Many people love Facebook. The majority of my friends are on it, as am I. I joined a while back because I'm on the board of a charity and a board member suggested creating a group on it.
Let me first say why I like Facebook. It has allowed me to connect with some lovely people from my past.
Now let me explain why I'm thinking of ditching it.
I have an assortment of "friends." They include work colleagues, charity partners, professional contacts, old school chums, folks from the adoption community, other moms, old friends, neighbors. One of the guys who worked on my house for one day wants to be my friend. I have "friends" who I've never even met before. That's all fine and good but because my assortment includes various professional folks, I'm not ever going to say anything sassy or funny or post things about my family, etc. I'm going to stay professional, i.e. boring.
Then there's the fact that when you log on you see all the status updates. I enjoy fun banter but one day it all changed for me. Someone posted that he ate a burrito for lunch. I realized that I can't handle sifting through this minutiae. I simply don't care what he ate for lunch. I won't ever care. Even if you're my husband (love you), I won't ever care what you ate for lunch. If you're my child, I may care, but mainly I'll just want to know how much of your lunch you ate.
Further compounding things, someone who I haven't seen since high school posted a photo of me from a party in high school. There was nothing terribly embarrassing about the photo. I do have super huge curly hair and I'm wearing a white shirt tucked into high-waisted white shorts (which we all know is a good look), but it's not awful. But do we really need to go there people? I think some things are better left as they were, in the past.
Then there are the little applications that people send you. I always think it's nice that someone thought of me and I've tried doing them but they often make my browser crash. So then I feel bad because I can't send a plant back or whatever I'm supposed to do.
I think I enjoy blogs more because I can deliberately review, on a deeper level, how the folks I care about are doing, rather than reading surface-level quips. But some good friends don't blog, and I do like Facebook because it allows me to check in on them.
I may soon have an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude. But for now I think I'll stay mainly in blogland.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
AMEN.
I do enjoy Facebook for all the reasons you state, but some of the picture postings just make me feel icky, regardless of whether or not I'm in them. I am beginning to think that MOST things are best left in the past. :)
I totally agree with you, which is why I got rid of my account. Sure if was fun connecting with old friends but really, they never became friends that I truly reconnected with and I just found Facebook soooo time consuming, especially since getting wall messages was like email to me and I felt that I had to respond. So, I finally ditched it and have been feeling calmer ever since. :)
Ditto, amen, all that sort of stuff!!!
I couldn't agree more. I really just rather go to the blog. I just dont get all the effort that goes into posting on the wall when I can just email them directly. It felt comforting to read someone else didn't care for FB too much also.
Jane, you summed my thoughts of FB up perfectly!! Jeremi
I meant to write, you summed UP my thoughts . . . .
: )
oh I so agree- I am not a fan of Facebook- - I have an account- is is fairly new- and yes I have re connected with some very great people from the past and for that reason I am great- and that is why I have left it active - but I rather blog. :-) I just can't get into the 'conversation' of FB. The networking ok - I see that- I then tell everyone just email me or look at my blog...LOL
I am glad I am not the only one who feels this way. (sigh) I thought I was odd.
Diane
Oh, I am so with you!! There are pros of Facebook for sure. Making contacts with old (good) friends vs. those that you barely knew 20 years ago. But I have found that I am a blogger at heart. I get more fulfilment and enjoyment out of blogging, so I spend about 10 minutes a week on FB. And I think I'll hunt you down just so I can see that white-on-white look you were sporting back in your high school years. LOL
Amen, indeed. I've been feeling the pressure. I've resisted so far, but I don't know how long I can hold out. Good grief, I don't have that much time to update my blog, much less tell people what I am doing on an hour-by-hour basis.
And I don't think anyone is interested in what I had for lunch. Late night snack, maybe, but definitely not lunch.
(Incidentally, I hope you don't mind, but I linked to you from my blog. I can remove it if you want.)
I feel the same way you do. It is nice to talk with old friends,classmate etc,but who cares what they are doing at a certain minute. I like blogging much better. The girls are growing up way too fast.
I just joined but I have been particular who I choose as "friends", just people I like and I know, no one I barely knew or work with. And I don't tell about my lunch, what?! It's nice to hear from everyone but I don't do the apps either. Too time consuming. I mostly check it if I have an e-mail about a note from someone directly to me. It makes it easier to keep up with. I do like blogging the best though, much more personal.
It's the lunch argument exactly! I may have to point people to this entry when they push me to join. I have so far, resisted, though I've succumbed to twitter, another way to document the mundane-ness of life.
t
Post a Comment