I was finally convinced to sign up for a Facebook account awhile back after multiple friends had sent me emails promising contact with them if only I would give in. I joined and found a bunch of people I knew and people I had lost contact with. I was amazed. Old friendships were renewed. It was great.
But in retrospect, I think it was more of a two-week crush than true love. I am pretty much an open book but I found myself asking if people needed to know what I was doing all the time. And then the realization if someone tagged me in a picture or a video that anyone they were friends with (and who I may not know) could see it. And I'm not really sure why it bothers me. Hey, I have a blog and even though it isn't publicly listed, anyone can link to it. But somehow Facebook is different to me. (Illogical? Perhaps.)
But with FB, I can join causes and feel like I'm doing something when I am really doing nothing. This totally goes with my lazy desire to appear to be doing something when I am really not producing much.
But how do I know when to leave a cause? Is it time yet for me to leave the "John McCain for President" group? And really, how do I have time to ponder these things? I should use the time to write my congresspeople to oppose the stimulus. (Oh, too late.)
Then there were the "friends" requests from people I had never met or even more strange, from people who had never liked me and made my life rather difficult at times. I rejoiced at finding old acquaintances and then later remembered that there were some good reasons that I had lost contact with some old friends and that sometimes the past is better left in the past.
I've had an ongoing internal debate as to whether or not to close my account. But there is one old friend from my freshman year that I really would like to find and a couple of friends from my time in England (and England isn't quite as taken with FB yet) I would like to say "cheers" to. And now it turns out that even if I close my account I've already technologically lost my Facebook virginity and they will forever keep my account information. (Read here.)
I'm not sure I want to be in this relationship but I am not yet determined to leave. Arms-length? A little less personal? For now, I check it less and less often. But who knows? One day I may disappear from FB land forever. Unless you work for Facebook. I guess I should have left before February 4.
5 comments:
Pretty much the same here. I still check in every day or so, but am increasingly wondering how much "in touch" it is when all you do is exchange trivial sentences throughout the day. If you don't play the games or send/accept the gifts, and Ignore most of the groups, then you're not left with a whole lot else to do.
I do like how easy it is to send messages via facebook. I won't be closing my account. But it's blogging that has my heart.
-- SJ
Just a bit o news - Facebook looks like they've backed down on some of the privacy issues, but just some.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,495305,00.html
SJ, sounds like Twitter might accomplish a big part of what you use Facebook to do. Yet another technical geegaw to follow, and if you think Facebook status messages are trivial, just wait until you start reading Twitter messages!!!
I have a Reader feed to keep up on friends' status messages, and the notes to me and replies to my messages are sent to my email, so anymore I don't log on except to write messages.
I'm with you. I only check it about once a month to look at photos people have uploaded. There are a handful of friends I'd like to keep in touch with who will never blog. So I take what I can and enjoy it for what it is.
I am glad to know that some of the younger generation aren't all that into Facebook etc. I want to keep my real friends close and personal, not out there where anyone can look. R's blog is the exception cuz I get to see pics of the kids and "listen" to R who is such a great writer.
Judy
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