Three friends of mine deleted their Facebook accounts. When I asked, they insisted they just don’t like Facebook anymore. I couldn’t help wondering why anyone wouldn’t like the type of opportunity offered by Facebook, where one can easily reconnect with old friends and acquaintances as well as make new ones. But now I’m beginning to see their reasons.
Facebook is usually one of the first social network platforms people that have internet access join. As of today, this platform enjoys up to 2.45 billion monthly users and the number is still growing. But it is possible that in the nearest future this number may drop, not because better social media houses opened (which may happen, anyway) but because some of its users may drop out of it as a result of dissatisfaction and disappointments.
I personally have started having reservations about Facebook. I still have an account there but I no longer have that zeal to check into it. Sometimes I don’t login into my account for weeks, or even months on end. And when I do so and see the number of pending notifications, connection requests and messages, I just log out with the intention of coming back soon to check on them. But I never do that for weeks to come.
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A lot of people may not understand why Facebook is receiving thumbs-down from someone like me. I want to make it clear that I’m not discouraging people from signing up with this social media platform, because there are so many things to gain there. The essence of this post is to expose some negative attitudes exhibited by Facebook users and to get the Facebook team to find ways to discourage them.
Well, here are some of the attitudes exhibited by some Facebook users that are pushing others away.
- Throwing Random Insults and Trolling
I believe this is the major thing that keeps me away from Facebook. People seem to enjoy insulting others as they comment under their posts. In fact, the more savage, uncouth and personal insult is, the more “likes” and encouragement the assaulter receives. Anyone that decides to send posts into Facebook should be prepared for unnecessary verbal assaults from commentators. Some people don’t mind these negative comments and reactions but a lot do, especially if they attracted other insults.
- Use of Foul Language
This is easily found in Facebook groups. Some people are more interested in showing off their stock of taboo words and expressions than in contributing to important matters on the ground. I’m not saying that every group on Facebook condones the use of abusive and offensive terms, but it’s very common among them. People that can’t stand such language avoid being a part of it.
- Aggression
I don’t know if anybody else has noticed this. Most Facebook users are aggressive in nature –even outside Facebook. Aggression here isn’t about “business aggression” that is encouraged, but about hostility and violence that comes from exposure to unhealthy social environment. It is hard to see any form of argument in Facebook that doesn’t turn aggressive. And in most of them, the participants focus more on subduing and killing the voice of their opponents than in being logical. By the end of the day, no one learnt anything.
- Lack of Control over Posts
Most viral posts on Facebook are gory pictures and videos that shouldn’t be let out into the world. People stream live murders, rapes and suicides on Facebook and other users spread their posts like wildfire. Do you know that gruesome pictures and news of accidents and accident victims go up on Facebook long before the FRSC (Road Safety), Fire Service and the NPF (police) get to the accident scenes? Mind you, the news didn’t go up because the “broadcasters” wanted to help the victims, but because they wanted cheap popularity for themselves (or just to have fun). The strangest thing here is that most Facebook users prefer this kind of post to the ones that impact positively on them. This shows the frame of mind of some of these users. It also shows that most of them are immature and shouldn’t be there. Anyway, the people that seek more meaningful posts look elsewhere.
- Rowdy and Less Impactful
One of my friends said that Facebook is “too noisy”. Another one said people go there to show off and compete with others. And then, we have those that are there just to “monitor” the progress of others. As difficult as it is to explain these phenomena using words, it is true that Facebook is not the right place for those looking for platforms that will provide opportunities for serious thinking, planning, innovations and growth. A lot of Facebook users that discovered other social networking platforms like LinkedIn always comment on how Facebook wasted their time. This is not to say that it is not possible for people to send up impactful posts on Facebook, but the “noise” there drowns the voice of such people and only allows that of “empty vessels” to be heard. And when these “serious” people find no voice in Facebook, they pack their belongings and look for where they can connect with other “serious” minded persons.
Every person that left Facebook has complained that the team needs to listen to. There is serious need to regulate Facebook before it gets out of hand.