So I caved finally and joined Facebook. While I like the functionality of it, I think it’s a little scary that one company is privy to that much information about people’s pasts and relationships. They know where you went to school, who you associated with, whom you still want to be in touch with, what you’re currently excited about. I did read their privacy policy and terms of use, and they seem okay, but it’s still nuts they even have all that information. I suppose, though, they do offer a service, and people find that service useful.
I signed up this morning (less than ten hours ago), and I already have fifteen friends. There’s an amusing aspect of the friendship approval process—you can specify how you know the person (went to school together, hooked up once, know through a friend, etc.), and one of the ways you can specify how you know the person while you’re approving her as a friend is I don’t know this person. That made me chuckle inside, because I know exactly what that’s for. It’s for the people who like to have as many “friends” as possible just for the status of it or the appearance of being well-liked or well-connected.
So far, though, I’m still wondering what’s so great about Facebook, apart from putting you back in touch with those friends you lost touch with in the first place. It seems like Friendster but with a more reliable server and more bandwidth. After setting up an account, logging in, adding a few friends, and customizing my preferences, I was still left (just as I’d been with Friendster) wondering, “Okay. So now what?”
Maybe I’ll change my mind. My wife is a Facebook addict, and maybe she’s giving me a preview of my life to come. I knew I’d get sucked into the Facebook cult sooner or later!
hey wow, you finally have a facebook, you should add me!
ok seriously now. from what i’ve heard (yes i don’t actually have a facebook) its supposed to be a social networking site, so you can meet new people online, like your friend-you-haven’t-seen-for-5-years friends. at least it isn’t a blog. i don’t get the point of those really. all most people do is post what happened that day online, but the only people who would care about that are your parents, who ask you anyway, and your friends, who were probably there. you are different though so that’s why i said most.
Mate don’t take it so hard. I have an Orkut account myself. Created for the same reason… to catch up with old schoolmates.
Actually, the “I don’t even know this person” pops up something saying “Then why are you friending them?” or something to that effect. It’s a little reminder that maybe you should be careful who you’re friending.
Thanks for that little tidbit of information, Jonas. I didn’t know that’s what happened when you clicked on the I don’t even know this person option.
Yeah, I’m probably making too a big deal about this. It’s just a social networking site. It’s not the end of the world. Being connected is a good thing.
I find Facebook useful for organising get-togethers and sharing photos (the photo tag feature is great).
Welcome to the Dark Side, now drink your kool-aid ;-)
Facebook is scary and weird. But you can play scrabble and (more importantly) rock scissor paper on Facebook. Good luck.
The students here at my uni are Facebook addicts. I see them browsing the site on their laptops in lectures (instead of paying attention to the class). I hear them talking about it in public places — about nifty groups (“You should totally join this group!”) or about people they found (“Oh my god, I can’t believe _he’s_ on Facebook! Did you see his profile?!”). I hear people say their farewells, along with, “I’ll see you on Facebook later!” as opposed to, “I’ll talk to you on MSN!”
It frightens me a bit that Facebook, or the values/habits/abilities it encompasses, might become embedded in this generation’s culture. Some people are addicted to it like I’m addicted to Wikipedia: one can spend hours doing nothing but flipping through countless strangers’ profiles, reading personal discussions, looking at photos… except that this isn’t impersonal, academic knowledge; it’s quite personal. I suspect many people have become accustomed to “digging up the dirt” on anyone as a matter of course. I would’ve hoped that this would lead to people being more cautious and sensible about what they publish online, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Maybe it’s ignorance, or maybe it’s just optimism, or even indifference (but seriously, posting one’s address and phone number?). I don’t know.
In light of all that, making extensive use of the Privacy settings may well preserve the sanity of the paranoid/highly private user who wants to have an interesting profile without exposing that profile to the _entire_ Facebooking world. :)
I’ve got 80 “friends” on Facebook. I don’t know any of them (personally that is).
So does that mean I technically don’t know them?
Not necessarily.
Most of them are “friends” I “know” from other sites (LiveJournal, MySpace, Zorpia, Friendster, Multiply, Yahoo!….).
Some of us have more Internet friends than face-to-face friends.
But technically, I don’t know anybody on Facebook (in the face-to-face sense).
I don’t care about appearing well-liked or well-connected. I add friends for me and not for anybody else.
Oh and the coolest thing about Facebook are all the applications you can install. Friendster or MySpace has no such thing.
Scott – Interesting because one of the things that attracted me to FB is that I actually DO know about 90% of my friends in real life. I have just recently added folks who I have met via other FB friends. I have always found that FB’s ability to keep people connected between face-to-face interactions is it’s genius.
their privacy policy is ok but dont go installing too man applications as each application gets access to a fair amount of your info!
the main thing about FB was that it was a uni thing that was ‘cooler’ than myspace, now for some reason its gone supper crazy and everybody has it. ive never spent much time on either but facebook is like a grown up myspace but just as adictive
I’ve had people trying to get me into these things since they started becoming popular. I made one (a Myspace) about a year ago; I looked at it for maybe a day or two, and haven’t looked at it since. Maybe Facebook really is great and completely different and would change the way I look at these things if I tried it; my guess, however, is that it’d just be a waste of my time.