Aren’t I Too Old for this Kind of Thing?
Facebook, that is. Apparently not.
A friend from high school recently emailed that she’d joined Facebook. She’s an international athlete, and found it was a good way to stay connected to friends around the world.
I decided to test the waters, and have since found many, many friends who were already there, from all different parts of my life: family, former co-workers, neighbors, Philly friends, high-school classmates, and more. (Interestingly, no college classmates yet.)
I’m a bit overwhelmed by the scope of it, and the time-consuming possibilities. Remember back when google became a verb, because people looked up old friends? Facebook is like a school yearbook for the world. I’ve even gotten a friend request from someone I don’t know or can’t remember. What’s the etiquette for that? I may have bitten off more than I can chew, here.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I just joined Facebook, too, and reconnected with a friend high school and college that I hadn’t spoken to in ages!
June 30th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Fortunately I can’t access Facebook from work so I’m only on it once a month or so.
if I can’t figure out who they are by asking like one other friend, then I refuse it. (of course I haven’t even managed to reply “yes” to yours yet!)
June 30th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
It’s funny that you mention this - I only joined up about six months ago, for reasons that now escape me. In the end, I enjoy “reconnecting” with former students or old high school acquaintances. I use the term ‘reconnect’ loosely, as my interactions mostly consist of adding said person to my friends list and then keeping a digital eye on their doings… there’s not a great deal of interacting. But then I think I like it that way. I just like having the option to contact them if, per se, I was in town and waxing nostalgic.
Closer friends are more fun - but it’s too easy to waste time doing meaningless things.
I will now proceed to add you as a friend (because I like to see how many people I can connect with) - feel free to decline if you wish… I won’t take offense!
…oh, and as for that person you don’t know - there are many who simply try to grow their lists seemingly at random. Just ignore them.
June 30th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Whatever you do, don’t get addicted to Scrabulous and Prolific on Facebook!! Not that I would know about such things, of course.
When I get a friend request and can’t figure out who it is, I look at THEIR friends’ list. Sometimes that’ll jostle a memory.
The other thing is that if that person has gmail, it could be that they plugged in their whole address book. I accidentally did that and I am so embarrassed about some of the virtual strangers with whom I am FB friends!
July 1st, 2008 at 2:13 am
I am there mainly for the Scrabble, but many of the people I know are creative enough with their updates that I end up keeping track.
It’s also a sure-fire way, one-step way to send an e-mail to someone.
Then there is reconnecting, which has been a pleasant surprise. Even with the one ex- so far.
July 1st, 2008 at 7:16 am
a word of warning (mostly because of what SmallWorld mentioned above)… you shouldn’t give any 3rd party access to your mailing list if that means giving out your password.
even a site you trust to not abuse it (e.g., Facebook) might be compromised by hackers and now you’re in trouble.
hope I don’t sound lecturing - just trying to encourage on-line caution for all the regular readers.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:04 am
Yeah, I never accept a friend request from someone I don’t know. And sometimes I go through my friend list and if I was a little over exuberant in friending people, I’ll take them off my friend list (no, they don’t get a little notice tell them you don’t like them anymore!). There’s an article over at Slate on the ten commandments of Facebook. It’s humorous with some useful information.
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm
My rule… if the name isn’t familiar, or I cannot come up with one good memory of that person, I ignore the friend request. Period. Sometimes I think that people load up on FB Friends to validate some insecurity on their part. Though, interestingly, my ex from college, Cute Kip just sent me a friend request this week.
For you, it can be a great way to post pics of my perfect nephews just one time, inviting your friends and family to view them here for free…
July 6th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
I think it’s funny how I can never predict which posts will get comments and which will be quiet. This one obviously struck a nerve. I continue to be surprised by how many people I find there, and am curious to see how things will be in a few months once the novelty wears off for me.
A recent article on the decline of blogging noted that FAcebook and others are like mini blogs, and I think there’s something to that–for many, why write an entry if a sentence and a picture will do?
Me, I’ll keep writing till I run out of things to “say”.