Yes, it is.
That’s not FB’s fault, it’s the fault of all the people who listed the wrong college and grad year in their profiles. Facebook can only work with the information that its users input.
If I list UMD class of 1980 in my profile, FB has no way of knowing that I’m fibbing. Facebook is then going to show me a whole bunch of other people who have the same thing in their profiles and say “Hey, here’s some people you might know!”
It does take some time to get the hang of, and you won’t really see much happening until you’ve added a few friends or become fans of some people, places or things.
My favorite thing about FB is that you can set your default language to English (Pirate) instead of English (US) or English (UK). Just go to the bottom, click the language link, and choose it. You wind up with stuff like:
11 shots o’ rum ago · Weigh in · Arrr, This be pleasin’ to me eye.Care not fer such trifles · Blabber t’ yer mates
It keeps the whole thing from seeming at all serious.
If you want to talk to your friends, why not just pick up a phone and call them? I’m not seeing the point here.
You can track down people you knew 20 years ago? That does not appeal to me. I don’t want to get hassled by people I knew 20 years ago.
From the descriptions, this whole thing sounds like some hideous, online version of those personalized Christmas cards that people send updating distant relatives, vague acquaintances and other semi-strangers on everything that’s going on with Timmy’ soccer team and Helen’s home ceramics business.
This is not for me, I guess. I’m already in touch with everybody I want to be in touch with.
This might be true for you, but it’s clearly not for a great many people of all ages and dispositions. So I don’t know what point you’re trying to prove.
Ok, this is sort of true. There is an element of this and it does get annoying.
Totally not the same thing.
Well, I’m not fond of the phone, but then, I’m trying to join Facebook only because there’s a group for the course I’ll be taking next year…
Now, The Boy’s brother, that’s another matter. The Boy was one of my coworkers in my last job, in Scotland. We’re from Spain; specifically, he’s from Irún, all the way West on the border with France.
His brother, and the brother’s wife, and their kid, live in Hong Kong: the brother is a diplomat. The sister in law is Japanese. Their Facebook page is a perfect way to be able to show pics of the Kidlette to the grandparents and uncles without having to send huge emails; the relatives can access it at whatever hours are comfortable for them, and those pictures and other information can’t be seen by anybody in the world: only by the relatives for whom they were intended.
It may not be your cup of tea (not much of mine), but yes it does have its uses. Not everybody has his friends in the same timezone. Heck, just yesterday I got a “hey, how are you?” email from an old coworkwer who is 7 timezones from mine!
Then it’s obviously not for you. My experience is that I’ve reconnected with people, and others have reconnected with me, who I’ve lost track of over the years–old roommates, old bandmates, old workmates, etc. This has often enough led to restrengthening of old friendships that have, over time, drifted away with life taking us in different directions. Now, I’m perfectly happy with the close friends I have, but I really don’t see the downside in revisiting old friendships.
Plus, as I said above, it’s been good as a business tool, as well, even though that was never my intention when I signed up.
Facebook is a waste of time IMO. That isn’t to say I’m not on it, but it wastes a lot of time. Thankfully I only log in occasionally, and if I get a message I get an email alert. It is good if you want people from your past looking you up and contacting you.
However, it has been many years since Facebook was only for teens. I joined back in 05 when they graduated from high school students to college students, and now even my grandparents are on it. And they have trouble checking email.
I think this is incorrect. Most of the people listed as graduating in my year are also listed as graduating in the next year as well. You’re not seriously proposing that hundreds of people gave their years of graduation twice, are you?
FWIW, the Marines just banned Facebook.
When I look at the Friends tab, under “Search for People” I have two links: one that says “Find classmates from XXX high school 1993” and “Find classmates from XXX university 1998.” When I click on that, I only get people who graduated those years.