Just don't do it.

Social networking used to be the playground of the gregarious and popular. The prettier, funnier, richer or more connected you were; the better your social standing. In caveman days, your social worth and therefore, your effectiveness as a social networker was based upon your strength, stamina, imperviousness to common bacteria/viruses and hunting skills. Social stability/popularity has always been based upon your viability as a procreation partner. Think about it, most of the time, popularity is just a factor of whether or not someone wants to sleep with you.

Crude, but true.

The internet seems to be changing all of that. These days, anyone can be popular on Facebook or MySpace. Even though, the pretty/rich/funny standards still hold up-you can also be popular for having the most collective knowledge of Class-C starships in the Roddenberry universe, playing the meanest game of Scramble or giving the cutest gifts. You can also make yourself quite unpopular. I speak of course, of the Friends for Sale Application.

I hate this app with a passion. The idea is that you buy and sell your friends, with some of them going for very high bidding prices. You make more money by selling friends. I've had tons of people tell me that they love this application. That it takes up tons of their time and is lovely and distracting. I've gotten condescending comments and little digs from people who get a lot of amusement from this application. But the thing is, I've never had a problem with OTHER people using the application. It's the fact that the one snag that Facebook has neglected to correct or alter on the application is that you can be forced to participate against your will. That is; people can buy you, sell you or make you their pet against your knowledge or willing participation. For awhile, two or three of these notices would show up in my inbox-"So and so has made you THEIR PET!" And your base worth on FFS is contingent upon how many times you are bought for higher and higher prices by other people.

Now, let me tell you the gut reaction I had to being bought by people on Facebook, especially people who I didn't know or people that I have adverse reactions to in the real world, was horror and disgust. Being 'owned' even in an electronic sense is akin to being their plaything. Something I'm not really interested in. Whomever buys you can give you a new (sometimes derogatory or negative) nickname. Personally, the lack of freedom bothers me the most about this application. Every day, people are being bought and sold on Facebook-without their consent. Even AFTER they have removed the application. I have tried, unsuccesfully, to get people not to purchase me; to the point of writing incendiary notes on their walls.

Maybe I should just take it easy, you think.
But there is nothing more in this world that makes me more upset than lack of choice.
The feeling of being helpless.
The feeling of being dominated.
No free-will.
Without which,
I am no longer a human being.

My friendship comes easy.
But you will never own me.