Facebook is a Mind Numbing, Soul Crushing, Dead End Activity

I've discovered a pattern in my life. Used to be, back before Facebook was an entity, and even before Yahoo Groups dominated the scene, the morning routine included a little light reading with the coffee -- some daily news in the form of paper -- you remember that stuff, right? Newspaper? Well, it was a mind numbing, soul crushing, and dead end activity too, unless you were looking for movie times or employment. But Facebook -- Facebook. I mean, what? What's it for? I started on Facebook as a way to promote my business, and because everyone was bailing from the groups to join FB. People realized that they couldn't sell their perfumes to other perfumers, and FB offered free advertising.  Everybody was doing it. Everybody was getting the word out there. Everybody was happy! Today, Facebook is no longer helping the small businesses that relied upon its free advertising venue. Today when I post on my business page, I'm lucky if two people see what I've posted in their feed. Two. I don't have a regular website. I use Etsy as my selling platform because, a) it works, and b) it's cost effective, and c) I despise web designing that sells itself as easy and ends up needing a computer programmer to help figure out. I have excellent stats pages at Etsy as well -- it keeps track of sales, trends, customers' point of origin. For a fact, less than 3% of my sales come from Facebook. Less. Than. 3%. Chew on that a while you consider I spend hours on Facebook writing and perusing and shoving my business up people's noses there -- this is the pattern I spoke of earlier. I get up, make tea, plop down in front of the computer, check emails, check book sales, check Etsy sales, check blogs (sometimes), then it's on to Facebook, the meat of the meat and potatoes routine here, wherein I spend a good deal of the remainder of the morning, and sometimes the afternoon, doing . . . what? Snooping. Get caught up in other people's business, people for whom I have only a passing acquaintance. I check on the complainers and what their complaint of the day entails, then I check on the never-seen-a-rainy-day people, perpetually optimistic, even when the shit hits the fan, and I wonder at those people. I wonder how they do it. I wonder how they face the day with so much enthusiasm and love and happiness and good heartedness -- I wonder at them with equal parts envy and concern for their mental stability. I wonder, and I get way off track. I was there to promote my business, right? How'd I end up reading about the bog mummies in England?

The memes are great though, aren't they?

Have you not noticed, though, how Facebook has joined so many people who might never have 'met', yet the connections seem much more superficial than those made in Yahoo Groups? There was a sort of intimacy in those groups. More sharing and caring and helping one another up, while Facebook just seems to be the place to brag on one's accomplishments and push people toward their newest, greatest product? I think I'm done with Facebook for a while. I'll check for messages, treat the forum like email, and all those posts as spam. If you need to get in touch, email me at thescenteddjin@yahoo.com. Simple enough.

I have work to do, and Facebook is like the Enquirer -- beyond belief but interesting enough to read page after ridiculous page, and I'm getting nothing done.