Wednesday, March 4, 2009

20 Reasons I Despise Facebook Applications


9's & 10's
Originally uploaded by Fixed Image

Facebook, I love you, but you're bringing me down.

I don't know about you, but I grow tired of having to ignore Facebook's Applications. About a month ago I decided to just let them pile up to see how many I would get in a month's time. I received 71 application invites during that time. Don't get me wrong, some of them can be alright. Some are even positive (for charities, etc.). I have a couple on my account. But, for the most part I view them as silly and a waste of time. I realize I am probably in the minority, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit if Facebook did away with allowing these applications.

Here are 20 Reasons I Despise Facebook Apps.

  1. Best Friend Requests - We're Facebook friends. This does not mean we are best friends. In fact, we may not even be friends.
  2. My Favorite '80's Hair - Guess what? I don't have a favorite '80's hair. I grew up in the 80's and I don't remember any of them being cool.
  3. Relative Requests - This one is kind of nice, but I don't need an application to remind me that we're related.
  4. MyCalendar (Birthdays) - Another one that isn't too bad, but Facebook tells me when your birthday is. I'll keep it that way.
  5. Mafia Wars - If yous send me one more of these requests I'm gonna have my friend, Joey Bag o' Donuts, pay you a visit.
  6. Knighthood Requests - Unless you're the Queen of England, no thanks.
  7. Sketch Me - I don't care for these things at Disneyland. Why would I bother on Facebook?
  8. Lil' Green Patch - Cabbage Patch Kids?
  9. '80's High School Flashback - I may be old, but I wasn't in high school in the '80's. You were??!
  10. Silver Dollar City Request - No, no, no!
  11. Social Calendar - Want to hang out? Call me.
  12. You're Cool - Thanks, but you didn't have to send me an application to let me know.
  13. Star Wars Figures - Why does this even exist?
  14. '80's Music - What is it with these applications and the '80's?
  15. SuperPoke Pets - Send me with a "SuperPoke" anything, I'll ignore it every single time.
  16. Dancing Bananas - Unless it's peanut butter jelly time, no thanks.
  17. My Girls - Seriously? I was sent that? Have I mentioned that I believe most people invite indiscriminately? Case in point.
  18. Optical Illusions - I wish it were.
  19. Groupie Request - Ummm... no.
  20. Snowball Fight - I hate snow. I hate snow even more if it comes by way of an application.
There were many more, but I just thought I'd highlight a few. Most are all in good fun and probably don't annoy most people like myself. But, as we found out last week, some of these applications being sent can be dangerous.

How about you? How do you feel about the Facebook Applications?

6 comments:

Once Upon A Time The Story Goes... said...

Love, love, love this post. I DESPISE Facebook applications as well and I am constantly ignoring at LEAST one or two a day. Thanks for the entertainment!

mybluevan said...

I'm not sure about this one. Like you said, there's certainly some good, useful apps out there to link in your Twitter, Flickr, or whatnot. I think the problem, and this is where I get annoyed, is when it starts to get spammy. Too many requests, no value (like not even entertaining), apps that try and get you to invite friends, etc.

I admit, I have a lot of, well, stupid things on my account. Part of that though is because I've sorta lost interest in it these days. I guess I've turned it into a social dumping ground of sorts.

mybluevan said...

Oh, one thing that doesn't count as an app but is still equally annoying: group invites. The "Largest Facebook Group" and "Bring Back the Old Facebook" ones get me.

Jon in OKC said...

To me the introduction and the increasing presence of meaningless, useless and non-entertaining Facebook applications is in direct proportion to the number of people who have recently joined Facebook, and their various waves. When Facebook first started doing applications they were really neat. Even the ones during the second wave of less interesting people/everyday casual internet users arrived were somewhat entertaining, like the Nations application. But by the third fourth and fifth wave of mindless followers that made their way to the site you have more meaningless apps than you can shake a laptop at. (which you shouldn't do by the way) So I blame the company. I love some of them very much, but do they belong on Facebook? Facebook tells everyone on my friends list when I pick my nose or scratch my butt, and there's a lot of people in this world who I really don't want that information supplied to.

Chris said...

I agree with your post, Andrew, and also to a large degree with Jon's comment.

The main reason I left MySpace for Facebook in the first place, was the explosion of useless quizzes, posts, invites, on and on, ad nauseum.

It seems like Facebook Apps (and I hear they've recently added something similar on MySpace,) are just the next iteration.

Even the few that are tolerable - "Nations" was mentioned - tend to be a subtle platform for pushing some agenda or another. (Your nation won't score well if you're pro-business and anti-welfare.)

I wouldn't miss any of them terribly, if they were shut down tomorrow.

Cantrell said...

Facebook? What's Facebook?

Re: John C. Odom

I didn't even have a clue about the trade, but the story caught my eye. What a slap in the face.