The Facebook Diet by Gemini Adams promises to highlight all the hilarious and strange things in the world of Facebook. I was excited to read this because Facebook’s ability to connect distant friends has brought so many odd and amusing moments to my life. A cosplaying college friend recently posted photos from a con, with — unknown to her — one of my writing friends signing books at his booth in the background behind her. A few months ago, I posted about hurting my back, and got immediate responses from an ex-pat buddy now in Thailand, an old boyfriend’s new girlfriend, and a guy I worked with on a magazine that folded three years ago, all consoling me with how they sustained similar injuries but made full recoveries. Facebook connections offer endless potential for funny, odd and warm moments in my own life, and I admit to laughing at tales of Facebook gone disasterously wrong, too. Dumb criminals caught by posting photos of their loot, sick-day employees accidentally checking in from the beach, and the hilariously stupid posts on Failbook.

Facebook Diet Book
The Facebook Diet
The Humor of Facebook in The Facebook Diet
But the bulk of The Facebook Diet is 50 cartoons about how you might know you’re a Facebook addict. I really wanted to laugh, but I found myself cringing at the punchlines about literally writing on a friend’s wall or literally poking people. Those were amusing about eight or ten years ago, when one might conceivably speak to someone who believed writing on someone’s wall meant graffiti. Also, are people still poking on Facebook? Is that a thing? Some of the fifty jokes are the type of filler that could apply to pretty much any hobby. Your friends think you should go to a Facebook addicts support group! and Your romantic partner wishes you’d spend more time with them! are the same jokes made about hardcore videogamers, and before that, golf widows and fishing widows. I was sad to see that most of the humor hinged how much time those Facebook addicts waste socializing at the screen, instead of genuinely amusing moments that can only occur on Facebook. (Spotify sharing that guilty-pleasure mix with everyone you know, for example.)

Reading through the intro and the jokes, I couldn’t tell if the book is meant to be a light-hearted giggle on how everyone’s addicted to Facebook these days, and we’re meant to all recognize ourselves and our own habits in the cartoons, or if it’s meant to be denouncing kids today and their pointless internet socializing and how much better offline, “real” interactions would be. Either way, there’s unfortunately not a lot to relate to in the comics or jokes.

Overall, the book lacks a deep understanding of Facebook, either as software or as a social construction. Facebook is described as “the domain for friendly fire. The most damage you can do is “poke” someone (or post a really unflattering picture of them!)”.

Really? That’s the most damage that can be done by Facebooking? I suppose the author hasn’t seen anything in the news about anyone losing their job, getting arrested, or splitting up because of thoughtless Facebook updating, and lacks enough knowledge of Facebook to imagine how updates, check-ins and photos could contribute to any of those events. Effects of the Chinese human flesh search engine (人肉) show clearly the dark consequences of social media, and it’s not just a photo from bad angle.

I am a self-proclaimed Facebook addict. I feel like I'm always checking Facebook for something, no matter what time of day or night. I use it for my business, and my couponing, which is my main hobby. Therefore, I'm on it for about eight or nine hours a day most days. Recently I found a book filled with a collection of comics called The Facebook Diet, and thought it looked like something I would identify with. I loved it. It was absolutely hysterical.

Not only was The Facebook Diet hilarious, it was relatable too. There were several times when I was reading where I thought "That is totally me", or "Hey, I do that a lot too". The most relatable comic for me was the one where someone was logging into Facebook just to check it, and they look up and find out that five hours have passed. I feel like I do that all the time. Facebook can be a gigantic time suck.

I also found the comics themselves to be a great source of enjoyment. All of them were well drawn, which made the captions even more relatable. They also had me falling over laughing about ninety-nine percent of the time. As a forewarning though, some of the comics did contain nudity, which I found surprising. The book was definitely not as kid friendly as I thought it was going to be.

I loved everything about The Facebook Diet. The comics were hilarious, and oh so relatable! Whether it's a good thing or not that they're relatable, I don't know. It definitely says a lot about me. The only thing that the book could have done better is that I wish it had some sort of adults only, or inappropriate content inside label. Otherwise, I thought it was amazing. I recommend this collection of comics to adults with F.A.D. (Facebook Addiction Disorder).

Funny little book that could be given to thosecwho are addicted to Facebook, or any other social media as its a sad fact of life that peopke spend too much time posting statuses instead of enjoying life.

Great cartoons, made me smile.