On again, off again

After spending time on Facebook - inordinate amounts of time downloading and tagging and explaining photos, and chirpily responding to other people's clever quips - I'm out. Again.

I tried to be entertaining. I tried to be provocative. I tried to blend Facebook with the blog ... ach. Too much work, too much time ... too much suspicion ...

And who are those people who lurk on one's 'online friends' with a half-filled circle next to their name?

I have figured out that they are people who are connected via some other medium, and they only 'come to life' on once they've been alerted that someone has either replied to something they posted or tagged them in a photo.

They come on, they read the comments you made in response to their status (or whatever), or check out the 'awful' photo of them you posted - and then they're gone again!

Ten or so years ago I was addicted to AOL ... I could not stop myself from signing on to AOL, even when I was at work. I had all these friends, only these were truly people I did not know in any context.

The only semi-good thing I can report about the experience is that I met a man on there with whom I had a long-term relationship.

I can see Facebook as a useful tool for people keeping up with the families, especially in the case of some of my cousins who live here but whose parents and sibs live overseas, people who have an agenda (like promoting a book or something market-y like that) and for people older than I am ... but for me, not so much.

Or I'm just in a bad mood this morning because I forgot to eat yesterday, until about 9 p.m.

See? It's AOL all over again! Except without the man part ... and that's another thing ... every time I go on the FamilyTree part of it, I keep being alerted about people having a "crush' on me," or seeing me as "marriage material." That last one had the profile pic of one of my friends next to it!

What's up with that? I guess I should ask him if he knows his profile pic is being bandied about thusly because - you click on the button to see who these mysterious people are who find you so very fascinating, and it's a promotion, of course.

They demand your cell phone number, and way up at the top of the screen, in iddy biddy text, it says that this service is $9.99/minute, or some other outrageous rate.

And don't even get me started on the family tree application itself, which doesn't allow you to put even your parents in your tree if they are not on Facebook and seemingly doesn't allow you to put your siblings on there at all, Facebook or no!

#1 on my list of "25 Things about Me," ongoing:

I tend to rant.