Is Facebook a Place for Discussion?

I love Facebook. 

I mean, I love Facebook.  I love that I have been able to reconnect with old friends.  I love that I get to see everyone's pictures.  I love that I can see what my friends and family are doing just by logging on to this one site.  I think it is such a fantastic idea. 

Yes, I could live without all of the Farmville, Mafia Wars, "Who's Following You?" posts but for the most part, I can't think of anything I don't like about Facebook.

Except . . .

When someone's post or update starts some kind of all-out tongue-lashing.  I got into one of these yesterday and I still don't know how it happened.  I read the status of one of my friends and made one simple comment.  Others commented on it, as well, and I happened to agree with a couple of points of another reader so I "liked" her comment.  All of a sudden, I was on the receiving end of an AT4 litany of why I was wrong, why I was "holier than thou" and why I shouldn't be giving out advice.  Mind you, this was from a relatively close acquaintance.  As I sat there reading it, I became irate and I responded in kind.  This went back and forth a few times until both of us kind of cooled down and quasi-apologized.

While this little Facebook war was going on, I was telling Scott what happened.  Well, just as much as I love Facebook he hates it.  He thinks that Facebook is only a place for people to whine and complain about their lives or a place to be nosey.  He's told me for years that the problem with e-mail is that you cannot discern someone's tone by the e-mail.  I agree that this is true in e-mail and with comments on FB; however, I could tell by the way this guy was typing to me that he was pretty mad.

I am not one to get into political conversations either in person or on the computer.  I steer away from debating religion except when specifically asked.  I try not to get into any kind of hot topic subjects that will really ignite tempers which is why I'm still confused as to what happened.  I think, though, that since Facebook has replaced a lot of face-to-face communication that people should be able to debate a subject without getting so mad. 

Am I wrong?

BTW, just to let you in on what the subject was.  A pregnant friend of mine stated "Flu shot today:("  One girl before me made the statement that there are two very different schools of thought on flu shots while pregnant.  I then jumped in and said "I didn't get one with any of mine".  That is it.    I didn't go on and on about why you should or should not.  That was my statement.  Now, later on, I did get into with this person but it really ticked them off that I said that I didn't get one.

I'm still perplexed by it today.