I’ve found Facebook very interesting for learning about people: what they do, what they’re interested in, the connections that you have, the places you’ve been, among other things. It can be very useful. However, there are some wrenches in that people throw into the system that effectively render the system completely useless.

There are a bunch of things that attracted me to Facebook, including the closed networks and the name policy. Closed networks prevents everyone on the Internet from learning everything about you and the name policy stops retarded names from detracting from the experience.

However, there are lots of ways to make Facebook retarded. One of those is obvious: groups. Groups on Facebook right now are awful. While “For Every 1,000 that join this group I will donate $1 for Darfur” is a good cause, it is a horrible group. “Grad Class of 2011″ is slightly better but redundant because unless you’re organizing something through that group, everyone knows when you’re graduating through the normal metadata. There are very few good groups and far too many retarded groups to make groups useful.

Another thing is the profile. I try to fill out my profile as accurately as possible, and this includes filling it out properly. When they ask you for music, movies, and the like, they’re asking you for your favourite movies and music, not your favourite movies and music and little side comments. Here’s a news flash: “David Crowder Band”, “DAVID CROWDER BAND :D LOLOLOL”, and “omg i love david crowder band they are the best in the world!” are not the same thing which defeats the purpose of being able to search by metadata. Why else do you think your music is listed in a comma-delimited list?

Finally, there are the crazy paranoid loonies who are demanding more privacy. Here’s a news flash: any semblance of privacy you think you may have in a place where you give out your information does not actually exist. There are two reasons for this. The first is that this is the bloody Internet where evil men lurk around the corner to steal your credit card number when you touch a computer. The second is that not sharing information runs contrary to the reason for establishing social networks.

The thing about social networks is like anything in life: you get as much out of it as you put in. Social networks are for establishing connections between people through their real life relationships or by meeting new people that have common interests. If you join Facebook and you have no pictures and no information about who you are save for your school and an e-mail address, you’re going to have no friends and find Facebook boring and useless.

Obviously, no one cares about any of this exciting analysis and Facebook will continue to be a place where you express yourself through retarded groups and by posting back and forth on each others walls as if it were some new, unique way to communicate. And the grand experiment that is social networking will fall flat on its face because ultimately, users are idiots.