Top 5: Annoying habits on Facebook

Following up on my previous post on why I like Google+ more than Facebook, there's another reason why I like Facebook less; the content. Unfortunately, the "editors" of my Facebook feed are my friends, which makes public criticism of their posts a taboo subject. 

I know some people might find my constant updates about mobile tech annoying and that's fine. Not everyone is interested in what I am interested in. Some people post about politics, some music, some photography, some K-Pop. We share what interests us and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Which is why this top 5 list will not focus on what my friends share, but rather how they share it.

5. Unrelated background images

Silly hipsters. Image: Tumblr

A lot of people like to share motivational quotes. That's a good thing to do. However these quotes are often accompanied by a random background image which has nothing to do with the quote. In the end, it ends up being more of a distraction really. These kinds of images are so annoying they gave birth to a trend on the internet called Hipster Edits, where you take one of these quotes with a non-related background image, and add a red caption which actually refers to the background image. 

4. Sharing images of suffering and death

This one really hurts and annoys me. Images of dead babies, children with limbs cut off, surgical procedures, abused animals, road accidents, and any other images that make you go ugghhhhh. Why do so many people do this?! Why do you share images of people suffering?? If you want to raise awareness then do so without the images. I imagine family members of the deceased won't like you sharing pictures of their loved ones who have passed.

This is what Facebook has turned into. Image: Facebook

3. Uploading self-portraits every day

People are vain. Even I am. Many girls people like to upload self-portraits of themselves. That's fine if you do it once in a while. But everyday? How desperate for attention are you? 

Even the unannounced NoteIII
is used for a scam. Image: Facebook

2. Trying to win free stuff

OK this is not a "how people share", but "what people share". Facebook is a goldmine for spammers and con artists. Some of them steal money and some of them install malware on your computer, but most are harmless. What I can't stand is how some of my friends can be so gullible. The most common scam is the "We are giving away 5000 [insert Samsung phone here] for FREE!" scam. It's so ridiculous I don't know how people can actually believe it's a legitimate giveaway. The cost of all those phones would be more than $3 million, there's no way they can acquire that many phones for a giveaway.

1. #Using #hashtags #on #Facebook
Ever since Twitter and Instagram, using hashtags in your posts has been a quick and simple way to label your content, to allow users to find similar content easily and to see what topics are trending. This habit of hashtagging has found it's way into Facebook, even though it's functionally worthless. You can't search for hashtagged topics, they don't label your posts, they don't help in trending topics either. So please, stop. 

PS: Hashtags work on Google+ as well. Another reason why Google+ is better than Facebook.

UPDATE 13/6/2013: Better late than never. Facebook has finally added hashtag support. People who previously used hashtags while they were completely useless may now continue to do so.