Why I hate FACEBOOK...
Recently I have had an unexpected "explosion" of invitations to join FACEBOOK, all of which I am deciding to decline. (Not that I had ever used it much anyways.) This is not because I do not consider these individuals my friends, but because too many members overlook the negative anti-social functions of the website. Yes, anti-social. By publicly showing who is who's friend, FACEBOOK actually promotes the same trivial high-school mentality of social competition--of who has more friends than whom and who is who's friend. Even worse, in providing these lists for public display, FACEBOOK is actually stimulating the same kind of injurious hierarchical ordering that stimulated the creation of slavery, believe it or not. Your status depends on how many friends you have and who is your friend. Humans are, after all, innately competitive creatures; those on the lower end are frowned upon and abused. If Facebook truly wanted to stimulate social democracy and authentic interaction, I would ask all who are members to request that the company NOT display who is who's friend by keeping this information strictly confidential. Then and only then, would it become a true forum for genuine friendship and human affection, and I might be inclined to accept well-intentioned invitations.