:: A few weeks ago I joined Facebook again. It had been about 5-6 years since I’d deleted my last account, so I was able to start fresh over there. I used a different email address even.
No particular incident precipitated my decision to get involved again. All I can say is that I was curious to see how people who I know are now using it, and how FB has changed over the years. Re-joining was a bit of an experiment to see if I fit in over there, or not.
:: After years of blogging, my immediate impression of Facebook is, quite simply, it’s cute. Scrolling through all the status updates from my new [old?] FB friends, I feel like I’ve gone back in time to when blogs were brand new and everyone had a blog, even if they didn’t know what to do with the blog.
So far all the FB status updates that I’ve seen have been a few sentences long– &/or involved a photo– &/or shared a link. They remind me of many early blog posts, before blogging became more focused + polished. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with these updates, but I find it difficult to know what to say about them.
:: In my first status update, I told FB to dazzle me. And well, while the people who I’ve connected with are delightful, the system as a whole leaves me in mind of The Big Bang Theory episode about Leonard and Leslie’s experimental date kiss.
Which is to say that like Leslie’s evaluation of Leonard’s kiss, I’m finding FB to have: “reasonable technique, no extraneous spittle, but feeling no arousal at all.” Meaning that it just might be that FB is not the place for me to shine. And that’s okay by me.
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
Well, I don’t know what went wrong there with WP, but I have the whole post here now. With paragraphs, even. That was one weird publishing experience.
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Apparently I lost my link there for a while. Mea culpa. I think everything is up and running now. Oy vey!
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I enjoy FB to keep up with our extended family. Otherwise. I wouldn’t know what was going on. It’s also nice to reconnect with high school/college friends. A lot of them have grand kids that they post pictures of. And the throw back Thursday pictures are pretty cool. Check out my post of Cindy about a month ago.I hope you find more good things about FB than bad. Sometimes you have to scroll through a lot of posts to find something you’re actually interested in!
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Beth, I have no problem with the people. It’s just that FB system itself limits how and what we all can share with each other. In blogging the world is your oyster, in facebooking there are so many limits. Like only connecting with people from your past. Plus there’s no way to comment directly after whoever left you a comment, which is how it was in blogging at first.
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The link didn’t work but I found it anyway. I joined FB last fall and I enjoy it. It is definitely not a blog. The updates are short and often grammatically incorrect or written in that computerese I don’t always get. It’s a great way to connect with some of the family that I don’t see. There is one person who “friended” me. I worked with her a long time ago and was not really ever friends with her. She only posts inspirational sayings and things like “hard day, pray for me” “with mom in icu, tired” and such. This has been going on for months and I have no idea what’s wrong with her mother or what she’s up to. She posts her “feelings.” I stopped reading them. FB has made me really appreciate the good writing I find on blogs.
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kate, thanks for telling me that the link didn’t work. I fixed it. I hope.
I remember from before people who used the FB system in the ways you mentioned. If there is no context to the status update and/or it’s all feel-y, then I find it impossible to comment [or care, I guess].
My expectations are not high for FB, but I feel constrained when I’m there in a way that I never have here in the blogosphere. You’d think it’d be the opposite considering my FB friends are ppl who I know in real life, but at this point it is not.
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I like FB but as I tell blog friends who are also friends there, I’m definitely “Margaret Lite,” although I do put up a few quotes and other deep thoughts. If you want to know me and what’s happening in my life and how I feel, you read the blog. 🙂
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Margaret, you’ve explained the whole FB phenomenon well. I have no problem with being “Ally Lite” over there, but it does seem to me that if the FB system were more open, friends might be more open, too. That being said, it’s a cute place for casual interactions– and perhaps that is all that it needs to be.
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As I learned when I wanted to put up photos and video(Alison playing the piano), it took me no time at all on FB. To upload the HD vid to YouTube for the blog took HOURS. However, it’s easier to find stuff on the blog, so I prefer to put it there as well. FB, because of its brevity and quickness, is set up for casual, in my opinion.
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Margaret, interesting observation about your technical experiences with FB vs. TP. I’d never have thought that there’d be any difference between the two, but obviously there is. Just happy that you were able to get the video where it belonged. I enjoyed it… even if her trills were off. 😉
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Facebook is shallow and packed with advertising and I cannot stand it. (But, like most people, I’m there, playing into their money-filled hands, because I care about some of my connections and know it’s a place to talk about a book.)
I loved it several years ago, before it became cluttered with content I didn’t want to see. I think the last presidential election really did it for me. I had to install an app to basically hide all political discussion, not because I’m intolerant, but because I couldn’t stand to read some of the vitriol people spewed at each other. (I have an eclectic friend network. I grew up in a fundamental Baptist church/school, and I spent two decades doing theater. Oh, the mud……..) I’m happy for people to have an opinion, but it was hard to see people knife into each other with words over and over and over again.
Someone above said they were the lite version of themselves on FB. I think that’s a pretty accurate way to describe me. I’m there because I have to be, but if you really want to know me, try a different avenue.
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Andra, your sentiments mirror those of a number of my friends. I’ve never seen all the FB vitriol firsthand, but I hear about it. If that happens, I’ll follow your lead and find an app to hide it all. I have zero tolerance for such crap.
However at this point, my whole experience with FB has been low-key, and left me wondering what to say to most of these people. There seems to be a lack of context for most of the photos and hardly anyone adds links to his or her status updates. It’s all rather random, just like when blogging was new.
As suggested above, I can be a lighter version of myself there, but the question that comes to my mind is: for how long? If you want me to stick around social media, there’s got to be a little dazzle! Yes, FB, I’m talking to you. 🙂
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