I’ve never been a big fan of the social networking site. I’ll cop to it: I love blogging and I bleed Xanga, and my loyalty makes me biased. Whenever I have free time, it usually goes towards my blog—I’m either writing a new post, rewriting the post, getting really frustrated because I’m rewriting the freaking post again and it still doesn’t sound right, or drawing a Paint picture to go with the now tired-ass post that has been rewritten, like, 7 times before it’s made public.
Blogging is an arduous and very time-consuming task, but most creative processes are and will continue to be that way…unless my wish to have super-creative-writing-in-seconds talent comes true. I’ve been wishing on a lot of stars, my friends, but those balls of gas are extremely cheap or something because they keep ignoring my requests. Granted, most of the stars turn out to be planes—but give me a break! I’m in Los Angeles, people; I’m lucky to be able to see anything underneath the smog cover.
My online time goes towards my Xanga, with the most important aspect being the writing itself. The profile was really the last thing I worked on because I consider it to be just an accessory for my blog. It’s there for people who are really, really bored, so you’re not missing out on anything if you never see it.
I view the social networking site as a blog-less Xanga, i.e., pointless. You put up pictures of yourself, talk about your likes and dislikes, and then let it sit there for other people to view. That’s not to say I don’t use the sites. Whenever I hear a lot of news about the newest trend in the social networking world, I’ll create a profile to see what all the hype is about. I’ve tried Friendster, MySpace, and now am on Facebook because that’s where the migration has been heading. My profiles are fairly basic, and will eventually be abandoned, because again, there is no blogging aspect and therefore no reason for me to devote any more time on it.
The abandoning phase of the Facebook account may come sooner than anticipated because a few people on my “Friends” list have gotten dumped by their boyfriends or girlfriends, and have responded by putting up really lame and pathetic status updates for everyone to see. I’m talking about crap like this:
X really wishes he could take it all back…
Y will never believe in love ever again.
Z don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone?
I find the last one most annoying. The little Facebook status module looks like this:
The little cartoon speech bubble is asking you: “what are you doing right now?” and your response is you’re doing a Joni Mitchell lyric. Okay…
Anyway, the emo status updates, no matter who they are written by, are all created out of the same formula: overly-exaggerated descriptions of a broken heart that are directed at someone who is never mentioned, but whom everyone knows is the writer’s ex.
This crap is loserish on so many levels. First of all, the dumpee is posting these lame-ass status updates for their ex to see, which makes no sense whatsoever. Does he think that by showcasing how much pain he is in, his ex will change her mind and get back into the relationship? Why would she even care? She is the one who dumped you in the first place, you asshat. She doesn’t care how much sadder you make yourself sound because she expected you to feel like dirt in the first place.
Secondly, whatever happened to maintaining one’s cool after getting dumped? I thought people tried to downplay the humiliation of getting kicked to the curb by acting totally unfazed by it. If anything, you do it to give your ex the impression that you weren’t that much into him or her in the first place. That way, your ex loses whatever ego boost he may have had when he thought you were miserable without him, and you get to preserve your dignity.
It’s not that hard–and yet, you’d rather take the route of publicizing your pussification? You deserve to be single!
absolutangel64 
Xanga is the lord of the blogs. I tried to maintain a mirror blog on Myspace, but with fickle people and a sudden lack of readership, I decided, “screw it!”.At least it gives you a chance not to let on to the world that you’re wasted and depressed out of your mind. It’s the impulsiveness of Facebook updates that does it. I’ve never really seen the point of the profile and I’ve only ever used pictures for blogs or blogs that never made it. It just seemed superfluous.
OMG I totally agree. Those status updates are fricking annoying! I jumped on the bandwagon YEARS ago with Myspace and Facebook. I’ve been on Myspace since 2004, and Facebook even before that when it was only for college students and you had to have a college .edu email address to even join. I kinda liked it back then.But I’ll admit, I am obsessed with adding pictures and whatnot. Plus, I publish an RSS feed from xanga, so my blog gets posted on my facebook.If anything, Facebook is REALLY awesome at getting you in touch with old classmates, and it’s free (unlike classmates.com which wants to annally rape you by making you pay JUST so you can email a classmate!!!)
Haha, I agree with you.
hehe the private getting dumped picture is super cute! you’re right, I like to read xanga because more work goes into the entries.
eh. you can blog on facebook. i usually don’t though. i feel like xanga doesn’t judge me as much because they don’t know me. i don’t want my old high school classmates or that my friend’s friend to know my inner workings. they’re too close, and yet not close enough.btw, my facebook status currently is “jenn is napping her life away”. and 5 seconds after it was switched, that’s just what i did. emo status posts are lame.
There are few things I hate more than status updates involving song lyrics and/or trying to be deep.
xanga ftw!
I dumped Facebook for Xanga. I am a philandering boor!! Love your blogs, you should do them more often.
Great post. (:
a lot of facebook statuses bother me.i’ve almost stopped using them. almost.
That’s one reason I don’t use facebook. The invites are also pointless spam.
Love your post. The pic is awesome too +added!
lol I do that in my Xanga, but it’s a secret one. I don’t get Facebook either!
OMG! I got my ex BACK years ago by acting totally cool when he broke up with me.Him: “I think we should break up.”Me: “K, sounds good.”Him: “Wait..what?..”Ten minutes later he was at my door asking to get back togehter. Unfortunately for him, I really had already moved on. Joni Mitchell lyrics
Harsh, but unfortunately true. At least my friends don’t mope after their breakups! 😀
LOL, loved this post. So freaking true.
It’s the emo-fication of our society. Man up and move on, ppl! Though I did put up weeks of sappy status updates when my bartender left. He just…completed me.
asshat. lol, that made me laugh.=]
yup. iIhate when people publicize their relationship issues. Assholes!
hehe.. i am loser..lol i kinda like facebook status thing..=[but facebook is just for classmate and ppl from school ..xanga!! is funner learn much more about the person…=]
but myspace and facebook both let you blog… but yes, status updates like that get annoying. although i am totally guilty of having done that before… “Robin STOP THROWING SNOWBALLS AT ME, I’M NOT ADDING ANY MORE APPLICATIONS!” i thought it would get the point across faster than if i had inserted a “says” or “yells” between my name and the sentence.
Man, I couldn’t agree more. I just don’t understand people sometimes. Is it really that hard for people to move on?
You’ve obviously never seen my status updates then.I love the “After Getting Dumped (Private)” picture.
i use facebook and xanga very differently.facebook is great for computer-contact with people you know and see a lot. it’s nice to see their pictures and leave quick messages. group invites are useful too.xanga is good for blogging.
Nori is killing babies.
thats basically why i feel like deleting my facebook
“Pussification”LOL!
You are going to be one cooool lawyer!
the facebook status is overrated when u see people changing their statuses every half hour or so? do they do everything in life and post it on facebook simultaneously??
neat-o.
That’s wonderful. Better to be passionately devoted than thinly spread.
*prostrates himself on the ground* you have blessed us mere mortals with another funny post! this penguin basks in your MAGICALLY DELICIOUSNESS
puhhwwaaa!!!!! insightful, articulate, as usual. absolut delivers.
does this mean we can’t be facebook friends? </3 oh why doesn’t she love me?!
@AvenueToTheReal – … but only BBDD’s … LOLOLOLOL!
Love this! I use Facebook about once a month to get back in contact with people – I totally agree with the comment about it being useful for that. I’m too old for my friends to be moaning about breakups any more (okay, maybe a divorce, but it’s usually a celebration by the time they actually break up ) but you should see the moaning about being broke! Holy crap, it’s like they have totally forgotten what life was like “before” they turned into grown-ups.Long live xanga!
I get a sort of amusement out of the emo statuses just because they are so over the top.
love the private v public paint pictures. it demonstrates the point perfectly 😀
i.so.love.this.post.absolutangel64 FTW!what’s your name on facebook, btw?
I like it – the status updates save me from having to talk to people in order to find out how they are=]
Spidey is cracking up at your post.Ah, so ACCURATE.My favorite thing on facebook is drunken pictures though.
The only one that I use it Myspace for networking. It actually allows you to promote your business and it has really helped me! Facebook to me is worthless. I tried Linkedin and found it impossible to network.
I’m inclined to agree with you about social networking sites, though for a slightly different reason: I love reviewing. Whenever I have free time, it usually goes towards my reviews—I’m either writing a new review, rewriting the review, or getting really frustrated because I’m rewriting the freaking review again, and it still doesn’t sound right! But that is just how the writing process works; most great writers were in fact great RE-writers or revisers, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald for example.I don’t blog because I prefer the discipline of having to focus my writing on the product I’m reviewing. I’m afraid that the freer format of blogging would either have me wandering all over the place (diarrhea of the keyboard) or repeating the same rants over and over. I only joined Xanga because you have to in order to suscribe to and comment on other people’s blogs, but about all I use my profile for is to direct people to my Amazon profile page.As for your complaints about what is variously referred to as the emo-fication, chick-ification, or feminization of society, as represented by those sad emo status updates you condemn, I am also inclined to agree with you. One can always overdo it with the “strong, silent type”, but I think we have gone much too far the other way. Though there is blame enough to go around, this is arguably more the fault of women. In a free country women are in control because they decide which suitor they will accept. Tell men often enough that the only way they will “get any” is to “get in touch with their feelings” more, and they will try to do so…with truly pathetic results. The trouble is not that women convinced men to change; the trouble is that once men changed the way women wanted, women didn’t want them anymore.Add to that the questionable practice of sharing your personal problems with disinterested strangers, and there you are. The biggest problem I have with social networking sites is that you are expected to write about yourself, and I’m just not that interesting. I find myself boring so that I assume that others would as well.
i your Paint pictures.
LOL!!! That is truly funny! Gotta love the pictures that you took!
I use Xanga the most now because my mind is doing something useful. The other sites are wastes of time. I have profiles but I don’t use them much.
I agree, friend. I don’t quite agree with that last one, either.S.C.
Hahaha, I totally agree.While I’m a horrible blogger and tend to bitch about certain things going on in my life, I found that it gets so much worse than me. Once a boyfriend who knew I had a xanga got one right before we broke up, befriended me and then after the break up wrote posts frequently about how there was no way he could ever go on without me. Let’s just say it made me even more thankful that I had finally ended it.I really don’t understand how the tables got turned on that. Everyone knows that crawling on hands and knees and begging gets them no where, yet they always try that crap. Have some dignity losers.
lol, i hate when people get lyrics in the “what are you doing” box, I never knnnow how to reply to the indirect sad statuses than to make a really big joke of it.
i’d totally do a joni mitchell lyric…in the bu.. nmand the word asshat is always ftw ❤