Facebook: A Love/Hate Relationship

Anyone who knows me in real life will wonder about the title of this post. That's because they know that I love Facebook! For a couple of years now I've been Facebook's biggest fan. I've tried to recruit my friends and family (yes, I'm one of "those people") because I think it's a great tool for keeping in touch with people. Don't worry, I haven't given up on all other conventional forms of keeping in touch. I still call people. I still write letters and send birthday cards. I occasionally even meet people for lunch! (That's saying a lot for the hermit side of me.)

Let me tell you why I love Facebook. I absolutely love that it has gotten me back in touch with dozens and dozens of college friends, many that I thought I may never find again. It's pretty effortless, it's free, and it's easy to get caught up on the past decade or so. Even with friends that I have kept in regular touch with, it's so simple to share photos and day-to-day stuff on Facebook. Really, there's a lot to love about it.

You may think I'm crazy when I tell you that I actually have two Facebook accounts. I have my regular one with all of my friends, family, classmates, and recently even my adviser from college! Several months ago I created a new account to use specifically for connecting with IF friends that I've "met" through this blog. I still don't share all of my personal information there, but it's a place slightly more private than Blogger for sharing photos and just connecting more personally with some of my blog friends. Really, it has been great. I'd love it if even more of you would find me there! (If you want to create a new account just for that like I did, or connect using your regular account you can find my profile at this link. I can't promise that anything there is super exciting, but if you're experiencing infertility and/or miscarriage and would like to have a group of friends to connect with on Facebook, come find me! One word of warning: if you already have an account and want to make a new separate one, be sure and use a different email address or you'll erase your other account, ok?!)

Alright, so here's what I don't like about Facebook. I see things there sometimes that make it hard for me to just enjoy the perks. Ultimately I guess they are just minor annoyances, but they sure do seem to bother me.

Stuff like this:


And this:


And this:


Why, people? I know these are just supposed to be cute or funny or whatever. But really they're pretty insensitive when you think about it. I know that perhaps I'm just a little sensitive to stuff like this, but these have been displayed on the profiles of my friends! I know that 90% of them are aware of my plight.

There's so much I could say about each one, but I think it's obvious why I think they're pretty hurtful. First of all, I don't know what my "super power" is but evidently it's NOT "growing people." And I don't know how "crafty" anyone thinks I am, but so far I'm not quite crafty enough to "make people." Oh, and I have no idea what I've been doing all these years that I thought I was working full time! No, I don't clock in anymore at a job, but somehow the house is getting cleaned and our clothes are washed.

I know these aren't meant to be taken literally. As a very dear friend said to me recently, though, I wish people would realize that they're not talking to a world full of fertile people only. There's a whole other topic here that could be explored about insensitive status updates on Facebook, but I'm definitely not going to tackle that one right now. I guess today my status message might read: "Stacey is really annoyed by ridiculous pieces of flair."