Jumping the shark

I’ve been on Facebook since January 8, 2009, originally joining so I could “friend” my younger daughter in order to see the pictures she posted. Neither my wife nor older daughter are on Facebook, but almost everyone else I know is. As a result of the recent 50th anniversary of my graduation from grammar school (yes, I am an older American), several of my classmates from those early days have connected with me on Facebook. Some post pictures of food, their travels, the games they play or their hobbies. We ‘baby boomers” don’t all retire to “God’s waiting room.” Indeed, one of my female former classmates moved back from Florida to New Jersey to be closer to her grandchildren. It’s that woman who has convinced me that Facebook has jumped the shark. She recently started a business selling jewelry and now her Facebook posts are nothing more than ads for her business. It’s one thing for advertisers to bombard you with requests to buy their products; it’s quite another when your friends do so, too. A number of years ago, when one of my daughters became friendly with one of her grade school classmates, we invited that child’s parents to our home for a summer barbecue. To my dismay, those parents used the occasion to push an Amway agenda on us. That was the last time we socialized with that family. Now it may be time to “de-friend” my grammar school classmate who is using Facebook to sell jewelry. And I probably won’t wait until Jimmy Kimmel’s National De-Friend Day in November to do it.