Basketball On The Internet.

I AM starting to have my reservations about the long-term validity of Facebook, or maybe I'm just getting old.

If this is peculiar to me, then write me off as another old RFR (Ready For Retirement) cynic but lately, every time I go to FB this is what I seem to see:

1) Some teenager I know/knew engaging us all with daily new photos of herself at this party, that pub or this nightclub.

Love the "blue steel'' expression or the kissy-kissy or the hand-on-hip "I'm so close to being a super-model'' shots.

Yes, you are now in full bloom sweetie ... but get over yourself. A hundred such pics is enough.

2) The person/people who feel the need to share every thought that crosses their mind. Is FB the equivalent of an imaginary friend?

3) Pages I must "Like''. Really?

4) Footy fans who seize this time of year to scat on fans of rival or just-beaten teams.

(And the follow-up predictable reaction and subsequent degenerating comments).

5) People who must show how adult they are by swearing on their status updates which then make it to my news feed. Why?

6) People who Like their own statuses or Comments.

7) Pictures of meals? Um, OK.

8) Approval-seeking status updates, unfortunately usually from attractive women. You know the type. "I guess I'm too old to wear this anymore?'' followed by comments from a dozen different men saying: "Oh hell no. You look great'' which, just in case you didn't realise, actually are just variations of "Gee I'd like to shag you''.

9) Let's not forget the folk who want to play out their personal dramas in the public eye. I don't know that watching a meltdown is my idea of maintaining contact with people I know/care for/want to know/ or like.

(But then, the only reality TV I've ever watched all the way through is Tough Enough with Stone Cold Steve Austin so I'm probably just out of step with the world on this one anyway.)

10) The people who over-react in the extreme to a fairly tame remark. E.g. A friend I know and like had the audacity, the temerity, the very nerve to query during the awful free-to-air Olympics coverage how many people were truly intrigued by equestrian, suggesting perhaps that its coverage was inordinate to its degree of mainstream interest.

Fair enough, I would have thought.

But wow. He copped the most incredibly rude, opinionated and relentless attack from some young girl who clearly adores the sport, before she then cut him out of her friends and blocked him!

Is this what Facebook has become?

Or am I just missing the point?