I forget how long I’ve been on Facebook. I just know it’s been long enough that updating my status and checking my wall are now fully integrated into my lifestyle. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing is the subject of another blog post. Today I want to talk about how much my Facebook experience has changed.

I’m sure you’ve been annoyed more than once at sudden unexpected changes to the Facebook experience. Countless campaigns to repeal various and sundry changes fall on deaf ears. Before I’ve really adjusted to the last change, something new comes along that pisses me off even more.

I adjust to the changes because I really don’t have any choice. But I can’t think of one change that I really liked. Not a single one.

The Facebook I started with was amazingly simple and easy to use. I saw what all my friends posted, and unless they blocked my posts from showing up on their wall, they saw what I posted. Plain and simple.

Then the evil bastards at Facebook started adding all these lists. Just to mess with my head, they defined the list differently each time so that I never really understand what the hell they are or any practical way to use them. Now they’ve got groups, events, and umpteen different kinds of pages I don’t know how to use, either.

Creating photo albums was as easy as posting a single photo. Links were  a lot easier to post. Now half of them ask you to grant access to your information. No thanks.

Trouble was fairly easy to spot and easier to avoid. When I signed on, quizzes lured you into granting access to your personal information. Every other post was some kind of quiz to find out what kind of (fill in the blank) you are.

There were games, too. I did the Easter Egg Hunt my first year. It was the most purposeless time-consuming activity I’ve ever tried. I rank it right up there with mastering Guitar Hero, the most useless skill in my tool kit. The difference was that the Easter Egg Hunt forced me to drag all my friends into the game with me.

Farmville was the beginning of the end. Folks who once enjoyed chatting on Facebook were too busy setting up farms, feeding livestock, and tending crops for idle chit chat with friends.  Even stalking gave way to farming. Now there are hundreds of games for every imaginable interest with new ones coming out every day.

Lately, most of the crap on my wall is stuff I don’t care to see–and I’m not talking about the entire right half of the screen where all the personalized ads lurk. I’m talking about pictures and posts from people I don’t know. They’re friends of my Facebook friends. I’m sure they’re very nice people, but until we meet, I’d really rather not see all their business on my wall.

I wouldn’t mind seeing all this junk from strangers quite so much if I thought I was seeing the status updates of all my friends. But I don’t. And I’ll adjust, because for now anyway, Facebook is the only social  networking option worth looking at here in…

My Glass House