A few months ago I started a profile on Facebook. It seemed like everyone I knew was on there and I felt left out. I didn't have the first clue what it was all about. It took some time to learn and appreciate, but I enjoy Facebook now. Even my mom and grandma are part of this new wave of friendship. I was trying to explain the benefits of joining FB to my uncle and he was totally not convinced. I thought there might be .02% of the population who is still in the dark about FB, so here are the basic details:
First you set up a profile which includes your full name and any information you want to share with your friends. The nice thing about FB, unlike a blog, is that no one can look at your information unless you accept each person as a friend -- this is done through email. You will also want to add a picture so that people can see who you are. Profiles without pictures really bug me. Strangers can see your name and picture, but nothing else unless you authorize it.
Once you set up your profile you can start finding friends. To do this you can search a person's name and then scroll through the profile pictures until you recognize a face. I was pretty nervous about asking people to be my friend, so I started with the basic family members who I was certain would not reject me. Let me tell you, it is sunshine to my introverted heart to get an email from FB saying, "So-n-so has accepted you as a friend," or "So-n-so wants to be your friend." You can accept or decline friendships because some people just want to amass the biggest friend groups known to mankind and they don't really know you (or want to). I once got a request from a Juan Ewert in Mexico. Sadly, I rejected Juan and I hope he wasn't too hurt, but I had no idea who he was. And that last name doesn't get you very far. There are great friend connections though too. Just today I connected with a friend from college who was such a blessing to me through my Greek studies and my disastrous year as an RA. It's great to catch up with people like that.
Once you have your basic friend group, from family to friends from childhood and current acquaintances, you can share information about yourself and hear about them. You can share random information like, "What are you doing right now?"
Yesterday I was wishing for a vacation. I shared that with my friend group and they scrolled through the information along with updates on all their other friends. They may or may not care, but it takes a lot less time to get an update about a person on FB than it does on a blog where you have to click on each person's page and hope they updated. There are also games to play and share, polls to take, surveys to complete, instant messaging to do, and pictures to upload. You can also comment on your friends' status, pictures, or just write them a note (like a comment).I still prefer my blog over FB, so don't worry that I am going to escape into my limited friend group and never post again. If you are here and want to be my friend on Facebook, go ahead and look me up. I will accept you as a friend, really truly. Unless you are Juan Ewert and then, I'm sorry.
Do you participate in FB? If yes, why? And if you are still not among us, why not?
14 comments:
I LOVE facebook for many of the reasons you already stated. It is so fun to connect with people I would never have any contact with otherwise and see pictures of their kids, travels, etc.. I love this awesome tool for keeping closer to people that tend to drift away!
I really like Facebook too. It's so much safer than My Space or Fake Space or Gross Nasty Space. Anyways, Facebook is great! Thanks for being my friend *wink*
I love facebook. Some people can spend hours on in, but I prefer to spend 30 seconds about 5 times a day looking over the status updates. I'm a little obsessed with the staus updates and if too much time has past without looking at them, I get a little nervous. Not really but you know what I mean.
I can totally relate to Annie. I'm a junkie for sure, but generally it's a couple of minutes at a time a million-ish times a day. I connecting with people I haven't seen forever, even if that connection is just spying on their status or peeking to see if they have any new pictures up.
I'm loving it. I kind of did it at first to be "trendy" with our now college aged, used to be favorite babysitter. I just discovered the chat button about two nights ago, which has added another dimension of "going on line" and "going off line" I need a few chat etiquette lessons...maybe that could be your next info post. Like, how to end a conversation, without having to make up that your kids just threw up, click off line, wait two minutes, click on line....a whole new dimension I wasn't quite expecting. I kind of wish I hadn't ever noticed the little red dot in the lower right corner.
Choco girl-- I wanna be your facebook friend!! Can you please find me and add me from Alysun's page?
I have a facebook and I have ONE friend! Tawny! I had to join to connect with her because she isn't much of a myspacer anymore and I missed her! I know a lot of people who really love it. I am still learning.
I joined facebook about six months after moving out here, and I have really enjoyed it! When you move far away from people, you tend to just hear the big stuff - babies, weddings, etc. and you no longer hear the little stuff that makes up their day-to-day lives. But now I get that through the status updates. And it's so easy to tell a friend you're thinking about them - no hunting for a stamp or even an email address! The link is right there.
I'm on Facebook and enjoy it. I probably check it once every day or two, sometimes more often. It's been a great tool to reconnect with long lost childhood and high school friends. Going to college out of state really put me out of touch with everyone!
I joined Facebook because that's what everyone at my college had (as opposed to myspace which I'd already had). Now, I love facebook way more than myspace. I rarely check myspace anymore and should probably just get rid of it. I tend to check facebook for a few minutes several times a day. The things I like about facebook are the newsfeed (status updates, new pics, etc), the fact that it seems to be safer and cleaner than myspace (I wouldn't allow my nephew to get a myspace, but I felt completely comfortable allowing him to start a facebook account), the fun applications (right now I'm enjoying the myFarm game!), and of course the overall things that all online social networks have - the ability to stay in contact with friends from all over and even people who you wouldn't normally email or call but have fun keeping up with.
I'm glad I'm on facebook, but I have to limit myself. I can waste time on there, and avoid the things I really should be doing. But I have connected with some people I probably never would have otherwise. And it's fun!
Juan Ewert was actually me. Just joking. I didn't realize you had family in Mexico. :) I've had some people like that. Not with my last name but just people that I am sure I have never heard of. I'm glad you won't be trading your blog in for FB because I love to read your blog.
Facebook is ADDICTIVE! But I too love it. In fact I am writing this note and checking my facebook statuses at the same time. :) I feel like it helps me "connect" with other (adult) people during the day- and I don't feel as alone as a stay at home mom- as I might feel otherwise. I get lonely for adult-ness when Im around the tiny people all day. The problem is forgetting you HAVE tiny people needing your attention when your online. :)
Grammy says:
Don't stop with the blog. I'm sure that I will never start a fb
so I would be left all alone in my intrverted world.
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