There’s so many things I hate about Facebook. I think we all despise it in some way. The lack of privacy, the endless inane drivel, the social politics… the list goes on.

I stick with it though, but why?

Half of me feels forced. It would be foolish to exclude myself completely from this big player in the social networking scene, at least for now. The other half sticks around because I wouldn’t want to miss the few pieces of absolute gold found somewhere amongst the dirt. Scrolling past the selfies, food porn and cryptic status updates begging for attention, I stumbled upon the two best Facebook pages I follow.

1. Humans of New York – Posts that include a photograph of a person and a caption. That’s all there is to it. The person will be snapped in New York, mainly in the street going about their daily business, and the caption will be a quote from the person. It is beautiful, and so well put together that every post is intriguing and thought-provoking in a way that I never thought possible. People are wonderful things, mostly, and they all have their own stories, opinions, beliefs, issues, heartache and love. Take a look. I promise you won’t be disappointed. (Full website here).
2. I f***ing love science – or the more child/work-friendly Science Is Awesome. I want to read at least 90% of the things posted on this page. It’s the fun and interesting side to science; new discoveries, amazing facts, microscopy images, animations of the way things in the universe work. It’s just a great collection of things. (Full website here).

It’s worth staying just for the exposure to these delights (of course, StumbleUpon is much better at this…). Do you have a favourite Facebook page that never fails to brighten your day?

Note: Since writing this, the IFLS page seems to have somewhat lost it's way. Posts are not as interesting as they once were, and no longer on my most recommended list. However, HoNY has only gone from strength to strength! Still massively recommend that one...