What about Facebook?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

Intro
An old friend who I haven’t seen too much lately invited me to join Facebook as his friend (or however you’re supposed to describe the procedure).

It’s a really great guy, and the facebook thing seems ok.

But… We allready have the possibility to phone each other, send sms, write letters (god forbid!), e-mails, use Messenger, etc… - Isn’t this just another way of communicating… howbeit with a twist…

Question
What’s your impression, experience with Facebook…? Here to stay? Good to have, or just another light weight communication toy for the superficial age information technology?

PS
I created a profile etc, happily, and sent invitations to a couple of friends, etc, but while doing so I began to wonder…

#2

I use facebook to organize with an organization that has no office. That’s why I got into it. It’s tools are generally quite useful for that, it helps a number of us work together when we don’t see or even speak regularly. I’ve had a myspace page for years, but because I never really tapped its organizational potential, it was mainly a frivolity that I ignored for months at a time.

As for the question about whether it’s here to stay, definitely. It’s a major tool of people who graduated from college after its inception, and is used as a networking tool for business by that generation. I read an interesting paper not too long ago about the socioeconomic classes that used facebook vs myspace, as facebook was started as a thing for college kids, and myspace was just anyone could join.

#3

Thank you, mswas. I never heard of Facebook before, but reading your post and then the Wiki article, the networking idea and so forth actually seems interesting. Also, as a tool for organizing a group working together like an association is really smart. Hm, I kinda like this…

#4

I’ve been on Facebook for awhile, though it’s only recently I’ve been doing anything with it. It got me in touch with a couple of old friends, so that was nice. There’s even a Straight Dope group, though it isn’t very active.

#5

I am officially addicted to facebook - I have been able to track down old friends and chat.

It’s great for that, anyway :slight_smile:

#6

This really isn’t Cafe Society material, so off to IMHO it goes.

#7

Ah-ha.

Joined.

Well, it wasn’t like loading the dishwasher and folding the laundry was all that compelling.

I don’t quite “get” Facebook yet, but I poke around it occasionally. There is no Victoria, BC network, which is rather irksome.

#8

Make sure to join the SDMB Facebook group - Straight Dopers!

#9

I have a Facebook account and have a few people from school on it, but I don’t use it for much and mostly find it annoying. I get “friend requests” that are obvious spam several times a month, for example.

#10

I dunno about here to say. Along with MySpace, it’ll probably be around in some form for many more years, but probably not as populated as it is now.

It has helped me connect with a few friends from the past, plus it allows me to keep tabs on where some people are at who I would otherwise lose touch with completely. Not really necessary info, but nice to have IMHO.

Really? I’ve heard of that on MySpace, but not Facebook. I suppose it was inevitable since they stopped limiting registration to those with university email accounts.

Then again, it could be a number of other things. Maybe someone random finds your picture attractive and wants to get to know you in a vaguely creepy way.

I have a Facebook alias that I created as an inside joke with a friend of mine. One day, I decided to friend a bunch of strangers for fun. Now Gheorghe Muresan (go ahead, request to be his friend, you know you want to) has somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 friends. He’s even married.

Just sayin…it might not be spam.

#11

I too am surprised by the notion of spam friend requests. It’s more likely that they’re someone you know from some time ago, and have completely forgotten - I’ve had several of those.
To the OP - I’m a regular user. Many family members, both close and extended, are on there. I regularly use it to keep in touch with friends who I used to contact on Myspace, or on MSN, or by email, or by phone, or by carrier pigeon. So I’m sure in that respect something else will come along at some point. And yes, I’ve reacquainted with a few people with whom I’d lost touch.

The basic ways in which it functions makes it suitable for a large number of people to use, in various ways, from the addict/toy use through to occassional messages. There’s a good balance between privacy and openness which works well for most people. The system of tagging photos is another which makes it a step up from using Myspace, or Photobucket, or whatever.

#12

It looks like there are two Straight Dope Groups: The Straight Dope and Straight Dopers. Let the war for Facebook Supremacy begin!

I haven’t gotten any spamming on Facebook – some names I don’t recognize, but one was an old high school friend who was using her married name of Facebook, and the others are students who see I’m associated with the college and ask me to join.

#13

No, it will be like some pretty girl I’ve never heard of, and when you go to her profile to see who they are, the text in their profile is like “WIN A CARIBBEAN CRUISE! IT’S EASY! HERE’S HOW!” etc. It’s definitely not an actual person looking to meet someone.

#14

It’s funny that I just saw this thread, five minutes after deactivating my facebook account.

I hated it.

I was cajoled into joining by someone who had started a couple of groups. Then, every day I would receive notification that there were messages waiting. Instead of getting the messages, I got notified that there were messages, so I was supposed to go read the messages. All of the messages ended up being things exhorting me to do fun fun fun things with the group that I only joined because I was guilted into it.

I have no idea whatsoever what any of it is about. Everything is a jumble. Why am I supposed to care if so-and-so just put a somethingwall on his page? What does that mean?

I’m feeling cross and curmudgeonly, so this is hardly an objective critique of the site.

#15

I finally bit the bullet and joined after a friend sent me a request to join yesterday, I am utterly addicted to it now, I feel live I’ve been living in a cave for the last 4 years and finally went out into the sun.

#16

I like Facebook because it lets me keep in touch with real-life friends (which is why I won’t join a SDMB group, I like my online life seperate and anonymous from my real life). Plus, I like the clean interface (no convulsion inducing pages like on MySpace) and it’s great for sharing photos since you can tag your friends and they’re automatically updated.

The cons are that most of the users are currently college and high school kids and a lot of people my age are still stuck on MySpace. Plus, they’ve starting adding all these third-party applications which mgiht have the potentional to make Facebook as obnoxious as MySpace.

#17

Dude, your con is my pro. This is mostly how my friends announce parties and stuff now. I like it, but the new applications may ruin it. Not that I don’t have a few. (I held out as long as I could!! But I like the map of where I’ve traveled and the grow-a-gifts)

#18

YMMV, and I don’t know what your age is :slight_smile: , but most people I knew who were using Myspace (early 20s through 30s) have entirely switched over to Facebook now.

Nope, especially as you can turn off all email notifications (as I have done).

#19

Oh, I don’t begrudge you young’uns your social networking, I just envy it. I really hope a lot more people my age start using it; currently, the majority of my friends are the high school girls I coach…

#20

I’ve been tempted to join to keep in touch with my university friends (many of them keep in touch that way), but I’m a bit nervous that I’ll wind up with people I knew in high school finding me on there. As I still talk to all the people I want to keep in touch with from then, and there’s a number that I wouldn’t care about if they dropped off the face of the earth, it’s not a prospect I relish.