Today I did the following:
[ul]
[li]wished two friends Happy Birthday[/li][li]posted some pictures from a mountain bike ride (got several nice comments)[/li][li]updated my running log[/li][li]chatted with a friend in DC[/li][li]commented on a friend’s ski trip report[/li][li]caught up on some hiking trip reports [/li][li]shared Solstice greetings with several friends[/li][li]looked at some new photos of my nephew[/li][li]watched a video of Elvis Costello singing “A Monster went and ate my Red 2”[/li][li]updated the page for a committee I organize[/li][li]congratulated a friend who ran a race last weekend[/li][li]committed to attend a holiday get together[/li][li]posted a video of a dog that retrieves the tee after kickoff at Boise St[/li][/ul]
I find that it is much better than traditional E-mail or telephone for keeping up with large numbers of friends, relatives, and acquaintances on a casual basis. In fact, I now find it annoying if a friend refuses to create or check in to a Facebook account. I use other methods of communication only for time-sensitive issues, or if I really have a lot of time to kick back and have a long, relaxed conversation.
I still get annoyed though, when I find out about something big—like the impending fatherhood and engagement (in that order) of one of my oldest friends—through Facebook instead of through a direct person-to-person form of communication. This actually just happened to me in the last few weeks.
Don’t have one and never will. It is virtually suicidal to use your real name on the Internet for any reason.
It’s a wonder any of us are still breathing.
It took me a long time to sign up for one and there’s lots I don’t do on it. I only keep it for a segment of friends who are friends in mainly one aspect of my life. Facebook makes it easier to keep up with this widely-scattered lot. I have found it much more enjoyable than I thought I would.
That said, I don’t play games on it or endorse products or shops or connect with relatives or co-workers. I think it would be less fun if I did not have a smart phone to waste perfectly good office time with. I try not to spend much time on it at home. In fact, I spend more time on the Straight Dope than I do on Facebook. Different crowd. Lots of fun. If I had to give up one or the other, I’d give up Facebook.
I have one. I read my wall every day. I post three or four times a week.
I also link to articles, once a week to once a day.
I avoided using FB for a long time–microblogging about what I’m eating just doesn’t appeal to me.
However, when I hit upon using it to share articles, Youtube videos and general links, it suddenly became interesting. It’s a way for me to blog about things that interest me without needing to write 300 words of accompanying text on a blog.
FB doesn’t need to be about the mundane details of your life–I update with major life events, but 90% of what I post is sharing content.
Also, filter your feed. 90% of my “friends” don’t make it to my feed since I filtered-out their inanities. Much, much better.
When I first got on I was moderately active but lately I haven’t been very active lately. Now I use it exclusively for genealogical purposes.
What’s a wall?
What’s a feed?
If you have a Facebook account and you’ve used it, you’d have to willfully not want to know what these things are. The wall and the feed are the most basic features of Facebook. The feed is the list of status updates and other things that you see as soon as you sign on. The wall is where people can post public messages for you—like a bulletin board on your bedroom door.
I check my facebook several times a day. Luckily I seem to have surrounded myself with intelligent, humorous people who keep the spam/glurge to a minimum (much like here). It’s a fun way to share funny/strange/maddening links/memes/videos, etc.
Though I confess I spend most of my time on Tumblr. God, what a time-sucker!
If you care about the people involved, then status updates can indeed be interesting. Especially when as well as the dross about “Tried 2 fry a egg lol” they are things like “Because of unscrupulous vets pumping dogs full of drugs to disguise their health, my puppy died this morning”, witty comments, interesting political commentary, links to fascinating articles, interesting or funny videos, “I just got engaged!!!”, “Jessica was born this morning, 7 lbs 3 oz, mother and baby both doing well”, “Happy birthday Mikey”, shots of holidays, parties, etc. etc.
All of the above are things that I would ordinarily discuss with my friends were I in the same room as them. As it is, technology has given me an outlet that allows these things to be shared without proximity - particularly helpful to me as I have an international group of friends.
Yeah there’s a ton of shit too. I’ve “unsubscribed” from the feed of the more trivial people and blocked updates from pretty much all games and applications. I get an insight into my friends’ lives, and I appreciate it.
ETA: my gripe is that I only want email notifications about new FB messages, but there doesn’t seem to be anywhere to turn this on.
Oh dear…I suppose I’m overdue then for the meteor strike, or the…wait, how does it kill you, exactly?
I love facebook. I keep in much better touch with many old friends, and have made several really awesome new ones. On that note, I’m not at all adverse to friending people based on common interests, like, for instance, a message board I frequent. Feel free to friend me, if you like.
https://www.facebook.com/messages/?action=read&tid=L8iRgIG%2FFBEOOoDY1iFE%2Bw#!/ileen.verble
I have several, for different connections (Steampunk, boat people, “real name” for family and schoolmates, on-line business). Use at least one of them every day.
Mine does that - it just did it yesterday, in fact.
I use Facebook all the time - several times a day. I read other people’s status updates, look at their pictures, and generally keep in touch. I’ve never been a phone guy and it would be a massive pain in the ass to try and keep in contact with as many people as I can just using FB.
Another function I used it for - early this year, I took a tour in a foreign company. Prior to that, I managed to find a group set up on FB for my specific tour. In that group, I spent a few weeks before the trip comparing notes, discussing plans, and sharing tips with the people that I would be traveling with for two weeks. As a result, I got off the plane and already knew two of the three people on my shuttle to the hotel. When we got to the hotel, we ran into three more people that we recognized from FB and we all had an instant rapport from having socialized online for a few weeks before the trip. I was going alone on this trip and it was great to have an idea of who I would be meeting once I got there, plus we coordinated various activities outside of the tour on our free time (i.e. museums, tours, etc) so we wouldn’t have to do those things alone all the time.
That’s about it really. See my post #32. If you were really into passing around scribbled notes of nonsense underneath desks back in the 4th grade then Facebook is the place for you.
I joined a few years ago, and use it multiple times a day; Home and campus computers and my phone. It’s a very handy way for this total introvert to maintain a semblance of contact with people, including “networking” which is something I never did before. My mom knows I’m alive, friends can see from my posts whether I’m busy or free. It makes planning things with friends much easier. It reminds me of social things (oh, crap, it’s my mom’s birthday later this week!), serves as an alternative phone book (phones with the FB app can call friends if they list their phone number). I’ve gotten back in contact with friends who I’d lost contact with over the years.
I’ve never really had an issue with the whole “oh, people post stupid stuff and I have to read it” thing; it’s remarkably easy to block whole categories of posts (haven’t seen a single post for a game in ages, and I stomped on Yahoo News, Rhapsody, and Spotify posts (‘Jessica H. just listened to “Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi on Rhapsody!’) when they began to show up in my feed. Acquaintances who post inane crap and copypasta simply get unsubscribed, or demoted to “only important updates”, passive-aggressive and negative people not only get unsubscribed, but blocked from seeing posts, while friends who are important get bumped up to “all updates” or even included in a “close friends” list. My feed is tweaked pretty well, and I really only see what I want to see. (As to why I keep the blocked/etc. people on as friends? Sometimes there are still things that I’d like to share with them, so I can selectively allow them to see some things, or whatever.)
The face that I present on there is also pretty well worked out. I’ve got it set so that people can’t tag me in photos, and I can selectively allow or disallow people to see posts, notes, and pictures. I don’t put anything incriminating on there to begin with, but it’s still nice to be able to separate content out-- I know my ultra-religious family won’t appreciate some of the things I post, for example.
It’s only “stupid fucking status updates” if you have only stupid fucking Facebook friends.
My friends tend to post links to interesting news items, articles, videos, essays, say things that are on their mind. It’s not entirely unlike the things they might say if they were actually in my presence.
A lot of my friends are also fairly witty and have interesting experiences.
Facebook actually serves as a key source of news of current events for me, because my friends tend to link to the kind of news that interests me.
The people who bore me with glurge, right-wing rants, god-bothering, endless blathering about their children and other things that don’t interest me get hidden and I don’t have to see them.
I have one Facebook account and use it often. I don’t play (many) Facebook games, I’ve got a little over 200 friends, and I mostly just communicate with them via posting, statuses, chat, etc. It’s a good way to keep in touch with people since I’ve got friends in such far away places such as Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Australia, as well as the ones who live in my country.
And as I said before, I find Facebook a lot more convenient than E-mail. No small reason being that only people who are already on my list get to send me messages.
And it collects messaging, chatting, linking, and other kinds of communication all in one place, in a manner that is more convenient than E-mail or telephone calls.