Buddhist with aversion to facebook

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I don't know if it's just me or not, but I have the biggest problem with facebook.

I feel it's the anti-practice to the practice of no-self.

Just feels like it's nothing but promotion of a huge ego trip and it actually worries me how it's 'taking over' and so popular.

Am I being too sensitive about this?

I'm Zen Buddhist / atheist and find Facebook similarly pointless. I have an account there, primarily to find out what it was all about, but rarely visit the site. Like you say it just seems largely like ego promotion. Can't say it worries me though, I just find facebook irrelevant and nothing but unimportant fluff.

ah thank you for the reply.

It does seem like pointless fluff until you are asked by most people you meet "Can I find you on facebook?" when the answer is no then it's like a disconnect and seperation as they don't know how to connect without it.

Of course this is not a problem with Sangha members, but I hate to see such a divide between people on the path and people who are not on the path, that's not the point of it all.

Plus I have a teenager in my home so I'm seeing first hand how dangerous it can be, expecially the need to accumulate such high numbers of 'friends' to feel worthy. My daughter is not so bad with this as she's been learning a little from me about egolessness but some of her friends are not so lucky. Two girls we know well, just attempted suicide a couple of months ago and a lot of it was due to inflated ego's getting stamped on in facebook.

I have a facebook account only because I was trying to get in touch with someone that I'd lost contact info for and knew she was on facebook. Can't even remember how to sign on to it anymore, it was really of no interest to me, my quick moment with it seemed like a lot of "look at me" stuff going on. But it does make me sad when I get email notices that people trying to 'freind' me and I don't respond. Hope it isn't causing harm of rejection for them. If I knew how to just delete the account I would.

I also feel that it intereferes with really getting to know others as it's so focused on getting information to such a mass quantity of people, where is the intimacy?

Obvoiusly since I'm here I don't have a problem with using the internet to find and meet people, but this seems more of an avenue to have conversations with a person or a few at a time then what facebook focuses on.

Is this assessment correct or did I not give it enough of a chance?

Like many things in life it's what you make of it.
I have a FB account I mostly use to keep in touch with a family that is spread across the country.
There are some good pages on autism that have been informative.
Also a few brand pages that give promo codes.
Very useful in my current money situation.

There are probably some buddhist pages on there as well.

Could the Buddhists elaborate on the teachings of no-self and Sangha, and how facebook contradicts these teachings? Sounds interesting.

There is nothing inherently anti-practice about facebook. It is possible to promote or solidify your own ego in face to face communication, by phone, or letter or any other medium. Approach it with mindfulness as you would anything else. It can be used to connect positively with others and promote and teach Buddhist values. Use your aversion as material to be examined to glean insight.

Like it's been said, if you think only about the amount of "friends" you have, this is mostly what you'll notice. I hardly ever look at the "friends" column and would hide it altogether if I could. I for one just feel content with chiming it to whatever I feel is interesting or relevant to my interests.