Facebook - its a marmite thing - maybe?

Facebook - where do you stand on it?

I feel like I have almost done the full circle with facebook. I resisted it for ages when it first took off, couldn't be bothered with it and didn't see the point instead preferring to catch up with people on the phone or by letter.

I then decided to see what it was all about and got myself an account, had a good old nose at what everyone I could think of was doing with their lives now and then didn't do much with it and slowly over the years it has grown on me. I think during this phase I was actually quite addicted to Bliss, the premature and sick baby Charity and I found their forums a lifeline.

I think facebook took off for me when I got an iTouch as I was able to connect to the Internet via wifi and could access it easily, something I discovered I could do at work and no-one would know :) I also discovered the usefulness of it for posting photos of the boys for friends and family to keep up to date who lived miles away.

I progressed from the iTouch to a smart phone and with the 3G it made accessing facebook even easier and it then became an addiction. How may people pick their phone up the moment they open their eyes and check facebook in the morning? I did at one stage. How many people check it as soon as they get into work, or boot the computer up? last thing at night incase anything ground breaking has happened in a friends life. I even got to the stage where my updates would tell me so 'n so had commented on one of their friends status' (someone not even connected to me) and I would have a nose at what it was all about.

I am now at the stage where facebook is beginning to annoy me for a number of reasons:

Friend whores - I am fed up of people I barely know or I knew briefly 25 years ago linking to me through other people and trying to get me to be friends - they have no interest in me but more in their friends numbers. There is a reason we never kept in touch, there is a reason I have to go through their friends lists to work out who they are and how I possibly know them.

Status addicts - There are the ones who update you every hour of every day. There are 2 in my friends lists who I have recently hidden their status updates from my feed as I was getting so cheesed off. 'F has just mopped the kitchen floor and now deserves a coffee and piece of cake' 1 hour later 'F has just negotiated with her 3 year old that she can watch 2 episodes of spooks before he has CBeebs, while the baby is asleep'. 40 minutes later 'F has just made an apple pie and is having a well deserved rest'. One day it wound me up so much I updated my status with 'I have swept and mopped the lounge, dining room and kitchen floors, washed up, hung the washing out, made 4 lunches, feed 2 kids, taken them to school, put petrol in the car and done my tesco's shop all before getting into work for 9.30 - full day ahead' and it was true I had done all that but don't feel the need to let everyone know. 

Check-in people - There is another who checks in every place she goes - 'O checked in at home', 'O checked in on the number 77 bus', 'O checked in at Asda', 'O checked into the post office' 'O checked into the health centre'. 'o checked into the number 77 bus'.  it gets annoying after a while.

Games - constant invites to play mafia wars and Farmville and many others, being told so n so has found a lost sheep, and so n so needs 4 bricks to build a barn etc

And so it goes on - mostly I like seeing what people are up to, funny little status updates here and there, but suddenly I seem to be wanting to check facebook less and less, I am updating my status less and less. Maybe it is just a phase and I will go back to it, but who knows? Thing is I haven't been converted to twitter or anything like that and have been blogging for nearly 2 years now (under different blogs) so its not like its because I am doing this.