad that all those types of pages have no where close to 1,000,000 people? 1,000,000 people? I bet you can't.