Trask Avenue

I joined Facebook in 2008. Like most neophytes I found it pretty alluring. Reconnect with long lost friends! Play free games! Announce my “status” to the world! Discover which superhero I was just by answering a few questions! It was intoxicating, especially to a social media virgin. (Full disclosure: I briefly boarded the clunky My Space train years earlier, but quickly hopped off at the first exit. Who is Tom and why is he already my friend?)

As the newness luster dulled and the rose tint faded from my eyes it became clear what a time suck Facebook could be. Thus began a deliberate, if protracted, withdrawal. The amount of time I spent on the Zuckerberg monster started to drop and here we sit 3+ years later. Facebook is now simply another site which I visit occasionally, mostly to wish “Happy Birthday” to a friend, post photos, or provide links to my blog ramblings. Sometimes I’ll share other stuff I find interesting, but by and large my infatuation has scattered in the wind.

When I reflect on the path of my Facebook journey it occurrs to me how overrated I now consider the whole deal. I know what you’re thinking: 500,000,000 members can’t be wrong. But guess what. Simply because someone uses something doesn’t mean they think it’s all that and a pouch of gold nuggets. I know lots of folks who use Facebook far less than I do. I also know people who never joined and harbor no plans to do so in the near future, the lovely Ms. Trask among them. Still, 500,000,000 is a mighty big number. Even if 50% of those people aren’t all that infatuated with Facebook (and I believe the actual percentage of “The Disinterested” is lower) multitudes still love it. That qualifies it for “overrated” consideration.

This aspect is critical to understanding something’s potential to be overrated. Without a certain omnipresent adoration to begin with, how can it be overrated? You can’t say Detroit is overrated; most people don’t think too highly of it in the first place. The same goes for escargot or Mr. Bean. At least Facebook has a substantial number of rabid followers. And it is ridiculously omnipresent. Don’t misunderstand. Being overrated doesn’t mean it isn’t good. It means it’s tough to fathom how it can possibly be as good as the general consensus seems to believe. At least in your mind.

What else is overrated? What else is widely loved, but mysteriously thought of as being brilliant or amazing or awesome? Here are five things (including Facebook) which I find particularly overrated. They are presented in alphabetical order as not to weigh the overratedness of one against another.

– Facebook
– Fashion
– Jackson Pollock’s art
– Madonna
– Religion

I’m sure with deliberative thought I could come up with stuff I find even more overrated. But the holidays are here and time is short!

Let’s toss it back into your court. What about you? What five things are on your overrated list?