After about 10 days of using the site that everyone seems to be on, I’ve decided that it’s just not where I want to be. It’s true that Facebook can connect us with people whom we’ve lost contact with in the past, and it’s also true that Facebook is a pretty easy way to see what’s happening in a bunch of people’s lives with one single location. However, after a lot of comparisons and time valuations, I’ve learned something that isn’t so shocking after all: I’m not cool enough for Facebook.
One of the reasons I had joined the site after years of abstaining was because it’s been damn near impossible to communicate with my sisters via email. Whether it’s because they don’t check email anymore, or if it’s because of something more sinister (like my email is being redirected to the Junk folder), I really don’t know. On top of this, it seems that I’ve been pretty lax on communicating with the extended family. Facebook provided a single location where I could communicate with them. Horray!
But, wait a minute … I’m number one in Google when you type my name and the country I live in. I’m in the top 5 when you type my name and the country I used to live in. I’m number one when you type my name with the province most of my family live in. Heck, I’m even number freakin’ one when you type my name with the cities I’ve lived in! I’m not that hard to find, and most of the family hasn’t tried to contact me … so why am I trying to contact them?
Which brings me to the crux of the matter: too much communication. Most of the family has been quite content with hearing from me once or twice in a blue moon. There’s really no need to know when my sister goes to a coffee shop, nor do they need to know when I’m enjoying one of the absolutely godly Mount Rainier cafe lattes. For anyone that really wants to strike up a conversation with me, 5 seconds on Google will direct people to this site. From there they can leave a comment, see my Tweets (and follow me), or visit the stagnant image gallery to look at some photos. As a result, Facebook is just a redundancy that takes up more of the limited free time and internet access that I have available.
Of course, there are other aspects of Facebook that I could do without. Namely all the stupid application and games spam. I don’t want to join Mafia Wars, or some farm, or anything else for that matter. There just isn’t enough time in the day for me to waste. The spelling is atrocious, as well. Sure, it’s just a little thing, but when someone sends me a message that has 80% of the words misspelled and a disturbing lack of grammar, I get angry. Just how much money has the education system in Ontario pissed away on unnecessary “special projects” to not even give a rats ass about their students being unable to spell? It’s unbearable!
Finally, there’s the cool factor. I’m a guy that likes working with non-Apple things, drinking a semi-unknown brand of coffee, wearing reasonably-priced clothes, and using unpopular programming languages to solve business problems. None of these things are cool. Facebook, however, is … apparently. Therefore, I shouldn’t be there.
For the moment, the account on the social website will remain active, but aside from the RSS updates from this site, it probably won’t see much use in the near future.
What’s your take on Facebook?
There is an insidious aspect to Facebook Mafia Wars. Players are offered game cash if they purchase services and products that are advertised while playing the games. But they often come with high recurring charges that are not openly stipulated. Kinda slimy behavior.
Personally, while email is nice I often like to hear my relative’s voices over Skype. But as you point out, active communication is a 2 way process.
I’ve heard that programs like that are going to be spanked into submission over the next few weeks, so hopefully people won’t be duped out of their cash for too much longer. That said, the amount of spamming these apps do is just appalling. If I reject one person’s invite for a game, I shouldn’t get 10 others. It doesn’t take a genius to write a quick little script to ensure someone’s not being hammered with invites
Alas, it’s all good. I’m not cool enough for Facebook, anyways
I’ve found Facebook to be quite a handy tool for getting in touch with people from my past (high school here in Tokyo, all the way back to elementary school in Oregon) and have enjoyed it as such. I don’t spend loads of time there, though, and there’s certainly no requirement that you do so . . . Just turn off all the email alerts, block the apps when they crop up, and make use of it on your own schedule.
(Your third para looks really odd to me, by the way: if your own family has to Google you to track you down, it sounds like you’re on the run from them or something.)
The third paragraph is oddly written. That’s what I get for writing while frustrated, it seems. That said, family rarely reaches out to discuss anything with me, and it’s almost always me who makes the effort to keep in touch with them. Usually the only time I hear from anyone is if they want something.
As a result, in the ten days of using the social website, Facebook didn’t seem to be a place for me to keep in touch with people, but instead a place for me to passively observe people. Perhaps the perception will change in the future but, for the time being, I’ll be content to use this blog, Twitter, IRC, Skype, email, and MSN Messenger.
Six points of communication (not including traditional mail and the telephone) should be enough, no?
I personally don’t care for Facebook at all (just like any and all other social networks) from the whole ‘connect with your friends’ standpoint. I look at it more as a ‘finding useful people and getting the word out about myself’ tool – just like Twitter really. Plus when talking to some people, you can get a hold of them 100x faster via FB then via email sadly. Sigh… what’s w/ people these days and checking their email once a week when they check FB 100x a day
I, too, am at a loss to explain how people can check one thing 100x a day and something else once a week or less. Perhaps this is the problem with running everything in a browser. Rather than people having several applications running in the background and notifying them of updates, people need to remember to go to various sites to see what’s going on.
This might explain why visiting somebody’s blog is a tedious chore that very few do without the help of Google
I’m still not sure quite what to do with Facebook. If it went away tomorrow, I’m not sure I would miss it much. I do have friends (and my wife) who are not on Twitter and whom I really do want to know if they’re having coffee in the shop down the street. I only keep track of the status updates via Tweetdeck and rarely visit the site unless I have a specific need to. Basically it’s my other Twitter account.
I’ll admit that I am sort of interested in what some people are doing; whether it’s laundry, drinking coffee, or dancing in their underwear to Bob Seger while the kids are at school. That said, I agree with you that using something like Facebook as a second Twitter doesn’t sound like a good use of time or bandwidth.