Facebook - a boon or bane?

I've been having this burning question for a few months now.  Is anyone tired of Facebook already?  I think I am slowly losing interest in this social thing that has been very much ingrained my life for the past few years.  Funny enough the only people I know who do not use Facebook ever are K, Stephan and Zed.  What is funny is that they are all guys, and all born in the same year.  Which made me draw my conclusion that perhaps guys born in the year 19xx just don't like using Facebook.  I mean, I have to ask K to log into his FB for goodness' sake before it gets deactivated after an unusually long time of inactivity.  And on the other hand, he insists that I keep stalking my friends, just because I log into FB more times than him.  Don't laugh at me, because that means you and me are in this category.

Don't get me wrong.  I still think Facebook has been a crucial thing in helping me get connected to friends and family back home.  With FB, I am able to see what my brother has been up to, and he has been sharing pictures of family dinners with me, be it CNY or be it my grandma's birthday dinner.  It gets me connected the same way it does with my close friends too.  When they miss me they tag me in their occasional photo and make me go "awww" on the other side of the planet.  They take pictures of food (like how all Asians do), and make me salivate over the local fare which I cannot get in London.  

Thanks to FB too, my life here is not always trapped in a time bubble.  I am able to see that not only are friends and ex-colleagues getting married, many are busy giving birth to babies.  (Why is the Singapore government so worried?  Just check on my FB status updates and you will see Singaporeans are giving birth!)  Scrolling down the status updates looking at the many baby photos nowadays just gets the better of me.  Once upon a time I thought my friend on my list was around my age but now it seems not.  Their profile photos are all of babies.  (Seriously...) My brother and I have talked about this before and we exchange some status updates we see on our lists just to wind each other up.  haha!  Once he had a friend who posted on her status a birthday message for her toddler ending with "... must be guai guai (well behaved) ok?  Mummy loves you ok?".  He was rolling his eyes big time telling me, "shouldn't she tell that to her boy in his face, rather than posting it on FB and trying to garner some likes?"  I totally agree.  And then I have a secondary school friend who posts pictures and status updates of his baby - be it him eating, pooing, sleeping, smiling, whatever you can think of - multiple times per day.  Once upon a time too, when I logged in, all I could see are his endless posts.  To the point that I almost screamed out.  I don't need to see your baby grow by the hour, thank you very much.  And then there is this ex colleague who just gave birth to twins.  So for every photo each normal person posts, you multiply hers by two.  Trust me, I can rant about this for a very long time haha but I shall spare you :)

Then one day I discovered the best thing ever.  You can actually block posts from certain people on your list, such that his or her updates do not appear on your feed anymore.  What a wonderful function!  Before you go "merciless..." let me clarify that if you are reading this post now, I wouldn't have blocked your posts haha.  I'm referring to people whom I've not met or spoken to for a long, long time, more like acquaintances.  And I have passed this critical knowledge to a few close friends.  Zed and I have Mr Eager Dad on our lists and after showing Zed how to block his posts, today he told me that is the best silence he ever has on his FB. lol

Recently I spoke to Cyn (it seems like I always bring up this topic haha) and I asked her if she still keeps a bunch of our ex colleagues on her FB list.  Honestly, how many friends on your list are your real friends whom you would like to keep in touch with?  For me, not many if I be frank.  The bulk of them are acquaintances.  To my surprise she said she had to be "cruel" and deleted them.  She said as she grows older, she doesn't want too many people to know too much about her life.  I am beginning to feel the same too.  Shucks, must be an age thing.  Over here, I really do appreciate that we seldom add colleagues on our FB, drawing a clear line between work and personal lives.  I get along well with my team, but no one has suggested adding one another on FB.  And I think I intend to keep it that way.

And so I reviewed my friend list the other day.  I tried to be "cruel" like Cyn said.  I started with the friends with the "farthest distance" from me, as in very old work colleagues from like my first job and I haven't seen them for like 5 years or more.  Those I had no problem deleting.  And then as the friendship distance shortens, and it comes to say ex-colleagues of 3 or even 4 years ago.... I started wavering because I thought I shouldn't be that "cruel"... after some time, I couldn't make up my mind... and so I logged off.

Anyone care to share their thoughts?  I think I have lost the FB plot now.