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Funny article, and oh so true for me. I'm a reader not a poster, so diving into sites like FB, Mecha, and Twitter has been kind of challenging for this shy girl. I've reconnected with friends (incl. high school sweetheart--don't tell my hubby! lol), and I'm developing friendships with people I didn't know then, or only barely knew; and, I'm connecting with other moms, and people with similar interests to mine (music, psychology). I've never been one to talk to strangers....Over time, I've gained confidence, and as I near 40, I'm finding I don't give a shit what people think, especially those I went to school with lo those many years ago! ;)
I have found only one former classmate on Facebook. Remember classmates.com? Very few ever registered there either. I think that attests to how rural, poor and under-educated that I always suspected my hometown truly was. The families of my best friends fled town long before we could graduate together, and if they only registered their last high school, tracking them down is that much harder.
My father has experienced the same. He has found many of his cousins online who also lived near our hometown, and even among that network they have found few people outside the family online.
The article left out one other factor. MySpace. For two reasons actually. First is the obvious attraction myspace has for the younger set, but also myspace has embraced mobile web users with a slick interface.
I've heard arguments to the effect that the differing audiences for Facebook and MySpace tend to reflect a class divide, with the poorer people favoring MySpace and the middle-class and up types favoring Facebook.
So maybe the people you couldn't find on Facebook would be there?
Everything in the article applies to me except #7 (no kids) and #9 (I'm an avid Twitterer). Almost all of my FB friends are 25-45, which makes sense because I'm smack-dab in the middle of that age range.
Facebook is for old fogeys because old fogeys are a gold mine for marketers, and Facebook puts old fogeys' information all in one place for the marketers' convenience.
It works the same for young people, but there isn't as much money to be made off them.
And this sort of article, in Time Magazine, like that one in, what was it, The Atlantic I think, trying to shame people into registering for Facebook, is just product placement, hoodwinking holdouts into joining the Master List. Resist!
It's pretty much true. I've reconnected with just about every ex-boyfriend, former high-school classmate, and close peripheral friend I've had since the age of about 16, although FB serves a vital social purpose for me as well (e.g., invites to parties, events, and such). I suppose that's because I'm sorta balanced between the dueling demographics of teenagers and the middle-aged at the moment (32).
And as for marketing ... well, I'm a middle-class American living in the 21st Century. They'll get me either way.
There isn't very much advertising on Facebook, at least not much that Ad-Block shows. They don't charge for the service, so I don't really have an issue with them trying to make some money from ads.
I can keep in touch with my sister-in-law, without actually talking to her, or building any relationship at all!
Telling Dad about my life...check!
Familial connection without annoying interactions...check!
The worst part about this is I'm not being ironic. My family has laid off the whole "you never talk to us" thing, and I don't have to hear any theories about why my relationships never last. As these range from inane to downright stupid, I'm exceedingly grateful for Facebook.
I do like the low level of interpersonal communication that Facebook allows. I can keep track of friends without having to talk to them or email them a whole lot. I'm not a big fan of phone conversation and I'm not much of a casual emailer so Facebook lets me stay in touch without much actual psychological effort.
I don't really get Facebook. I'm on there and so are tons of my old friends, but it's more of a nuisance than anything and I've just sort of never really gotten the point. This may be because I've already got a blog and a Flickr account and I'm hopelessly addicted to Twitter, so Facebook feels like a duplication of effort to me. But then most of my old friends love it - some of them seem to be there 24/7 - and I get the impression that it's really their first foray into online socializing and that may make the difference.
My friends on Facebook are youze guyz, the mister, three nieces (the oldest is 21) and one friend (mister's co-worker). I doubt anyone is looking for me.
9. We don't understand Twitter. Literally. It makes no sense to us
This is the one I disagree with; now that I use Twitter, I really enjoy it. I think (a) it's hard to understand why you might want it unless you actually give it a try, and (b) your experience on Twitter depends who you follow and what sort of things they use it to disseminate. A friend of mine calls it a "mini self-publishing tool" and it's great for letting people quickly direct interest to something.
FaceBook is a delight for me. A lot of my family - well, the females - are on there now. I like what octothorpe calls "the low level" of interaction - I like knowing where all my old friends are, what their families are like and the kinds of things they do, without the formality or expectations of having to call or write them. I mean, I could be totally out of touch with them or minimally in touch, and I prefer minimally in touch.
It's funny how it has changed our sense of the past. We used to be able to say "the past is the past," and we'd sit around nights drinking wine wondering whatever happened to [ex, friend, guy from school]. FB means you never have to wonder. We know how the stories are turning out. i always believed in the idea of a invisible web that ties people together - a bond created whenever you've glanced across each other's lives or shared an experience - and FB makes that web visible.
Then, too, it's re-energized some great friendships I had that had sort of faded out due to moves or distractions. I had a friend in college who was just about the funniest girl in the world when I knew her, and after college we lost touch - thanks to FB, it's great to be able to laugh at what my funniest friend in college says every day.
Also, I don't view social networking apps as a "choose just one" proposition. There are only so many I can or want to work on, but I don't have any trouble using an array of them, any more than I ever had trouble following four or five different TV shows back in the day. My daily haunts are my email accounts, here, MeFi, Flickr, FB, Twitter, and sometimes Flickr. I run a couple of blogs for specific purposes, but not as journals. I read some friends' blogs. I have a MySpace, but only for music, so I never look at it. Since these all have a slightly different purpose, I think there's room for all of them.
9. We don't understand Twitter. Literally. It makes no sense to us
This is the one I disagree with; now that I use Twitter, I really enjoy it. I think (a) it's hard to understand why you might want it unless you actually give it a try, and (b) your experience on Twitter depends who you follow and what sort of things they use it to disseminate. A friend of mine calls it a "mini self-publishing tool" and it's great for letting people quickly direct interest to something.
After your explanation... it still doesn't make sense to me. And seeing as how I've already got too many time wasters in my life, there's no point in giving it a try.
Well, you certainly don't have to. I'm really enjoying it, though, and glad I gave it a little more of a chance. For me it's not a timewaster, since it's a hell of a lot quicker to use than writing any kind of blog entry or metachat comment - and because it's a great tool for promoting our nonprofit events to interested communities. But, like I said, there's an endless array of social apps that people use and ignore, and you don't need a reason not to. I'm just trying to get better at not dimissing them out of hand; and realizing that when the next big evolution comes along, for my career's sake, I want to be on top of it, not shaking my fist at the lawn-kids.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
