You Kids And Your Facebooks

[rae_beta]

I am something of an internet recluse; I have (mostly neglected) accounts on a number of fora, blog (sporadically) in a few places, and occasionally write for online publications, but I avoid social networking like the nasty social disease (HAH! PUN!) I'm pretty sure it is

Comments

[kiplet]

Yes! Said the actress to the bishop.

It is at once a time-sink and beneficial. Luckily, the time-sink aspects are mitigable with some little work (switching off various things left on by default, thickening the skin over the reflex that presumes others will take your refusal to join their Mafia family personally).

But Salon Bédé is still managed by an email list, so I'm not sure what industry socializing you're missing out on that's important...

[rae_beta]

True! So, I'm not missing out on the *best* industry socializing, at least.

Ironically, about half of what I'm missing involves co-workers. The rest, more understandably, is with out-of-town folk.

[nenena]

Ironically, I use Facebook almost exclusively to organize RL meetups and events. If anything, it's been my lifeline into more non-internet social interaction.

Having said that, though, I'm pretty much a passive Facebook user. I never do anything active on it; I just respond to friend requests and messages. And most of the messages that I get are, like I said, invitations for RL outings like movies, dinner at so-and-so's house, etc. I think it's possible to have a "presence" on Facebook without ever having to actually use it, really.

Then again, I'm not concerned about my Facebook account having any sort of professional associations. Because I'm not a professional. ;)

[the_jenya]

I knew the world was changing when my mother asked me to help start her account FOR WORK. The positives often outweigh the negatives often for me. Howeverbut, I feel the same way about Twitter as you do about Facebook. Who needs to know if I had a good bowel movement*? Will that sell more comics for me? Add to my mystique or merely detract?

*usually once a day!

[rae_beta]

My mom and LF are Facebook friends, and every time I'm hanging out with one of them and a computer, they end up telling me about what the other just posted. It's profoundly unreal.

As a writer, I love the idea behind Twitter--concise distillation of ideas--but despise the reality: the world's most exhibitionistic text-messaging server. I'll stick with postcards, thanks.

People seem to use Facebook much as they use Twitter--endless status updates and brief messages and whatever the fuck one posts on Facebooks about one's moment-to-moment hipster cred and media consumption and oh god I'm getting cynical again, aren't I?

M, who had previously been even more of a Web 2.0 curmudgeon than I (his LJ handle is one of the best-kept secrets of the 21st century), signed up for Facebook this morning, and it's freaking me the fuck out, especially because, with FEH in jail, my most compelling excuse for avoidance is gone. PITY MY RIDICULOUS FIRST-WORLD PROBLEMS! ;D

[dark_angel1383]

I use facebook, but have never gotten anything beneficial from it aside from knowing what the hell people are talking about at parties and no longer being badgered to get one

[lazarus141]

The average median age of Facebook users has shifted recently from 23 to 30, if I remember a recent NPR report correctly. It is definitely turning into a tool for the workplace, but I mainly use my account to keep up with my friends across the country, share photos, and receive information on local events. If I were you, I would give a hard look at how your co-workers and contacts use the site, and make your decision from there.

(I know what you mean about avoiding certain things like social diseases. Just in the past two months I was forced to send my first four text messages ever.)

[tartysuz]

I say go for it, with provisios. Facebook isn't nearly the timesuck I feared it to be, because I won't let it, and it is a great way to arrange real life meet-ups

[tartysuz]

Another reason to avoid apps on Facebook:

Facebook shares its users' personal information with developers who create games and quizzes in a way that breaches Canadian privacy law, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has found.