Check out this post from social media consultant and musician Rachel Ann Poling, in which she tears Facebook a new one about its pompous practices and makes some extremely good points in the process.

 

She rails on the social network for its general lack of consideration for the user, as well as its Edgerank algorithm, which punishes pages with limited engagement and isn't very friendly to businesses just starting out — particularly artists.

 

I've mentioned somewhat similar stuff before. But one thing she said really struck a chord:

 

Poling struggles intensely to "figure out how I can get more engagement, more comments, more likes. I shouldn't be thinking this way at all! This is not the point of social media! This is not relational!" 

 

You know what? I think she's right. And that's when I realized something: It seems to me we're all in emotionally abusive relationships with Facebook. 

 

Think about it. Facebook changes without warning, without consideration for our needs. It makes us do everything on its terms. We whine and complain and post angry blogs and make memes — but in the end, we're still logging on five times a day. We always, always go back, because at this point in time, it's so powerful. 

 

Facebook gives us something quite incredible: An effortless, addicting means of communicating with others and broadcasting about ourselves. 

 

And then it acts like a total jerk the rest of the time. 

 

Makes me wonder how long we're all going to keep putting up with this. As individuals, the decision is simple: We can just stop using it. But businesses trying to be more social to keep themselves afloat don't have it so easy.

 

What do you think of Rachel's comments? Do you feel "abused" by Facebook's terms?