Someone please absolve me of my FaceGuilt. As an addictive person who works on a computer a lot (am I addicted?) and is very social and very networked (Malcolm Gladwell
would call me a “Connector”), social networking sites present me with a terrible dilemma. Log in and lose several hours of my life, or not log in and have long-lost friends think I’m a jerk. I’ve opted for the latter most of the time. Although many of my friends are a-Twitter, I still find that I’m not interested in what on-line game my friends have been playing for three hours, whether or not they’re spanking me, or how many requests to plant imaginary ginger plants are backing up in my account. Please, I have e-mail, I have two phones, and a mailing address…if you really loved me, you’d just CALL or send REAL flowers. This goes double for people who participate in on line communities like Second Life; my take has always been Get a First Life. BUT DON’T GET ME WRONG. I don’t sit in judgement; I once spent an hour-and-a-half playing Stack the Cats, for chrissake. There are other reasons to avoid FaceBook though. You may have seen this YouTube clip that practically implies that FaceBook is an NSA project or something. Never mind that level of paranoia, there’s no tin foil hat necessary. FaceBook can get you murdered or at least beaten unexpectedly. Why risk your life? I jest of course; for me it’s really about time management. Which is why a site like atomkeep.com cracks me up. Sure. Set up another account to manage all the others. Kind of like the counterproductive act of spending all your time managing all your time in Excel.
Posted by TeacherPatti on 11.08.08 1:31 pm
I think I understand what you mean. I avoided Twitter and Facebook and then finally gave into peer pressure (everyone’s doing it, Patti. the first one’s free, Patti. don’t you want to be cool, Patti?
). I actually like the sites, but I do have to limit my time on them. I try to give myself an hour a day for the social networking stuff, and I usually finish well under that.
Also, Facebook has allowed me to connect with some people who I was not nice to in the past. Fortunately, both accepted my apology, and I really have Facebook to thank for putting us in touch!
Posted by Stella on 11.11.08 10:45 am
Yeeaah, it’s a double-edge sword. I find out about things I want to do that I possibly wouldn’t have heard about otherwise only to realize I’m not invited.
Or, I connect with a friend that I haven’t seen since high school and then wonder why they don’t actually want to communicate with me, only to get really annoyed at some freak who friended me through a friend w/out actually knowing me who then wants me to accept persian rugs, red roses and kisses.
I must love the existential angst of not knowing whether I’m being dissed, courted, or pimped.
Posted by admin on 11.11.08 10:57 am
All so true, and my sympathies. But I have to admit I might put up with getting dissed, courted, OR pimped for a nice enough Persian rug. Keep the roses though, I’m much more partial to tropical exotics…