Facebook, part deux.

Allright, now that this 72 hour break from my blog is over, let's get back to talking about Facebook.. from the inside. You think I'm gonna trash it, right? You think I've been angry lately and taking it out on everything? God you're good.

As I was saying, I'm done blocking and adding everyone I want to. I've sometimes been adding friends whilst other Facebookers were in the [physical] room and have been warned that the novelty "wears off". Oh I'm sure it does. Friends have a habit of "wearing off", which is what I'm trying to remedy by getting an account in the first place, to see if there's anyone out there with an ambition to be a bit more social.

The initial burst is always fun and exciting. The menu goes a little something like this:

Appetizer
Incoming email telling you someone has edited details on how you know each other.

Entree
Checking your mini-feed who is this someone who added you

MAIN COURSE
Your choice of

1. Your Wall getting Written On
2. A nice message in your inbox, ridden with exclamation points.
3. Writing a message to that person, ridden with exclamation points.
4. Getting sent some application that you should add
5. Complete silence (use this time to aggressively look at their photos)

Desert
Facebook.

Apparently, when novelty wears off, it is necessary to take brain quizzes, send zombies/ninjas/werewolves around, throw snowballs, and hablabliblabla. But why stick around, really. I spend most of my days on Facebook like a dog, waiting for something exciting to happen. 99.99% of the time, it's an event that is not happening in real-life. Facebook is more like a parking lot than a social space. Or maybe even, rows of baby cribs with over-hanging toys of varying complexity.

Alas. Like MSN, communication has been reduced to even less-than-readable. Sometimes, you don't even use actual language. Some pages leave me confused like staring at a character who just picks up every single item in the game. People don't seem to remove applications that they do not use.

I think what Facebook is showing me is the true power of the internet. Not by way of Facebook flexing any muscles, but just how shining other websites are, in the light of Facebook. YOUR FRIENDS DO NOT SHARE COMMON INTERESTS WITH YOU. I've gotten MUCH more mileage and happiness out of last.fm as an online community communicating with strangers, because when someone rings my doorbell, or vice versa, it's to bring something pertinent to the table -- not distractions.

Is there anything wrong with facebook? Nah. Only suspicious things. The facebook help section states:

Inbox, Messages and Pokes > I accidentally deleted a message. Can I get it back?
ANSWER> There is no way to recover messages that have been deleted. Sorry.

Really. You see, facebook is very ambiguous in its language. You "hide" things on facebook (i.e., removing a story from your mini-feed is referred to as "hiding" it, despite the fact that you use the "X" (vocabulary commonly used for CLOSE/DELETE)). Now where this data actually goes, is no longer your concern.

Want to see the dead walk? Try this: start a messaging conversation with someone, get it rolling. When you know you're surely getting a reply, "delete" the thread/coversation. When the next reply to this thread comes in, you'll get a yellow box that says "You deleted this thread. Show deleted messages."

Conclusion, you "could" get back the deleted messages, but there's no actual interface for YOU to do that.. I'm sure that if you lifted that rug completely, you could see every gallery or wall post or whatever that you've deleted thus far.

...but I'm having fun, though, I'm always on it. Go see, I'm probably on it right now, do it, do it.