Just a couple of days ago I got banned from sending any more friend requests. 2 days, they said, and also made me click a box swearing that I understand that facebook is for people who want to communicate with people they know, like friends, families and colleagues and if I just keep sending friend requests to everybody whose name pops up on my screen, the way I do, they will consider me a dirty, low life SPAMMER and maybe ban me again, only more so. This is actually the 2nd ban I’ve got, so I’m a little nervous. Will they deactivate my account with the 3rd time, send men to my flat with baseball bats, or just keep hitting me with 2 day bans, which I could learn to live with?
It's Sort of Like This, But in Print
My 1st reaction was who the fuck are they to tell me how I should be using facebook. My following thought was, well, they’re the owners of facebook. I’ve been thrown out of enough bars and discotheques in my time to know that the owners don’t have to stand around and argue about the rules with you. Then, I had a 3rd thought (this happens sometimes). They may be the owners but we are the tenants. They may be the founders but we are the majority.
It’s kind of like one of those out of control flash rave parties where a 15 year old kid’s parents are out of town so she goes on the internet to invite a couple of friends over for a party and all of a sudden it goes viral and there are thousands of drunken hooligans, drinking massive quantities of alcohol, doing exotic drugs that nobody had even heard of before last week, having food fights in the kitchen, fucking in the parents’ bed, vomiting all over the living room carpet and just in general having a really good time but, oh boy, Amanda is in trouble.
The way I see it the founder of Facebook, this Zuckerberg guy, is like Amanda in the story (Forget the parents. There are no parents in this allegory). He’s invited millions of people to his little party and he shouldn’t be surprised that he’s no longer in control of it. Some of us may use it in ways he never intended.
That may be a good thing. The owner (or owners) of facebook should just go with the flow, and stop being such anal-retentive control freaks, which will cause them stress and make them die younger.
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