Has ‘Facebook’ Taken Over the Reigns from Uncle Jo Stalin?

There is, you may observe, a dichotomy here.

On the one part there is a requirement, from ‘Facebook’ to make friends. It is, after all, a ‘Social Media’ site.

‘Facebook’ even says to you, “Would you like to make friends with this person?”

There is an encouragement to add to your list of people that you communicate with.

This is, we are reliably informed, the purpose of a ‘Social Media’ site.

So I did that.

I have added many people. Many ask me to ‘friend’ them and, similarly, I ask people to ‘friend’ me.

It works.

I have lots of people with whom I enjoy (and I hope that they, too, enjoy) a social discourse carried out textually via the Internet.

These are people that, for the most part, I do not know. I have never met them and many of those are people that I should dearly like to meet.

I have people from all kinds of faiths and beliefs to chat with. We can disagree and we can discuss but there is no rancour, no disharmony.

All of the people with whom I have contact—some more regularly than others of course, are intelligent. They are all capable of stringing together an idea and putting it into a cohesive set of words that describe their thought processes.

In other words, they are all good people.

Even though they were chosen by me—or I was chosen by them, at random, maybe, or because we saw a glimpse of them in a comment made to someone else, they are still good people.

Every single one of them.

So I tried to add some more people. People that seemed to share a viewpoint or a set of pleasures (science fiction, for example) that I felt I could share.

These are people that have a liking for Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Robert A Heinlein, et al, and so have a similarity of taste to my own.

How interesting to hear their views on the stories written by these great men of fiction.

I cannot.

‘Facebook’ will not let me.

Not the people that I asked for mutual contact. No. ‘Facebook’.

As I understand it, the onus is on the people who you contact to ask for an ‘Add’ to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

It seems not.

It appears that ‘Facebook’ is the arbiter here.

One or some, I don’t know which, of the people I asked said they didn’t know me. That’s fair. I don’t know them either.

They were just being honest. No problem with that.

But as a result of that innocent comment ‘Facebook’ has blocked me from adding more friends.

I have become a social pariah—a social media pariah, moreover!

Hence the dichotomy.

‘Facebook’ wants to encourage you to increase your circle of friends.

‘Facebook’ wants to limit your circle of friends.

What, then, is the point of ‘Facebook’?

If I remove everybody on my list that I have never met in person—those that I never knew before ‘Facebook’ came along, then I don’t need ‘Facebook’. I can easily e-mail everybody I know just like we did before ‘Facebook’.

Make up your mind ‘Facebook’.

Tell us what you want us to do and then keep your nose out. We are, for the most part, grown up people that can decide for ourselves.

Use your ‘blocking’ and ‘vetoing’ power for something more useful—like getting the paedophiles, scammers and con artists off.

Let us peaceful people who just want to socialise be alone to get on with our lives in friendship.