Know your frenemy

Ever had one of those friends that, you're friends with them, but man, they make you mad! Well, if you're on Facebook, it turns out that it's a more common complaint than you might expect.A recent survey conducted by Eversave has revealed that 85% of women on Facebook are actively annoyed by their Facebook friends on a regular basis.

More than 400 women were interviewed for the survey and asked how social networking sites like Facebook influence their shopping decisions. In addition to the consumer oriented questions, the women were also asked about interpersonal details and the results were surprising.

For example, despite the fact that 39% of the respondents characterised themselves as Facebook 'addicts', the majority still, paradoxically, finds the people they actually interact with on Facebook, annoying. Specifically, the biggest complaint is that their Facebook friends complain all the time (63% said that this annoys them).

Another 42% said that the sharing of unsolicited political views annoyed them, with a further 32% saying that it annoyed them when their friends bragged about their "seemingly perfect lives". And the annoyance continues.

• 65% say they are annoyed by friends who document their every move with status updates
• 61% said they are annoyed by Facebook drama queens, who act like everything in their lives is a crisis
• 57% are annoyed by overly proud parents who obsessively post details about their children.
• 46% say that they are annoyed by people who 'like' every post
• 40 percent complained about those who post activist copy pasta, urging others to copy and paste sentimental status updates about charitable causes

A LEAF OUT OF YOUR FACEBOOKIt seems like the perfect marriage of vanity and...well, more vanity.

The narcissistic world of social networking meets the even more narcissistic world of self-publishing thanks to the latest way trend of publishing tools that allow you to access your Facebook content, and sometimes, turn it into and real-life bound coffee-table book. So if you think that those status updates are just too darn good to let slip into the digital ether, there are now several ways to commit your Facebook account to a printed format – and it's not actually as expensive as you may expect.

NINUKU ARCHIVIST

If you're not quite ready to take the plunge into hardcopy, but wouldn't mind seeing what all that Facebook action looks like when it's collected together, you can try www.ninuku.com It allows you to make a PDF copy of the posts on your wall, which you can download to your hard drive and save for posterity. Unfortunately, Ninuku Archivist is not free; you can get three sample chapters free of charge, but for the whole shebang you're looking at $US24 per year. (Don't forget you can do something similar to what Ninuku Archivist does for zero dollars by using Facebook's 'Download Your Information' options – a better option in our opinion. For details see the January 2011 issue of NetGuide).

BOOK OF FAME

BookofFame (www.bookoffame.net) does not print off your entire Facebook history or fill up an entire book with your Facebook updates. Rather it creates a scrapbook-type product with almost blank pages, that you can use as a scrap book, diary or journal. At the bottom of every page you'll find a status update with a time stamp next to it, just like you'd expect in a novelty calendar, except this, the subject is you. It's available in 200 or 320 page options, depending on whether you'd prefer a hard or soft cover product. Prices vary.

SHUTTERFLY

Shutterfly is a standard photographic printing company, but they have options for interacting with Facebook, making their services attractive to those who would rather focus just on their pictures (www.shutterfly.com/create-facebook-photobook). It lets you choose between multiple layouts, plus you can add captions to photos. You can include both your own photos and photos of your friends that you're tagged in too, but you'll need to have a minimum of 20 pictures. Prices start at $US12.99.

EGOBOOK

Egobook is an app that allows you to create a printed version of your Facebook account, including all of your Facebook activity – status updates, pictures and comments – and then turn that content into a coffee table book. This option also creates a mosaic of your Facebook friends and makes a list of your top twenty Facebook contributors. It's available in both English and French and prices start from $US22.45. (apps.facebook.com/my-egobook)

YEARLYLEAF

While the details for Yearly Leaf are a little bit sketchy (the product is yet-to-be-launched) it looks set to be the Rolls Royce option of Facebook printing, coming with a moleskin cover and including all the details from a year on Facebook, including status updates, wallposts and pictures. To keep up to date with the project's status, visit yearlyleaf.com