Dumb Users Complain About Appalling Changes To A Free Service

 On Wednesday, Facebook announced what they built up to be monumental changes to their service that was supposed to blow my socks off, redefine innovation in social networking, and massively one up the competition. Based on the hype I was seeing, you’d think they’d discovered the cure for cancer.

I was massively disappointed. Course I’m not a Facebook addict like many, so maybe someone out there, other than Mark Zuckerberg, was blown away.

What I found interesting though is the big backlash and steady stream of users bitching about the changes. Were they really that earth shattering that people would feel the need to complain so vehemently? What strikes me as funny about this is the fact that Facebook is……..FREE!!!

Sure everyone is entitled to their opinions, but at the end of the day, if you don’t like it, stop your moaning and take your eyeballs somewhere else. Google would be happy to welcome you with open arms. Heck, take all that time you spend in status land and do something constructive with your time like learning a new online skill that stands to actually RETURN something to you.

All of this reminds me of a post I read on a blog a year or so ago about someone on a plane where they had just fired up their inflight wifi access. They were offering it for free while they worked out the bugs. During the flight, people were livid when the service crashed and Internet access was not available. Yes, livid. Again, a FREE service, that is in beta, and people get pissed when they get inconvenienced.

I guess this serves as a reminder that there are a lot of dumb, lazy people out there. Not dumb in the sense of no smarts, but dumb in the common sense way. There’s not a lot of logic to complaining about a free service. It’s one thing to make suggestions and offer constructive criticism, but complaining because of change is pointless. Those are the same people that will never accomplish their goals and dreams because they have to actually WORK for something. If it doesn’t come easy, or isn’t handed to them, they complain about how tough they have it and how they can’t catch any breaks.

Foster the opposite with the limited amount of time and energy you have each day. Think positively and critically about the challenges you face. One of the things I absolutely LOVE about the Internet is what a level playing field it is. Literally ANYONE can turn nothing into millions. The difference between winners and losers is attitude and some good old fashioned hard work.