I will come out right now and just say it – Facebook Apps freak me out. I just denied a request from my sister to say we were related on an app. I’ll shout it from the rooftops. I AM SISTERS WITH MEG! But I will not add the “family tree” application to my Facebook page. Not a bit. Her request was denied.
Do you want me to be one of your “best girls,” kill a zombie with you, throw a pumpkin at your neck, join a group to remove the mayor of Anaconda, MT from office, or take a quiz to show how similar we are so we can take our kindred spiritness to the next level? I’m sorry but I just can’t do it anymore.
I’ve done it a couple of times and then I’m always left wondering, “Is that app harvesting all of my personal information for nefarious purposes, the pure wicked evilness of which I cannot yet imagine?”
So now I just hit “deny” every time. It’s not because I don’t like you or think your purple roses to help fight toenail cancer aren’t noble and attractive, I just don’t want to be harvested by the aliens or whoever it is that creates all these apps in the first place.
Sorry mom. I’m still your daughter. I just won’t declare it in a Facebook app.
I also refuse to claim my 1,000,000 inheritance from my long lost Uncle in Sri Lanka. There’s just too much risk to these ventures. I’ve seen Dateline. I know.
So I’ve stopped by your blog a few times now, and I am almost always left laughing out loud. Probably my new favorite blog. I’m posting not just to tell you that but to tell you that I JUST ranted to my mom about the Facebook Apps thing. She’s joining all the “kids these days with their Facebook” and has started (not making this up) throwing possums at people on Facebook. How that’s a sign of friendship and/or love, I’ll never know.
I’m so with you on this one. Facebook = marginally evil. I quit it once. But then came back because I have so many friends who live way far away!
I’m glad someone agrees with me. I only use facebook to connect with old friends. And even then I just check to see if they have an email address I can write to. Poking someone online just seems…..pointless.
I have issues with Facebook all together. I have a Facebook account only because old friends have Facebook and they need to find me somehow right?
This is the best blogspot ever! Thank you for making me laugh!!!!!
I am so there with you on this. I hate them. Deny deny deny!!!
Oh yes…I moved….. 🙂
it scares me so i stay away all together
I am SO with you on this one. I mean, who has time to train a virtual puppy or tend a virtual garden on facebook? Stop sending me puppies and flowers!!!
A friend introduced me to your blog and I find it laugh out loud funny! Thank you. I too hate facebook apps. The question I asked my husband just yesterday was, “Where do these people find time to sift through all this ridiculousness and send it to me?” Again thanks for the wicked blogging skills.
I thought I was the only one! I do EXACTLY the same thing for EXACTLY the same reasons!! And the fact that you’re a blogging goddess & all tech-savvy & smart just makes me feel better about my choice. I was starting to feel like a paranoid spoilsport, but you’ve provided the validation I need to stand firm in my position and ignore/decline all the cheesy apps my facebook friends send me. Thank You. I am in your debt.
Thank you for saying it like it is! In light of the beautiful honesty of this post, could I request that you PLEASE write a similar post about the ridiculousness of chain letters? “Please send a page of stickers, a book, a car to the first person on the list and guilt all your friends into doing the same.” ??? Thanks for standing up to it! Yey!
WAHOO!!! I’m not alone!! Love it!
Agreed. And for the record, my favorite option on facebook?: “Ignore.”
Amen Sista! I don’t have time to plant things and throw things and whatever things. I just this week figured out the whole security thing so I can lock down who can see my info.
And then today I had the friend request that made me ponder ignore or accept. UGH! I feel like a big meanie if I ignore, but then do I really want this person to see my updates and such?
Oh Facebook! What have you done to us?!?!?!
Yeah…I ignore everyone too. It says right there that they want access to you, your friends, your first born, etc. No way.
Yeah, so I don’t remember sending you that. It must have been a while ago, and I have since stopped most applications as well. Love you!
Oh, and I’m flattered that you acknowledge that you are still my sister. 🙂
You would not believe the number of “requests” I’m ignoring in my Facebook thingy right now.
I swear, one more request to eat a lollipop in that Sweet Willy’s place and I’m going to have to go postal!!!!
OMG, me too! I love Face book and am addicted, but I hate all the apps.
I have so many requests and then I go through and ignore them and actually feel guilty when I’m ignoring the app from the person I have NO memory of from high school, but felt guilty for not friending them in the first place so I added them and now they just clutter my life with useless crap.
WHEW…. I guess I needed to let that out! Thanks.
Oh dear. I may be the only one addicted to Facebook apps.
I too was fearful in the beginning, ignoring everything I was sent…and then I discovered My Farm & it was all over. Now I accept nearly everything & get hoplessly sucked in. I’ve begun limiting what I will & won’t accept, but it makes me feel guilty to click “ignore.” Did this random person put in a lot of thought when they decided to send me a lil’ green patch plant? Are they really desprate to know what ’80’s movie defines me? Will they be able to sleep tonight knowing I turned down a plate of copper pennies from the fellowship hall? Great. Now I have Facebook guilt.
Amen!
Want to learn something AMAZING?! You can choose “block this application” instead of just ignoring it. Then you will NEVER again get a Lil’ Green Patch, Piece of Flair, or a request to join a Snowball Fight.
Good luck!!
I do the “block this app” thing too. WONDERFUL!!
I label myself an Applications Grinch. I have a few, but I really have to like it.
How funny that you mention Anaconda. We go there all teh time, and live just over the mountain. Great scrapbooking shop there. 🙂 Now I must ask our friend Colt about the mayor– I’m curious. LOL!
I have one game I love- parking wars, but I can never live without tickets. I do deny a lot- but not everything.. 🙂
YES. Me too. I had the same problem with that family tree app. After FOUR tries, I gave up. And like you, now I decline every single one, and I stress out about it a little, because Facebook reminds me of the things I hated about 10th grade!
I’ve, thus far, avoided Facebook altogether. I don’t want to be found by random high school people that I never really liked anyway. I didn’t even go to any of my reunions. I’m kind of anti-social like that I guess.
I totally agree! I just joined Facebook and was totally creeped out by those applications. I am glad to read that I’m not the only one. I wasn’t sure exactly why they were so frightening, but now that you mention it, I think it’s the aliens…
I hate them too. And one of these days I’m going to un-friend everyone that I’m not really friends with. BTW, you should friend me on Facebook because I’ve been reading your blog for years so that makes us almost like family.
LOL!!! I, too, am wary of the Facebook apps! Of course, if someone sends me a Twilight gift, I’m a sucker! (Hee hee –that was punny!)
I have started turning down most of them… but I may have the family tree app posted on my profile! 🙂
I think I accepted the family tree app … and haven’t done a thing with it since.
I decline everything from snowball fights to Harry Potter quizzes.
I really don’t care.
totally agree, I can never bring myself to add those apps. No matter how curious I am to know which Disney Princess I would be…
I so much agree! Being new to Facebook, I’m mystified as to why some of my sensible friends want to do this…does the Cancer Society actually earn money when we join? I don’t know, but I have to use my time more wisely!
I’m with you. Facebook doesn’t moderate those apps AT ALL. I don’t use them anymore either.
I only recently discovered you and thought you were a kindred spirit, but now I know. Thank you for standing up to Facebook apps and for validating my own decision to do so. I already waste too much time on the computer, I just don’t need to know what someone’s favorite fairy is. Or grow anything virtual when I’m having enough trouble raising live creatures.
Thanks for a daily laugh.
Ok, after my rant earlier in the comments, FB got me back!
Someone hacked into my account and sent a spam message out, from me, to all my friends! I have now removed all my applications and feel like an idiot.
So be careful with all that stuff.
I’ve been feeling guilty about hitting that deny button so often, you have now helped me to clear that guilt out of my mind…thanks so much!
Hmm. I don’t actually click “deny” or “ignore” I just ignore the requests and let them pile up. Is that bad? I just want to be able to connect with people I know. I also thought that it would be a good way to safely share photos since you can limit who can see them, but I found out this week that FB has the right to do whatever they want with ANYTHING you post on their site. Obviously not everyone is going to read every line of the EULA. Heck, I just skimmed it and missed this myself. So much for being able to safely share photos of the kids with old friends. I hate this.
You know, you’re right. I got sucked into a group called Fans of Sonic Ice before I realized I was…um…getting sucked in.
I’m pretty new to Facebook with a paltry 70 or so friends, and I use that term loosely to say the least. The thing that kills me is that when I am sent a request of some sort, I’m asked to invite all MY friends to participate in it as well. Sounds more like Face-spam…
I now have 29 weird requests awaiting me. I suppose their requestors think me unresponsive and rude for not responding. I believe I’ll risk it…
My favorite is the food fight app.
“Hello, friend I haven’t seen in fourteen years. I’m so glad we could hook up on facebook again! In honor of this great happy joy, I’m going to fling spotted dick at you!”
Wha?????
Sigh.
Amen. I also rarely join groups or become fans of something. Just the basics are enough for me. Although I’m insecure enough to ask myself every now and then if I’m missing something… it’s like being back in middle school.
Oh, you’ve made me feel so much better! I was looking at my relative requests this morning and feeling really guilty ….
i feel the same way. those applications scare me. if you have to sign a disclosure, it must be bad!
I have an account on Facebook for almost two years but until now this social network did not impress me for nothing. I really can’t imagine what others find interesting about it. I totally agree with you.