Facebook Apps

I'll start with a confession: I have a Facebook page.

I've even added some apps to it, but unless you look at the list of apps on the left-hand side of my profile you can't tell.

The reason is simple: I find huge lists of apps obnoxious and most of the apps people post to be at best a bit silly and at worst ridiculous. Okay, some of them make some sense, like the ones where you can track the performance of your favorite teams from your profile. Others, like the ones related to biorhythms and fortunes are just electronic versions of the same nonsense which has been peddled for hundreds of years. On the whole, however, most of them are large and dedicated to one thing: getting more people to use them. Vampires vesus Slayers is one of my personal favorites on the list of worthless (I don't subscribe).

I came to Facebook as a way to keep track of friends and aquantences without most of the usual hassle of regular phone or written contact. Most of the people I know at college use Facebook as their prefered method of indirect contact. When it comes to casual communication between friends, I hear "Just Facebook me" more often than "Just call" or even "Email me". All I have to do is add someone as a friend and so long as they update their profiles halfway regularly it's easy to keep in touch. With the focus shifting to apps and entertainment, I have to wonder if the powers that be have lost touch with the real value of their site: keeping in touch.