That is the question.
Okay, it's time to spill the beans. I haven't joined Facebook yet. (GASP!) Yes, I know, it's been around since waaaaay back in 2004. Blame it on the fact that I'm actually an 80-year-old woman at heart (c'mon, look at my name) who loves cats and rocking chairs and cool breezes and who does NOT understand modern technology and online social networking.
However, EVERYONE is joining Facebook. Now, all 8 of us (me and seven other 80-somethings) who are members of the "I'm Not On Facebook" Support Group are wondering whether we should also join. What do you think? (Actually, please answer my two poll questions at the right, if you don't mind!) Here's what I see as being the main pro's and con's:
PRO: There are lots of cool people out there with whom I've lost touch, and I'd be able to "reconnect with them" (a.k.a., e-stalk them). CON: If I have to "reconnect" with old friends through Facebook, then shouldn't I have avoided losing touch with them in the first place? It's like saying, "Hey, I didn't care enough about you to keep in touch, but let's be friends again!" CON: In addition to the cool people, there are also lots of jerks with whom I've lost touch, and I might happen upon them while e-wandering and then feel depressed.
PRO: Other people can learn about me. CON: I will have to update my Facebook page, which is just a "whole nother" thing to have to update. CON: My life is far from interesting. I'm a SAHM with a blog who likes to watch movies and support her husband in his endeavors. Woo.
PRO: I can finally say I'm on Facebook, and people will stop wondering why on earth I haven't joined yet. CON: I'll be joining Facebook, which is contrary to my innate "rage against the machine" mentality. Very simply, I do not do popular things. I didn't get a cell phone (until I was forced to have one with my job) because they were so popular. I didn't join MySpace because it was so popular. I didn't read Harry Potter until book 5 came out because it was so popular. (Then, of course, I fell in love with it because it is so freaking awesome.) For some reason, it is my natural instinct to first go against the grain before considering going with it. I don't know why.
So, that's my conundrum. If you have any thoughts or opinions or advice, I'd love it. And don't forget about the poll questions over on the right! Do you love Facebook? Do you hate Facebook? Do you have a love-hate relationship with Facebook? Do tell!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
17 comments:
Eh, Love/Hate for me. I love reconnecting with people and seeing what they're up to, but that's about it. I check it to see who's updating their status and pictures, but I rarely update anything for myself (because nothing ever happens, ha!). It's a great stalking tool, but I keep thinking about suspending my account for a while and coming back in a year or so to check back in (and then be on for a few months, at which point I would suspend it again). It does suck you in, and that's annoying.
I agree with Liz. I love/hate facebook. I add new friends from time to time (when they add me first) and every once in awhile I look more closely at what someone is up to, but I don't do status updates myself and I don't think I've added any pictures since Paige was 6 months old :) One thing about facebook is you can use it as little as you like but still see what everyone else is up to.
I totally get what you're saying. I joined last year because of peer pressure from a good friend, but I do have to admit that I've had some fun with it.
It IS a time sucker when you first sign-up because you are constantly adding/searching for people you know. I have found some long-lost high school and college friends on there that I was happy to reconnect with. Yeah, most of them is just a one time "hey what have you been up to the past 15 years?", but it's still fun to see what the answer is. And my defense for not having kept in touch is that there was no email (GASP!!) back then. Yes, I am that old. There was no email when I was in high school or college...well, actually, I think it had just caught on while I was at college, but no one really used it. And let's face it....who writes ACTUAL letters to keep in touch?? (Man, I am old)
I don't update mine all the time since I have a blog, and I have my profile as private so only my "friends" can see it. I do upload some pictures every few months.
I get the "rage against the machine" mentality. I did the exact same thing with the Harry Potter books myself because I couldn't stand all the hype...but I did totally love them.
I'm not saying you'll totally love FB, but I've had fun with it.
There's my 2 cents. :)
It's fun for like 2 weeks and then it's annoying and then it's just right because you know where people are and what they are up to (runonsentence). Overall I like it.
JOIN!!!! I also was waaaay against it at first, but it's been awesome for my business. It's a major time suck, but also a lot of fun. Plus I think I have some pictures of you on there already and I've fielded quite a few "what's Jean up to?? I miss her!" messages, so you might as well. :-) Plus I need another friend! haha. And then you can know what me and your 200+ closest friends are up to at ALL TIMES. What fun!
Oh, and P.S. (apparently I had a gush of thoughts after leaving my first comment) Jerky people will not find you. It seems big jerks don't really join facebook because they know they're jerks (this is why I didn't use my maiden name at first - avoid the jerks and ex-boyfriends). Also, you are VERY interesting! And I hear you on the rebellion thing. I still haven't read HP and I will never twitter or myspace. But I think facebook is fun.
Haha, I get the rage against the machine thing. I did the same thing with Harry Potter.
Facebook.... meh. It's kind of neat to see what old friends are doing, to see what high school friends are married and have kids and what ones post pictures from when they were terribly drunk. But once looking at a profile, like, once, I'm usually done. You get updates when they change their profile, but pretty soon you get enough friends that facebook tries to sort through all of the updates and only gives you some, so I'm left learning that Joe Schmo posted more drinking pictures while an actually good friend got engaged and I had no idea.
Anyways. But if you do facebook, be my friend :)
You've gotten some good advise so far. I rarely update it or put much time into it. I like it because I get an email when someone posts a comment or sends me a message of any kind... that way I can not put effort into it but I do not look like a jerk for not responding. And just because someone asks to be your friend doesn't mean you have to, which is nice because you can be selective.
My advice is join but make your page only viewable to friends. And I've found that people don't care if you don't put too much time into it (after you've found your friends) as long as you respond. It's not bad & not complete a waste of time.
There are EIGHT of us? Right on. I seriously thought it was just you and me who didn't have accounts... cause even my 77 year old Grandma has had one for like a year now.
The only thing that draws me in to facebook is a kind of idle curiosity about what old friends are up to, like you said. But I have found I can get info from friends who facebook, so I don't actually need an account for even that. Though my own sister refuses to give me info on mutual friends, because she wants to force me to get an account and see for myself. :)
There is one simple reason I have not gotten a facebook account. I realize that this is bold and judge-y sounding to say, but, I just wonder if some future study will conclude, some thirty years down the road, that infidelity and divorce rose among people who had otherwise healthy relationships as a result of their seemingly benign activity in this social networking site.
Probably most happily married facebookers wouldn't create an online dating profile but don't think twice about reconnecting and having semi-secret correspondence with people that they actually already know, or have even previously had a relationship with. To me, that seems to have more potential to harm, though a facebook account is certainly more socially acceptable than a dating profile.
I wonder too if there is a certain unrest or dissatisfaction that can come from being in a sort of unglamorous stage of life (SAHM with toddlers) while reading the 'highlights' of single friends lives. I dunno. Just a thought.
But if you decide to leave our club of 8, Jean, I won't worry about you and Tim. And maybe you can track down my old chemistry lab partner, cause I would love to know how she is doing.
After my 84 year old grandpa joined, I had to join. There are good things and bad... most of which have been pointed out. One nice thing that no one has mentioned is that you can switch your Facebook home page to pirate english (ArrRR!!!), which is always a plus. Also, I seem to also have the rage against the machine thing. I did the same thing with the Harry Potter's and the Twilight books. (And I really don't think anyone can convince me to read those emo-vampire books).)
I actually mostly joined to keep in touch with some friends from NM who don't blog, but are active on facebook.
yeah, love/hate, i don't like it when old boy friends show up in the "people you may know" or when Jared's old high school girl friends try to add him. I don't know I think some people are best not kept in touch with. But then again there are some wonderful friends I've had who I wouldn't be in touch with at all if it weren't for facebook or blogs. I like it a lot more now that I'm far away from most of my family so my brother posts pictures of his kids for me and I post pictures of what we're up to for them. But in the end I say join! the pros outweigh the cons. oh and we'd LOVE to meet up with you in Downtown Disney sometime! Maybe this weekend or next?
Just do it, then look me up. :)
Facebook would not be useful for me, since I am no longer on the fast track on the "Highway of Life." But I can sit on the side and clap and cheer for you young go-getters.
I'm just having so much dawgone fun reading peoples opinions that I can't give one myself. Abbies first comment ..I thought she was going to say she wasn't a member of FB and I was totally thrown. Hold on... then added she likes it overall...then she added more in comment number two and I completely got her second comment.
Doris, bless you for having three kids, going to the park with them blogging and facebook'ing.
I'm not facebooking or twittering....I can barely keep my blog up because the computer is in with the baby. So when baby naps....you get the picture.
Have you joined yet?! I'm waiting.... ;-)
You can get carried away "agreeing" to be friends with tons of people. Including those you barely knew who are facebook addicts. After a month and a couple hundred "friends" I realized I didn't really know or want to stay in touch with half these people. You can deactivate them & it doesn't let them know. Now I have it narrowed down to family and old friends that I lost touch with. I also decided to not feel pressured to update constantly. I check it once a week and update when I feel like it. Let's face it, blogging, email, facebook, etc... It can be a bit much.
I like Jenn's comment about making your facebook profile only available to friends, there can be a lot of crazy people online. I was about to join once but decided not to. For myself I'm busy answering church e-mails and reading your blog so I'm not intent on joining facebook. I too understand the "rage against the machine" mentality, I refused to watch Titanic, for no reason other then everyone talking about how great of a movie it was. Oh and I caved on that by the way. I'm not sure if you knew but mom got a DVD/VCR to replace the broken VCR so I watched Titanic and it was great! If my vote counts for anything I would say don't sign up on facebook, only for the greedy reason that I like reading blogs, I don't have facebook and I figure that if you sign up there will be less blog posts for me to read about you, Tim and Weston. So that's my 2-cents, but you should decide on your own.
Post a Comment