Is the novelty of social networking site Facebook wearing thin?

Aside from the online privacy issues (a massive oxymoron), Facebook is slowly becoming the bane of many people’s existence.

With the ever-infuriating change to timeline, being poked by random people (you know who you are), being tagged in embarrassing photos and the flirty messages sent out by salacious individuals who prefer to remain anonymous, Facebook has given birth to an arena of social contention and rampant narcissism.

With newsfeeds being filled with endless holiday photos, decade-old wedding photos, first day of school photos, the picture of the baby sleeping and even the baby scan image.

Why is this kind of update largely fuelled by women? How did this amount of over-communicating and over-sharing ever become the norm?

As if the unrestricted photo opportunities weren’t bad enough, there are the incessant status updates … descriptions of books to read on holiday, what you ate for dinner, what you’re thinking of eating for dinner, how late the bus is, how much you love your husband.

Why, oh why, must the rest of your friends’ posts be full of such tedious information? Announcing holiday destinations is crass enough, but when you are subjected to a friend’s baby’s sleeping timetable as a status update, or the fact that someone is considering getting their hair cut, well it becomes nauseating reading. How many friends’ updates can we block?

Has Facebook redefined the art of socialising? How many people that you wish happy birthday to, only because it appears on your newsfeed, would you bother wishing happy birthday to in person?

Have Facebook users become so dysfunctional that we resort to sharing our greetings and casual dialogue on each other’s walls, rather than face to face? And when we do manage to meet up, half the time in a social gathering is spent with eyes glued to one’s iPhone to see exactly what is happening on Facebook. How did cyber life become more happening than real life?

How is chatting to ones friends more appealing without hearing the tone of their voice or reading their facial expressions? Instead we are subjected to those awful emoticons in order to comprehend the gist of someone’s words.

Acquiring real friends as we get older becomes a more challenging task, one that we are less inclined to invest time and effort in. Yet somehow it is easier to forge Facebook friendships where people are given the unique freedom to embellish upon their traits and credentials and design a far more interesting version of themselves online, no matter how mundane their real life is. But is it bordering on fictional? Are we such attention-starved adults?

And the endless social politics that emerge from Facebook, photos of nights out that you were not invited to, when someone agreed to accept your friend request but then goes on to block their wall from you.

And how many of us have received a Whatsapp message asking us to quickly go on Facebook and ‘like’ a status or a picture. Apparently, the validation of our cyber friends is imperative.

At least Twitter doesn’t pose those types of problems. It’s less invasive and further reaching. And the blessing of the 140 characters limit means less trifle to absorb. #JustSaying.