Many of my family and friends are on Facebook.  They post pictures of vacations, wish each other Happy Birthday, arrange trips, etc.  They also bug me with friend requests, and wonder why I don’t read the latest drivel on their wall.  While I might be a little anti-social, my main reason for not posting on Facebook is simple: I don’t need anyone to know my personal business.

Good fences make good neighbors

One of my favorite things in the whole world is my privacy.  That’s why you don’t see any pictures of my face on this website (that, and my face frightens small children).  Not that I’m a hermit, but I do have large bushes that block my view of my neighbors (I’m from the Robert Frost school of neighborly relations).  I’ve always had an unlisted phone number.  When a cashier asks for my zip code for promotional reasons, I tell her it’s classified.  I may get a funny look, but that’s the great thing about not caring what others think of me.

“Have you seen the slides of our trip to Gstaad?”

And I guess that’s part of the reason why I don’t go on Facebook: I don’t give a crap what you’re doing, either.  I’ve got enough of my own shit to worry about, like layoffs and a dwindling 401(k).  I don’t need to see your pictures of your Disney trip; they’re the modern equivalent of forcing people to watch a slide show of their vacation to Niagara Falls.  Whoa, look at the time…

“How do I know you?”

And these friend requests.  I’m hearing from people I haven’t talked to since high school.  If I haven’t missed you over the last 20 years, chances are I don’t need to hear from you now.  It’s the high school reunion migrated to cyberspace, where everyone bullshits about how successful they’ve become.  I guess the added benefit is they can photoshop their beer bellies out of the pictures.

Popularity contest

And there’s no easier way to give more ammo to the hackers who would love to steal your identity.  If they know every intimate detail of your personal life, you’re handing it to them on a silver platter.  And who the hell are these strangers that want to be my friend?  Hackers, or just pathetic souls who are collecting “friends” as a way of making themselves feel popular?  Either way, I’ll take a pass.  Nothing to see here, keep moving…

And stay out!

So rather than join the millions who waste their time posting drivel on Facebook, I’ll do something more constructive.

Like watch the Yankee game.

• Corporate Barbarian Links: Graduation Party Edition bionicteaching We threw a graduation party for my son, two weeks prior to his real graduation.  We did it early because we wanted our relatives to attend, and didn't want to interfere with everyone's summer vacation plans.  It was great to see family and friends that I usually only......
• Americans Who Permanently Cut Their Spending SqueakyMarmot Many people have adopted a cash-only lifestyle in response to one financial catastrophe or another.  It could be tied to a job loss that shuts off the cash flow, forcing people to take a hard look at their outstanding debts.  But even though they may have put their......
• Don't Just Answer the Question Photo by alexanderdrachmann I was on a conference call today with two of my coworkers.  One of them, a program manager,  was asking questions about a specific contract, and the other, a contracts administrator, was giving simple yes or no answers.  The program manager finally became frustrated, and said,......

• Real Demons Whenever there is a "demonic" sighting they dismiss it as mass hysteria, and they are right in a sense. Mass hysteria is a great deal of stressful psychic energy, and this has been proven even scientifically.  In patches of desert with heavy quartz and granite deposits many reported "hallucinations". In......
• Why Surfing? If you ask anybody why they decide to surf, they are going to give you their own very unique answer in response. It might be because they find it to be fun, or cool, or a nice distraction from the hectic tolls of every day life. Some people surf because......
• Four Ways Facebook is Slowly Destroying You [/caption] Good Humor !! Facebook has hundreds of millions of users, and it’s put everyone from basement dwelling mouth breathers all the way to the coolest people you know on equal ground. It’s become a social phenomenon, and it doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon. But there could be......