I'd always been an MSN user and used to spend many an evening chatting to people as it was a great way to stay in touch without running up a hefty phone bill.

As I have family and friends abroad, MSN was perfect for me.

But in 2007, after ignoring many a request, I signed up for a Facebook account just to see what all the fuss was about.

It was amazing to see how many people I actually reconnected with and was happy to find friends that I'd grown up with but for whatever reason, we lost touch.

The flip side though was people, that I may not have wanted to reconnect with on there but that is what the Block button is for, I guess.

In 2007, the format was much different to how it is now. There were 'Boxes' were you could customise your page and show people what you liked or hated, you could show people what music you were listening to, and there were many other things.

My page even showed Moon Phases, it had a box that everyday generated an Inspirational Quote, I even displayed a daily Funny Cat Picture but these all disappeared with a new format and Facebook became more App orientated, therefore instead of someone looking at your profile page by choice, they would receive notifications of anything you did, like play games.

This caused no end of problems for me, personally that I adjusted my settings but if others didn't adjust their settings they would still see 'everything' so all I got were comments ranging from, "My God, you always play that game" to "Can you stop sending me game requests, I don't play" to "You saddo".

Now would it not have been easier if those that don't like games would go into their Privacy Settings and block all Apps instead of 'having a go' at me?

The idea of a Social Network to me is to be sociable. But I found just through games alone, I was upsetting people!

I use Facebook because I have family and friends abroad that I cannot see regularly and I use it more now than ever because I have moved away from my family and friends in London.

Counselling is the answer for me but until that comes through, I use Facebook to vent to people who I think are my friends.

Now over the last 5 years, status updates have also caused me no end of problems and yet I have always said to anyone who adds me, "you know what I am like. If I have something to say, I say it and if you cannot handle it, please do not add me" which leads me to the main point of this article.

I have seen status updates from none other than in-laws telling all of us that they were about to go and have sex.

I have seen status updates from acquaintances that continuously whine that they have no money but the next status may say that they spent £400 shopping and didn't know where they were going to put it all.

I've seen statuses from people that are racist, sexist and generally abusive.

But instead of getting involved or having a go, I simply unfriended them.

Because I didn't want to see it.

Because life is already depressing enough.

Because it is very negative.

Yet, when I seem to put anything on Facebook from the weather being bad to feeling like I could end my life, I am vilified.

Genuinely feeling like you have no-one to talk to is what led me to what everyone calls my Facebook Rants.

So the whole point is why keep someone who you 1) don't particularly know 2) don't particularly like and 3) someone who you are fed up of hearing from?

You can unsubscribe from updates and that is fine but do not then have a lovely chat behind someones back about their updates. It is two-faced, it is unfair, it hurts people.

People seem to take being unfriended on Facebook more personally then having a face to face argument.

And this to me is a sign of how warped we've become.

People have actually confessed to me that they may hate someone but love to know what's going on and like the gossip.

This is the depravity that I am talking about.

This is perverse.

This is scary.

The relationships that we make through life should be based on trust and loyalty, yet through this Facebook mentality, it is based on who has the juiciest gossip and that is in my own honest opinion, disgusting.

Surely there must be something wrong if someone has over 4000 friends, are they really friends? Real friends that would help you if you needed it? I doubt it very much, not all 4000 of them anyway.

I myself, had 260 recently, these were a combination of family, school friends, ex-work colleagues and partners friends/family.

I deleted everybody and started again. I now have just under 90 and even that had caused a problem.

The main question I was asked is "Have I upset you?".

This is completely ridiculous because if that was the case that someone had caused me deep personal upset, surely, I'd visit or pick up the phone and call or text.

To be asked that really saddened me because is this what we've become? A generation of people that rely heavily on how many friends that they have on Facebook?

Yet a lot of people that I know argue on Facebook because they have that wall to hide behind. I've first hand seen families destroyed because of people that make inflammatory comments without thinking.

There are people that make a comment that they would make in everyday life and there are people that choose to use Facebook as a battleground. This is bad behaviour.

I read something last night that said one of the hardest choices our children have to make in 20 years time is choosing a screen name that hasn't already been taken.

It was meant in jest but in reality that is not that far from the truth.

I fear for that generation then if that is one of the hardest choices they have to make because it seems that if that is the case, the next generation will be braindead.

Thank you for reading...

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