What's on your mind?

What's on your mind? That's the question that Facebook asks when prompting its users to set their status updates. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the question by itself....my problem is with the answers that this question elicits.

I understand that the thought of me having a problem with anything anyone does just shocks the socks off of my faithful readers, but if you will bear with me I will be happy to explain why the answers to the question of what is on Facebook users minds annoys the crap out of me.

First of all the question is absolutely ridiculous simply because many of the individuals that use Facebook will add or confirm friends based on a one time encounter or a mutual friend out of sheer nosiness or a strange desire to have a vast number of friends so that they look popular (That is a topic for another blog and another day), and they either don't really care what is on someones mind or they have no business knowing what is on someones mind.

Secondly, and far more importantly, far too many Facebookers will post a status update that says something ridiculously encrypted that is obviously directed at a specific person. Assuming that said specific person actually reads this status update, and also assuming that said specific person realizes that this status update is directed at them, my reasoning is such that I seriously doubt that said specific person gives two dingle berries about how they have caused grief to a person that is not even bold enough to name said specific person in their status update.

Facebook has been kind enough to add the 'tag' option to the status update feature. This means that Facebook users can not only type the name of the person that they are upset with in their status update, but they can also 'tag' that person to it so that the post is displayed on that persons wall. Tagging this person ensures that they know beyond a shadow of a doubt how badly they have upset their fellow Facebook user (assuming they care, of course).

The second irritating aspect of the obscure status updates is the totally random undecipherable nature of these updates. For example "I'm just so sick of all the lies and pain" or "Some people should really learn to grow up and face the facts. You know who you are" are not answers to the question of what is on your mind, they are random snip its from some conversation that the rest of the Facebook world is not privileged enough to be party to. Furthermore, I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that most of the users on Facebook are just as confused as I am by these updates. And they probably care about as much as I do (which is not at all).

I said all that to say this....if you decide to use the status update feature on Facebook to tell all of us what is on your mind, please be so kind as to leave us out of your personal drama, because we care to read about your personal drama about as much as we care about what happens to the fleas that infest the armpits of Osama bin Laden.