Facebook Faceoff

In the beginning, there was IRC (OK, fine, so there was Pine...big fucking deal). And then there was ICQ. People connected, people chatted, people exchanged files and IM'd (that's "instant message" to you peeps who are icky with abbrevs). Then it evolved to "personalized" chatrooms and personals. Geocities took over. Goodbye text-based/alphanumeric-only IRC...hello "rich-text" and "formattable" personal rooms/pages. With this trend stemmed a myriad of other personal pages with capabilities for photos and other nifty stuff--Facelink, Piclink, Facepic...the works.

And then there was Friendster. Hah. THE now number one profile website here in the Philippines (yes, it's a well-known fact that Pinoys the world over click Friendster at least once a day, thus making it the most visited website in the Philippines and most countries teeming with Pinoys). Of course, not every single Pinoy would agree to that, as some prefer (or concurrently have) other sites over Friendster--e.g. Myspace (which I have, too), Multiply (which I have, too, yes), Hi-5 (which I....yes I do, too, bastard) and others.

This explosion of profile sites has made the world so much smaller--and such a stalker's paradise. If you want to stalk someone, dig deep, or find out something about someone, chances are, he or she is in one of these websites. Who needs private investigators? On the lighter side, these profile pages have reconnected long-lost pals and relatives who have lost touch over the years or because of a transfer to another location. So, thanks to Friendster/Myspace/Multiply/Hi-5, we're but one big-gone-small web of people connecting to each other.

And, ah. There's Facebook. Do you have one? I just loveD (notice the emphasis on the past tense) how it had so much bells and whistles...otherwise known as Applications. I just loveD how I was able to share huge files with contacts; to give away an egg that hatches into whatever pet I want to give to someone; to send a stem or bouquet of flowers to a girl friend; to share a "virtual" martini/tequila shot at 3 in the afternoon with a colleague from the other end of the metro, or pass on a Starbucks espresso when we were getting drowsy from all the boooooooooooring paperwork for the day; to poke, tickle, bitch-slap or even moon someone instead of merely saying "hi"; to tell the world that my mood today is borderline-FUBAR (fucked up beyond any recognition); to post a poll and get a general idea, opinion or perspective from my contacts; and to place pushpins on a virtual globe and share the places I've traveled to with my travel buddies...aaah, what a beautiful, beautiful profile website this Facebook was.

WAS. Until all those damned Vampires and Ninjas and Furryfriends and useless Mardi Gras Beads and incessant Trivias and Fun/Super/Whatchamacallit Walls and Super-superdooper Poke and SMS/Chat plugins that are either corrupted or hangs perpetually...came marching in and flooding my Inbox with these !@#$%^$%& requests, Facebook WAS indeed my mostest favoritest profile page.

Can somebody just create a "Reject All" or "Decline All" button for all these useless requests? I swear, you guys have gone "clicker-happy" with your mouse. I'm not interested. Go take your Catholic Girl Vampire somewhere else. Blech.