Rusty is NOT making pancakes

I got an email from someone via Facebook (FB), which forced me to go to FB to retrieve it. Being as I am at work, my company server has banned access to FB, forcing me and others to find other means of accessing the site. Rest assured, I finally retrieved the email, which was a grovel from my cousin about how he needed to fundraise for some long bike ride he was taking. Glad to see I used my amazing computer programming bypass skills to retrieve this one. Thanks Mel.

Now I do not profess to being a big fan of FB. Ultimately, I use it to reach out (or be reached out) to the ladies on the soccer team I coach (yes, I said ladies. I'll save this one for another day). Every once in a while, its fun to listen to one of my players claim she is grossly sick and unable to make training. Then I go to FB, and see that "Candace is partying HARD 2-nite" as her FB update. Nice try Candace. You'll be riding the PINE 2-morrow as your reward. Like most people, every once in a while I get the odd email from someone in my distant past who is stoked to have reconnected with me through FB. But ultimately, FB to me is just another website I go to after researching colonoscopies and penis shortening medicines - you know, what I usually surf for.

So Mel sends me his "Tour de France" fundraiser, and I am obliged to hit the FB circuit. When I go to the Newsfeed of my FB, I am amazed at what I find. Now maybe I am in the minority, but do people really care about some of the excitement they find people telling each other as updates? Of course this is coming from the same person who is blogging as a therapeutic solution to pent up thoughts, but I suspect...or at least hope... my insights are more interesting than reading that "Jim is making pancakes" or "Kelly wants to take a walk" among other less than stimulating information. I'm sure Twitter is the same way. Our society has moved to this culture where somehow you need to tell everyone what you are doing - reverse Big Brother if you like - since they would not normally watch. Odd but I suspect true.

At what point did the memo come out saying trivial and mundane activities are to be posted on FB. I clearly missed it. I also missed the memo about people "pimping" out their families every 5 minutes, as if they are using FB like the camera of their life. "Today, me and Kid A threw the ball around, while Kid B played in the sandbox and Wife did some gardening. It was a special moment for me, as I really felt we bonded as a family. Here are the pictures." Then 5 minutes later, the same person posted an update to the update, saying, "Wow, Kid B has decided to play catch too, while Kid A is now chasing a butterfly. Wife is loving the fresh air. Check out this picture of a slug I took" Ugh. Then 5 of this person's friends comment that they like it, with the thumbs up icon to boot. Double Ugh.

Now I am not trying to sound insensitive. I trust those were some of the best pancakes around, I'm sure the walk was nice and the slug was ugly. But lets get real here people!!! Do we really need to know this stuff. At what point, does someone (maybe even me depending on how violent I get thinking about FB) post "Rusty just went pee" or something similar. Common sense people, lets draw the line here, OK?

Now I must get back to those pancakes I just made...