Facebook; I hate It, I Love It

By Terri Collins

Those who know me well know that I have a hate-love relationship with Facebook. They have seen me get on for a while, deactivate or delete my profile for a while, and then boom in a couple of months, there I am again.  Yes, I am wishy washy when it comes to Facebook. I know, I admit it. I promise I am not unstable, I just struggle between the good, the bad and the ugly of Facebook.  Honestly, I don't think I am alone in this struggle.  In this post I am going to share 25 things I hate about Facebook and well....a few things I love about Facebook.  So that this post will end on a good note, I am going to start with things I hate about Facebook and then close with the things that I love about it...


1)  Facebook is addictive & engulfs your time ...
2)  Facebook is a safe place for haters to spew hate ...
3)  Facebook is risky for exploitation ...
4)  Facebook is a play ground for hackers ...
5)  Facebook sometimes should be called "FakeBook"...
6)  Facebook sometimes steels your joy...
7)  Facebook is used by terrorists and hate groups ...
8)  Facebook is not private even when you think it is ...
9)  Facebook is tracked & monitored by the government ...
10) Facebook is monitored by employers or potential employers
11) Facebook minimizes personal connection-by phone or in person
12) Facebook is full of viruses and spam ...
13) Facebook subjects us to unwanted advertisements & sells our activity records to advertisers ...
14) Facebook makes it easy for a stalker to find and track his/her victim...
15) Facebook promotes fake news which is spread like wildfire through Facebook...
16) Facebook posts & photos are permanently stored, you can delete them but they are still around...
17) Facebook farmers steel & use other people's sad stories to make money with likes and shares...
18) Facebook feeds often show you things you don't want to see, you can't stop them ...
19) Facebook can make you feel inferior at times, your feelings will be hurt ...
20) Facebook users, the not nice ones, exploit & mock others often without their knowledge ...
21) Facebook brings back to our lives some people from the past that should stay in the past ...
22) Facebook is a place where rumors are shared & spread quickly ...
23) Facebook posts are sometimes misunderstood, the written word can be misread ...
24) Facebook posts sometimes appear to be pointing a finger at someone that they aren't...
25) Facebook is sometimes a 'dirty laundromat' for people to 'air their dirty laundry'...

Wow! Coming up with 25 things I hate about Facebook was easier than I thought.  I could have gone further with the reasons that I often hate Facebook.  Let's see if I can come up with as many things that I love about Facebook...

What do I love about Facebook? ...

By using Facebook, I ...
1) can connect with family and friends living afar ...
2) can share what I want to with family & friends ... 
3) have connected with good friends that I had lost contact with ...
5) can share my creativity when I am being creative ...
6) have successfully marketed businesses ...
7) have found great recipes ...
8) have discovered great craft & decorating ideas ...
9) have planned & promoted successful events ...
10) have learned of others' needs ...
11) have learned more about others' personalities & life, gotten to know my coworkers better ...
12) have seen good tips on various things like gardening, life 'hacks', and organizing ...
13) have found out about community events & goings on in the area ...
14) can inform everyone who wants to know something about my family in one post ...
15) can keep up with birthdays and say happy birthday to friends & family ...
16) have found interesting reading material when bored ...
17) have seen funny things that really did make me laugh out loud...

Well! As I have sat here for about ten minutes trying to muster up more things I like about Facebook, past number 17, I have become stuck.  While it was easy to come up with the first few, the obvious reasons we all like Facebook, I found it a little bit harder to come up with the pros than I did the cons.  I feel sure that most everyone can agree with most of my statements, but may disagree with some.

 Facebook is a personal choice. We all decide if we like it or not, whether we will participate or not, what we choose to post or not, so on and so forth.  If it were not for the things I do love about Facebook, I would definitely delete my profile and more than likely would have to work as hard as a drug addict in recovery to stay off for good.

Although I could include validating information about each one of the facts, of why I hate Facebook, I won't because that would make this post too long.  One thing I will say is that we should all definitely be more protective and selective of what we share on Facebook.   Understanding what I do about the things that are not safe or secure I have a strong feeling that one day in the future we will all regret, in one way or another, what we shared publicly on Facebook.




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