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In defense of Facebook

Frankly, I don't live there, but I do hit FB once or twice a day. I went to stay in touch with one HS friend who prefers it to emails. I have since reconnected with a bunch of HS friends and that has been fun. I've even gone to see one of them play in their 70's cover band. (which was very nearly post worthy just for the strangeness of the evening.) I never would have gone with out FB.

I found a long lost hockey friend - her son played with DD but she shut down totally when he got cancer and lost touch with everyone outside her family. (He's fine now I'm happy to say and she is getting better. She had been so fragile when I saw her in a store about 4 years ago when he had his first remission.)

DH has found a family connection he didn't know about and is now getting to fill in a piece of the family tree he wouldn't have been able to otherwise due to a name change. And found a cousin (many times removed) that remembers his dad as a young man. DS stays in touch with his cousins. I get to learn about Brat's success with her dogs.

And there are past and current members of this list there. One lost her newsgroup access and didn't opt to use one of the other methods to read this. Others use it as safe way to talk privately. Or just talk with a larger group with out being on a open public forum (like this).

Is a lot of it moaning about the weather? Sure, especially those of us in NE where we haven't seen the sun for more than a few hours in weeks. And there is lots trivia like grocery store trips and such. But why does it bother you so? The shallow and the deep have always been with us. Haven't you ready the Diaries of Samuel Pepys? Talk about minutia for public consumption.

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He's no Thoreau, but both have their place inthe greater world.

Cheryl

Reply to
Cheryl Isaak
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I'm with Cheryl here. I have reconnected with old HS friends and my closest friends from college. I come from an age (Cheryl too) where we left school or wherever and went out on our own. Letter writing had fallen out of vogue and long distrance cost money, so we tended to lose touch. This is giving us a chance to find each other - and it's better (and cheaper!) than Classmates.com. My small, private liberal arts college has even given up its alumni stuff on its home page and instead is reaching us through FB. (We still get newsletters, etc.)

Some of it IS very silly. But it's a good break in the day and fun. Sometimes, you learn something surprising about someone. Like Cheryl, I keep up with a few people from here as well as my friends. There's another RCTN member (mostly a lurker) who is going through some of the same things I am and we cheer each other on. I know about Kurt's driving test and Brat's dogs. My friend Kathy has turned into a real foodie. Several of my college friends have very young children - the women are in their 40s and the kids are under 5 - and those of us with older kids offer advice when asked. One of my HS friends remembers more about what we did together than I do - apparently I drove him everywhere!

I'm sorry Tia Mary is having problems. I wish I could solve them - but no program is perfect.

Yes, it is minutiae - but so is some of the stuff we talk about here. But FB has reconnected me with a very important person, reminded me of who I was and how far I've come, and for that I am grateful.

linda

Reply to
1961girl

There absolutely is a place for FB and other social networking, as well as "professional" networking sites. I think the issue, at least my perspective, is the pervasiveness of this to the point of overwhelming actual personal contact and communication skills. Manners - in public, on public forums, electronic, in "real-life" , socially and professionally - have taken an enormous hit. The saying "discretion is the better part of valor" seems to have no meaning for people consumed with this need to be "in-touch" all the time. What is the norm for acceptable anymore? While surely one can have a FB page with minimal info, but allow you to be reached, etc - the overwhelming majority goes the other way.

Like anything else, you can use a tool as you see fit, and suits your need. However, with the FB phenomena, it seems the peer pressure is to join up, and put yourself out there. So, how addictive does this become - and how does that affect the individual in terms of what else they're doing, let alone productivity in the work sense?

Ellice

Reply to
ellice

As I said - superficial - but obviously you can either take it or leave it! It doesn`t really float my boat, but that`s not to say I criticise those who like it, any more than I would castigate anyone who does not like chocolate! (It`s just a matter of choice - think Mayo versus salad cream!)

It seems to me that I hear far more about Twitter these days, in any case. I`m not too enamoured by that either. but then I`m allowed to be a miserable old sod ;-)

Pat

Reply to
Pat P

Twitter - I have to agree with you. The president of my HS class is a twitter junkie. I could live without his ten or twelve a day updates

- "Having coffee at the coffeeshop!" "Off to the meeting!" All with an exclamation point!

linda

Reply to
1961girl

I've seen that on Face Book as well except with a few more words.

Reply to
Lucille

Oh, I know. I've changed who's updates I see automatically. I thought I was going to scream every time J made it a new level in some game she was playing. And that was 4-5 in fifteen minutes

Reply to
Cheryl Isaak

Hopefully you don't mean me?! FB is not supposed to be publishing those--I deliberately choose "skip"!

Jinx

Reply to
Jinx Minx

Heck no! You log off, I swear this person is on 24/7 and half her updates are from her husband

Reply to
Cheryl Isaak

Phew! It sounded just like me, and my stage name starts with J! A couple friends of mine and I like to challenge each other with high scores in Bejeweled. Each round only lasts 60 seconds, so it updates frequently. When I need a few minutes of mindlessness during the day that's my brainkiller of choice. And I usually just keep FB open in a separate browser all day (although minimized), so it probably looks like that's all I do all day long, too. LOL

So if it's me, I apologize! Jinx

Reply to
Jinx Minx

Honest, it is not you, she's New England girl.... C

Reply to
Cheryl Isaak

my $0.03

a friend from long ago first clued me in about facebook; then my 'kids' and who live within shouting distance (if one has strong lungs) started jabbering about it. Occassionally my far off nieces and nephews post messages or pictures. I don't text message on my cell phone (too cheap to add that feature) which they love so I leave 'em messages on facebook and they actually get back to me quicker than leaving messages on their voice mails. I've learned alot (all good things) about DIL from her posts on FB.

the downside is that they got me hooked on Mafia Wars so I'm stitching less.

Reply to
anne

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