Facebook or Facade-book? Are we Really Being Ourselves?

Facebook simply amazes me every time I tap that little blue app. It's a site that subconsciously caters to total and utter pretense. The majority of posts are so sickening sweet, full of carefully selected words making for prim and proper status updates, plastered photos depicting picture-perfect families and leaving comments that make me wanna puke. Given that it's the most popular social networking site on the web, one would think people would be more realistic and give the gritty details of their life, whether it be positive or negative, but the spin is always the same- favorable for the majority at the cost of losing individuality. In other words, you're only going to get broad and general (i.e., common public knowledge) information.

So the problem I have with Facebook is the fact that we can't actually post what we really want. For example, when I get ticked about something that happened at work or when someone just really pissed me off, anything I may post on Facebook gets a "sugar coat". This is mostly because when you're a social worker, you're supposed to be all this love and rainbows and "it's gonna be okay- focus on your strengths to get past this" type of person. People tend to perceive you not having any feelings of your own because it's all about helping others when they're pissed off. Another reason is my career, and I have to portray a professional demeanor to the public for the sake of my position, which I may add is perfectly okay because I should behaving ethically in order to preserve my integrity to others. If people see me going berserk on a status update, what kind snowball effect could it possibly have? My family is yet another cause for holding back on Facebook- I don't want to embarrass the kids too much, you know. I mean, I'm already not allowed to post any pictures of my kids or they'll disown me (sometimes I sneak and put pics on there without tagging them and get by for a couple minutes before they start yelling!)

And here's the beef: I would like to thoroughly curse and complain to the world through the greatest social medium available- Facebook. Especially at that exact moment something makes me mad. Of course, there are a handful that post whatever strikes their fancy and don't give a crap what anyone thinks. And ironically, they are usually the people that also annoy the shit of out me (probably because I'm insanely jealous of their bluntness and most likely don't face the same consequences of their actions as I do). However, if I wander over to Tumblr or Twitter for example, I feel much more freedom in presenting myself how I want- a ranting and raving wild woman who cusses like a sailor when I'm angry, and an optimistic, ecstatic wife and mother when I'm happy. When did Facebook compile a list of site rules spelling out what we should and shouldn't say? It's as if there's an unwritten code of etiquette, and where the hell did it come from? Seems most people follow it, but I know without a shadow of a doubt some of my friends would definitely be more rude and obnoxious if they felt compelled to be, and all the while we're screaming, "'Why are you holding back? give us the dirt!" Why do we have to be goody-two-shoes and carefully select each word we write? I suppose I suffer from extreme cognitive dissonance when it comes to representing myself on the site and feel compelled to speak the Facebook code when I post things that make me mad. For example, if someone just cut in front of me in line, I'll post to Facebook something like, "It's so rude when people cut you off", and what I really want to say is, "I'd like to cut that freaking beotch's head off in front of me!" Frustrating as it is, Facebook to me is nothing more than a news feed full of passive-aggressive posts that are boring most of the time. Unless of course you have that handful of friends that tell it like it is!