Lies, I Tell You! It's All Lies!

(photo courtesy of the League of American Bicyclists)

I imagine that most of us have seen Facebook's new advertisements, either online or on television, about how things were good and then went wrong, but now they're going to make it all better by getting back to basics and connecting us as friends again.

Bullshit.

I manage the Facebook page for one of my local choral groups, Harrisburg's River City Singers.  (Hence the picture of the Susquehanna River above!)  It's part of my duties as secretary for the board of the RCS, and it is the only reason I maintain a FaceBook account.  I have long since deleted my personal information and personal photos from FaceBook.  But I can't be an admin for the RCS page without an account, so until a new board and new officers take over, I'm stuck.

I can, however, tell you that managing this page has been an eye-opening experience.  And then some.

On an almost daily basis, I receive messages and notifications from FaceBook on how I can expand the range of the River City Singers posts for a small fee.  We have a concert coming up this Sunday, and just now FaceBook offered to "boost" my event to 13K accounts for a mere $30.

We rehearse and perform in a small UCC church.  It seats maybe 150 people.  We use the church not because of any religious affiliations or reasons, but because the RENT IS FREE and they let us use the hall for performances FOR NOTHING.  We don't even have to split the take when we pass the hat.  The $30 that FB wants would by sheet music for ten of our members.

In short, we are a small local group, building a nice following through word of mouth, and do not in any way, shape or form need to spam 13,000 fellow FaceBook users.  The fact that FaceBook itself is incessantly asking us to do so reveals the depth of their insincerity.