Stephanie’s Adventures in Singledom: What Facebook is Slowly Becoming

BY STEPHANIE DOLCE

When I joined Facebook originally it was just to reconnect with old friends, friends of today, family and to network with a few people here and there. I for one think that Facebook isn’t for dating, isn’t for professionals to pick and choose fans to  befriend them, and it isn’t for celebrities. ( You befriend one, you befriend them all)

Hats off to some professionals who don’t befriend fans on their personal facebook pages. I mean, please,  most people don’t really care too much about privacy, they just want to have the right to complain about it. I don’t mind if people follow me on Facebook, I actually like it as a writer, I just don’t think it’s necessary that people know everything about my life and what people don’t realize is that I get to decide WHAT people will get to see.  I let people in to “who” I really am, but I give everyone just “enough” and I don’t ever over do it.  Trust me, there are MANY things that people don’t know about me, and will NEVER know about me. That’s why I am very hesitant to let people “befriend” me who I don’t know. Sometimes you never know what their motive is.

And what I notice about Facebook is how people, professionals, celebrities, and the like post things that they really shouldn’t put out there and then complain when someone comments, gives advice, or even tells them to STOP posting about a certain subject over & over again.  Stop taking your private matters to public platforms. Don’t complain about people being all in your relationship, when you’re personally sending out the invitations! Remember, Facebook isn’t a diary, it’s a social network. Duh!

Then that takes to to what Facebook is slowly becoming: another online dating site.  It’s no secret that there is an application on Facebook called,  Zoosk. Zoosk is a site that combines social networking and online dating. Zoosk targets younger users aged 25 to 35.  And of course, just like any other dating site, there are tons of complaints with Zoosk! One common complaint made by fully paid up members of Zoosk is that it would seem as if many of the members are fraudulent. Men have commented that women are sending them messages asking for money early on, and a lot of the profiles do not respond at all. Another common complain is that fraudulent messages could be sent in a bid to attract more paid members, and again, means that you are not going to get that many dates out of it. Finally, the biggest complaint out there is that once you do the IQ Quiz, your data on Facebook is used for Zoosk and you may actually find your picture in one of their ads, even if you are married! So, not only do you have to deal with all the nonsense on Facebook if you just want to network or talk to old friends, now, if you are single, you have to deal with getting creepy messages from people daily on Facebook.

While on Facebook the other day I was checking my messages and did you know that you have messages from complete strangers just waiting to hear back from you?  Oh yes, they are under the link “other” in your message “folder.” These are people who don’t associate with you, so therefore the messages are not a priority, so they go into the “other” folder.

Here is the sample of what was waiting for me under “other” folder. I have printed them exactly how I read them, so please excuse spelling and grammar problems:

1) Am Engineer,48 years with a lil son……. Am from Salvador South America i live in Georgia for some month now I work at the Mobile oil ring in Nigeria am seeking a honest woman for a relationship if there is anything else you care to know you can please contact me ASAP add me on xxxxxxx2186@yahoo.com

2) Hi nice meeting you can will be friend?

3) Can you please tell me how I can be added so i can post on this page i could not find how to text like I see other people On this fb page can you help thanks i just picked you at ramdom k thanks

4) write me or add me xxxxxxx@yahoo.com I like your profile

5) Hello Pretty, how is your day going! Just have to compliment your pretty photo and remarkable profile. I’m Allan S. just came across your profile and I decided to stop by and say Good afternoon. If interested in a conversation please respond. Take care and stay blessed.
Have a wonderful day….Allan

6) I am a Single man and looking for a woman that is very understanding, open minded with a heart of forgiving, loving and caring with sense of humor, hard working with cheerful character, honest, sincere, kind, warm and intelligent. I am easygoing, diplomatic, lovely and respectful person.. I am seeking someone caring, loving, responsible, reliable and loyal. Some that can be trusted and willing to stand the test of time for the love. Beauty is not basically the image but the personality. Consider myself well mannered and open minded, easy going and very affectionate. I have been told that I am an extremely passionate person that has a magnetic personality. Well I long to have a best friend again. seems that’s hard to find this days…I enjoy late night talks and believes Waking up in the middle of the night and knowing you can roll over and hug someone during a thunderstorm is the best!

7) Hello am Roland…. i work for a construction company…needs to settle down and have kids. am looking for a real lady to spend the rest of my life with. If you don’t mind reply me with love. I really appreciate, I am new to this online thing so please bear with me , I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know that I am interested in getting to know more about you after reading your profile. …You seem to be a very down to earth woman and I really admire that! . I guess I will leave you with this for now. I hope your day went well and I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks for reading this! I practically wrote you a book! I’ll want you to know it’s hard to find the right woman…

So, which one is your favorite?

First off, most of these people don’t know how to speak English let alone write it, so right there I am thinking, either this is a scam and if it isn’t one, then these guys come off as extremely creepy.

Secondly, Who the heck messages a girl, who they don’t know about tells me their life story and  says, “Waking up in the middle of the night and knowing you can roll over and hug someone during a thunderstorm is the best!” That in itself is extremely creepy!

Thirdly, are the the fake profiles set up from Zoosk to get me to click and then pay to continue to “talk” to these creeps?

See, I’m not single because I don’t get any offers, I’m single because I haven’t found a guy worthy of deserving what I have to offer. And I can tell you, I don’t plan on meeting him on Facebook, not now, now ever.  Remember, Cupid doesn’t believe in online dating and that goes for Facebook too.