Libby is Tired of Facebook

When I first found Facebook I thought it was the best thing ever. I could reconnect with friends, stalk old boyfriends and enemies to see how fat they had gotten, look at pictures, and challenge people to stupid word games -- ALL ON THE SAME SITE! I became a junkie almost instantly, loading the application onto my Blackberry, and checking for updates every chance I got. I think Ryan started looking at divorce laws in the state to see if obsession with a website is grounds for divorce, but I can't be sure. Now, it doesn't matter though, because the love affair is over.

I don't know exactly when it happened, but it definitely was over the past month. It used to be (and I am a bit ashamed to admit this) that I would check Facebook on my Blackberry as I drove to work. Then I would check it when I got to work. To make that fact even more pathetic? I get to work at 6am. Over the course of the day I probably would check it ten more times -- at least. Each time I would look at updates, check for new pictures, see what people were saying, and maybe add new friends. I justified it by saying I was being more social than I have been in years, and that everyone is doing it. I didn't realize just how sick I was.

It was last Tuesday that I realized the magic was gone. I was walking out of work, checking my e-mail on my Blackberry, and saw I had a message from Facebook. And I realized I hadn't checked it ALL DAY. In the early, halcyon days of my Facebook experience that would have sent me into a tizzy. However, on that day, I just slipped my Blackberry back in my pocket and went to lunch.

I think what happened is what happens in most unsuccessful relationships: I grew, but Facebook didn't. After a while I was willing to move on, try new things, look at new ways to explore the world, and meet new people, but Facebook just wasn't. It just kept showing me the same people, and the same stupid games, and fewer and fewer new pictures. Also, it started trying to introduce me to people I had no interest in meeting. People I had met before, and never wanted to again. That's when I stopped returning it's calls.

Now, Facebook and I still see each other, and it's friendly, but not like it used to be. I'll check in when I'm bored, it will send me a message when something is going on that might interest me, and we keep in cordial. Sometimes, Facebook will even do me a favor and help me get a message out, and I'll click on an ad to say thank you. It's times like that when I think back to how it used to be, and kind of get a little nostalgic, and think about going back. But then I realize I would just be trying to recapture a magic that is long gone.

I'm sure that one day Facebook and I won't even see each other, and I'll laugh when I hear it's name mentioned at parties, while secretly feeling pity and wondering how it can keep hanging out with kids. Is that how it always goes?

I don't know. Maybe my Mother was right. Maybe I should have picked My Space...