With over 300 million members in 180 countries, Facebook is easily the most popular social networking site in the world. But some people are sick and tired of hearing about the astronomical number of active users or about the average number of friends for each user. And so, on a lark, they have established Facebook parody sites.
What is a facebook parody site? While there is no accepted definition, most parody sites poke fun at the facile, superficial online friendships that have helped to build Facebook. To accomplish this, sites like Snubster, Hatebook and Enemybook ask you to list all of the people you hate, rather than those you like.
As you might expect, they are not in it for the money, since few advertisers would sponsor sites that lampoon Facebook. Still, they do have a somewhat serious point to make. After all, when you learn that the average Facebook member has over 130 friends, you understand how ridiculous the term friend is when used on the site. And because it is ridiculous, Facebook is a prime target for ridicule.
Of course, it is not only the site that Facebook parody sites are poking fun at, it is also the members. Members who inexplicably define their status on the site by the number of friends they have acquired.
How popular are these parody sites? The answer is not very. Most of them only have a few thousand users and they are not nearly as active as the Facebook acolytes. In fact, many of them compile their enemy lists as a joke and never visit the sites again. But even so, parody sites have something to say about the triviality of virtual relationships.
