As it has been nearly 5 months now since I joined Facebook and the initial thrill has long worn off, I decided that it was time to give a relatively objective review.
It was a LOT of fun in the beginning, finding & "reconnecting" with old friends, and yes I spent probably too much time at it during those first few weeks. For most people on my "friends" list, like old high school acquaintances, I find it interesting to know what their life status is, i.e. married or not, kids, jobs, where they live, etc. but beyond that, I don't have any need to know their day-to-day goings on. However, there are several people like some old friends, some of my cousins, and my cousins' spouses, who I should be keeping in touch with anyway and Facebook is a great way to do that. In that regard it is similar to blogging; once your cousin has a blog it is easier to keep in touch with them. Most of the people I now keep in touch with on Facebook don't have blogs, and I am glad to know what they're up to through their Facebook updates. For example, how old their kids are (and seeing pictures of them), what pets they have, what vacations they've been on, what extracurricular activites they're involved in, who's getting married, who's pregnant, etc. Facebook provides a very succinct way to update others as to what's going on in your life (or in the case of some of my teenaged "friends," what's going on every 10 minutes!!).
So, now that my friends have all been located (except for an occasional straggler here & there), I just check it like I check my google reader. When I sit down to my computer I have a routine: check my cox mail, check my aol & gmail, check my google reader, check my facebook, check the news, and in only a few minutes I am all up-to-date!
In conclusion, I give Facebook two thumbs up. I like the way it's set up, and I like that I am keeping in better touch with those people who I should be keeping in touch with anyway. And, a couple of times I have put out questions to my readers (friends) and have gotten some great advice and ideas! So. Yay Facebook. Come be my friend :)
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Facebook: a review
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7 comments:
Good to hear your thoughts on it. I have promised several of my die-hard Facebook friends I will join when I get all caught up on my personal history.
It is all about what you make it. If you spend too much time - it sucks the life blood right out of you! I had a FB friend asking advice on how to do Farmville. I chimed in that FB's farmville and yoville etc. are like Webkins (that my daughter grew tired of after a couple of weeks) and I am always behind on my real life housework let alone keeping a fake farm alive!A All the extra crud on FB makes me nuts. I am kinda like you. Check in with people and see where they are now and after that - I really often don't care! But for "spying" on the Young Women, keeping up with the gone astray nephew, it is perfect.
Exactly. There are WAY too many FB apps; I keep getting invites for Mafia Wars & Farmville etc. And don't get me started on the quizzes. (Okay, I have taken the occasional quiz, but some of them are beyond ridiculous.) But it's not hard to avoid that stuff and just use it as the "keep in touch" networking site it was originally designed to be.
That's funny. I've never heard of Farmville. I only check in with FB when someone friend-requests me or sends me a message on FB. So that's probably once a week. But overall I think it's pretty nifty too.
Yup. I completely concur with your experience. I was on it a TON when I first signed up (when you had to have a .edu email address to join) and it was a blast. I still enjoy it immensely when old friends find me. But I am rarely on Facebook now...maybe once every 2 weeks. I got on Facebook when it was a clean and perfect experience...before the apps took over facebook. The whole reason I JOINED was because it was all about keeping in touch and so clean and white! I was so dismayed when the apps came out of nowhere. Go to your privacy settings and you can axe all app invites. I love you, but I don't want to be on your Zombie war team.
I would like to be your friend but I'm scared. You guys are talking about apps, Zombies, Mafia and Farmville. I wanted to read what Sarah Palin said today but maybe I'm too old for FB.
No way are you too old :) I don't know anything about mafia & farmville either; I have just received requests to join them. And I just ignore them! No biggie! Let's be friends! :)
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