Facebook is such a funny thing. I love how it keeps me connected with so many people, especially since we live overseas. And it’s wild to see how paths cross – how your college roommate can comment on “your wall” right alongside your brother’s brother-in-law’s girlfriend. It’s sort-of like a wedding, in that way – your worlds colliding, right in front of you.
So it’s a great tool for keeping up with the lives you love, and for you to update others about your family through photos and little text snippets.
But Facebook can also be a time-sucker. With it’s bajillion applications, you can easily do a lot of pointless – albiet fun – activities, such as sucker-punching your sister. And it’s a quandrary how to handle those people who want to “friend” you, and for whatever reason, you’re not sure you want to.
Susan at Real Simple wrote a little article recently about the oddity that is Facebook, questioning its validity in our lives. So today’s Q&A is this:
Do you use Facebook? What’s your primary motivation? How much time do you spend on it weekly? And – how do you handle those requests for friendship, for accepting virtual plants, or anything else you just don’t want to do?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
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Today a friend I hadn’t seen in 20 years was sitting in my living room. I’m in CA and she lives in Chicago. We were reunited through FB, and for that I am thankful.
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I use Facebook probably daily. I mostly check in when someone messages me or something. I only “friend” those who I know or want to keep in touch with. There have been a few random friend requests from people from high school that I’ve denied. I put up pics of my family so I like to keep it to people I know. I’ve recently thought about going through and un-friending some people as well. I mean if you’ve never said anything to me the whole time I’ve been on, it feels kinda rude.
It can be a time suck if you are not careful, but I find it useful to keep in touch with those I don’t see in person very often.
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To me, becoming addicted to Facebook is just about as likely as becoming addicted to bad coffee. I read it usually once a day, but try not to contribute to the status smog that seems to so readily happen there – i.e. I only report really significant things, like whether or not we are having a boy or girl, if I’m headed somewhere for a trip, etc.
I like to check in to see if there are any new updates (for example, sadly enough, I found out on Facebook first that my brother was engaged), but have actually dropped friends or even cousins who have provided WAAAYYY too much personal information.
It’s kind of a bizarre thing to me, that people happily report details that no one is really going to want to respond to. It’s kind of like everyone standing in the same room and making small talk with themselves.
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I reluctantly signed up for facebook to view some photo’s my 55 year old mother posted on her profile ( My mother is more techie than I am) I’ve since grown to LOVE it!! I am horrible at sending photos of the kids to everyone in the family and I am never organized enough to do those yearly “news letters” I get from other people recapping their families year. Instead I upload photo’s quickly while I’m downloading from the camera (kills 2 birds/1 stone) and leave a little message updating everyone about the kids or our family. It’s PERFECT!!! I don’t have to be organized- I don’t have to plan ahead- I don’t have to worry about sending the cards out intime to make whatever holiday it is. As for “handling” friend requests, well that’s simple- If I don’t know you- I don’t except you. I’m not on facebook to make new friends. I’m on there to keep in touch with the ones I’ve got and the family I am embarrassed to admit I don’t make more of a proirity. As for the mind numbing games and passing of drinks I simply turned off the notification of them and posted a message telling all of my “friends” to please forgive me but I don’t wish to participate. Facebook couldn’t be better for a person like me- I love it!
I love Facebook, but my initial excitement about it has waned. Now I mostly use it to communicate with other groups people….we have a Facebook group for our Sunday School class and my running buddies and I use it to talk about our next run.
But, it is nice to find old friends….there are people that I would have never heard from again in my entire life if it hadn’t been for Facebook.
Anything can be a time suck if you allow it to be. For some people it is the tv, a good book, etc. Everything in moderation.
I typically only use face book when my husband is busy doing other things during the day and sometimes I check it in the AM if I have time before I head off to work. I am only friends with people I actually know personally. I only joined face book because my brother had found my childhood best friend, who lives in England, on face book. I was so excited! I couldn’t loose contact with her again.
Overall I think it’s a good thing. When I first joined I found an old friend and shared a conversation with her. Then 3 months later I found out she had suddenly passed away. I would have never talked or heard about her passing I am sure if not for FB.
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