Because of the recession, many of us have found ourselves out of work for six months, a year or longer. When I became one of those statistics, I heeded the advice of some “career development expert” on the morning news to join Facebook and Twitter as a useful — even vital — networking tool.
I have made more than a few good contacts. But joining also brought no small degree of irritation, thanks to a growing number of games and applications — and an alarming number of grown people with way too much time on their hands.
As a “non-traditional college student,” I have been “friended” by several people I knew in high school, and, much to my chagrin, many of them must have an endless supply of time to play Mafia Wars, Café World and What Kind of Shoe Are You?
It gets kind of spooky when you see people 40 and over doing this kind of thing all the time.
Generally, I spend up to five or six hours per week on Facebook, enjoying various types of music, sometimes lively discussions on politics, wayward professional golfers and other provocative social commentary, as well as NFL fans’ trash talk. In fact, my Facebook networking has yielded me a few new friends and even a couple of small contract jobs that have been, while not necessarily lucrative, absolutely worthwhile.
But imagine logging onto your page and finding not one, not two, but several “pillow fights” and “Farmville” decals posted there by someone you know to be a grandparent. In desperation, I posted the following:
“Andrea loves her FB friends but is much too busy for Café World, What Color Panties, Farmville, Pillow Fights, etc.”
Two days later, the high school classmate/grandpa left yet another “I just hit you with a leopard pillow” decal on my page. So I sent a personal note to say “no more pillow fights or other games, etc. on my page.”
Regrettably, I was forced to ‘unfriend’ this person three days later — apparently he needs “Pillow Fighters Anonymous” or some kind of 12-step program.
After all, the main purpose for my Facebook page is to attract job offers — not repressed 14-year-olds.
