It looks to me like it's a really useful thing for people who don't already have some other kind of regular web presence (LiveJournal, some other blog, Flickr, Twitter). If you've already got some or all of that stuff, you probably won't see a point in Facebook.
Honestly, I use Facebook to see photos and contact folks from HS I haven't seen in 20 years. The tweet-like "news" from friends and family is horrible banal and dull. If you get Facebook -- and I'm not saying you should or shouldn't -- just check it every other day or so.
But I don't need another thing to keep track of people I barely know. I also dislike the intimacy that Facebook provides. It really seems to put people in each other's pockets. If I am not in touch with the people in question now, chances are good that I like it that way.
I dunno, I find LJ a lot more "intimate" than Facebook, which is why I like LJ! Really, my point wasn't that you're missing anything on Facebook -- you're not -- just that it's fairly harmless. I agree with agrumer that it's better for peeps with no other web presence.
Pfff, I check it once every month or so. I couldn't give less of a shit about what people I was friends with 10 years ago and random relatives I never talk to in person are doing.
That's just it--if I don't care, why would I sign up for a service that would let me do that thing I don't care about?
That should be enough to deter the Facebook-ati, but it never seems to. Beyond that, though, I have a very real fear of relatives/strangers/people I vaguely was in geographic proximity to taking an interest in me. No thank you.
I feel like I've gotten friended by 3 people I actually wanted to hear from again and couldn't really talk to any other way... and 53 people I can't remember at all!
I feel under constant assault by people who assure me that this is better than getting a stable full of hot young things at your beck and call. I'm just like, "Can't I ask to see the pictures my friends have like a normal person?"
And who the hell wants to connect with people they barely spoke with a decade ago in high school? Seriously. I'd be all embarrassed and admit straight up that I have no fucking clue who they are. (Like that time one classmate chatted with me on the train for half an hour. Still don't know her name.)
Really FB is a tool, and as such it's all in how you choose to use it. As knife can be used to cut up food or people, intent is everything when it comes to tool use. You want to be invisible on FB to all but a handful of people, that's up to you. You basically want to be come a "friend" magnet, you can do that too. Want to avoid FB all together, also an option. Do what you want ^_^
When I graduated from high school, there wasn't e-mail and online communities and whatnot, so keeping up with folks was a lot harder. Besides that, I grew up in a city that almost everyone left as quickly as possible, so a lot of the folks I'd be interested in keeping up with disappeared.
Facebook has let me actually catch back up with people who basically vanished oh, 13 years ago.
I really like facebook, I think it's great. And, I'm mostly joking here, but most of the complaints I've seen here, that the Twitter-like update feeds are "banal", doesn't that say more about the people you've chosen to friend and get updates from than facebook itself? ;)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-07-27 02:46 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-07-27 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 05:29 pm (UTC)That should be enough to deter the Facebook-ati, but it never seems to. Beyond that, though, I have a very real fear of relatives/strangers/people I vaguely was in geographic proximity to taking an interest in me. No thank you.
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Date: 2009-07-27 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-28 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 04:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 04:58 pm (UTC)And who the hell wants to connect with people they barely spoke with a decade ago in high school? Seriously. I'd be all embarrassed and admit straight up that I have no fucking clue who they are. (Like that time one classmate chatted with me on the train for half an hour. Still don't know her name.)
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Date: 2009-07-27 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 06:08 pm (UTC)Facebook has let me actually catch back up with people who basically vanished oh, 13 years ago.
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Date: 2009-07-27 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 09:18 pm (UTC)