Facebook & The Wall

As for the Facebook where I read that article, is it just me, or does it also irritate you when people disable their Facebook walls? I mean seriously, it's a problem. Facebook is all about social networking, and 90% of that networking is done by posting on walls and getting responses to those posts. There was a time when Facebook was only walls. No "Like" button, no notes, no apps, no marketplace, no comments (I think), everything was done through the wall. Therefore at a very base level, your Facebook is your Facebook wall!

Thus my question is, if you're disabling that wall, then what the hell are you doing on Facebook? Clearly you don't want to socialise. So go to Twitter where you can just broadcast status updates and those who will listen will follow. Leave Facebook for those of us who actually want to do some real socialising. It's really annoying when every time I want to communicate with X friend who has a disabled wall, I have to click Messages and go through that process. Half the time, I just conclude that whatever I want to say is really not that important and move on. A friendly "Hello" simply isn't worth the trouble.

Now don't get me wrong, I totally understand that there are issues like people posting spam on your wall, or photos that you'd rather your employers "certain other people" not see. It's understandable. Keeping some parts of your social life private on Facebook is not entirely up to you. It's up to your friends as well.

But with Facebook privacy settings, you can customise who gets to see what on your wall. Yeah, most people (including myself) don't want to go through the trouble of doing that - and choosing those who can and cannot see something really isn't all that fine-grained. Actually, all these reasons are why people just opt to disable their walls. It's faster, it's easier, and I really can't blame them for that.

Still, here's what I can blame them for. If your boss is your friend - and I mean really your friend. Both on Facebook and in real life. Then shouldn't he or she understand when you party like a rockstar? On the flip side if you're one of those people with 5000 friends of whom you only know 5, then it's time to re- assess your friend list and friend acceptance policy. It's the ones you don't know who are posting all that spam.

If you then have some friends who fall into the grey area - they're your friends but they're conservative and will judge you based on what they see. Be it an employer or relative. Only then do you have a problem worth empathising with. Even then, disabling your wall still isn't the answer in my opinion.

I don't know the answer though, because I've never had friends whose opinions I cared about give a flying Dutchman about what I post on my wall OR done anything in my social life that could impact my employment (to the best of my knowledge).

In the end, there're really only 3 options whichever bucket you fall into. Edit you privacy settings, edit your friends list, or get the hell off Facebook. Don't worry, Facebook will still be there when you're ready to come back. Considering the amount of money Zuckerberg's making it shouldn't matter whether you're back in 2 weeks or in 2 years.

In any case, disabling your wall just isn't right, and FYI, it pisses me off.