Tuesday, February 22, 2011

I've Finally Succumbed. I'm On Facebook

Well, I thought I could hold out. I put up a pretty long fight. I think I might be one of the last writers who joined Facebook. But after missing some messages from my Torkidlit group who communicate primarily via Facebook I thought I'm missing out on pretty important things because of some philosophical objection about 'conforming to a mass societal lemming-like onslaught of social media frenzy'. Uh, well. Maybe I've been too harsh on the thing. So, on the weekend, with Daughter Two guiding me, I became a Facebook friend. Yes, I went over to the Dark Side.

I don't know why I resisted for so long. I mean, I'm blogging, I twitter, what's the big deal with the Facebook thing? Maybe it's because I've seen how addictive it is - with my daughters practically having an umbilical cord connected to this social media monster. I'm not really worried about my own addiction - Lord, I hardly have enough time as it is to blog twice a week much less be a constant presence on Facebook. Maybe it's a feeling that I need to be more, I don't know, personal on that site, sharing pictures and things and feeling just more accessible that makes me nervous. I know not everyone is going to follow this blog or is that into Twitter, but it seems like the entire universe is on Facebook. What's the count up to these days? Over 500 million and still growing or something like that? Honestly, I think Facebook will become a sentient being soon and take over the Internet just like that computer did in the Terminator movies.

Well, despite all my misgivings, I have joined now and it has been cool to connect with a few old friends. And it is cool to connect with all my writer friends. Still, I must say that I think I prefer Twitter for my brief connections and 'status statements' updates. Wow. I never thought I'd ever say that either. I actually like Twitter. Huh.

How about you? What's your favourite social media platform and why?

4 comments:

  1. I started using FB before Twitter. Before Twitter existed, I think. And I admit I do like posting on twitter more, now. But often I post the same thing to both... and usually get way more "interaction" on facebook.

    And I've chosen not to share personal stuff on facebook, or to avoid it whenever possible. I do worry about some of my (non-writer) friends and family though... If they've got their settings on friends of friends... well, I've got a lot of facebook friends, so they might be exposing themselves more than they think they are.

    Really FB is just a machine for gathering information on people to sell targeted ads. And oddly, I'm kind of okay with that. I plan to buy and FB ad when my books come out and like that it'll be targeted. :)

    And it's so easy to hide all the games. Every time you get a request for something like that in your newsfeed, click on hide and choose the application, not the person. It doesn't take that long before you stop seeing any of those invites or notices of high scores or requests for new pitch forks or other bizarre things.

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  2. Hi Maureen: I haven't even gone NEAR the Facebook games. Don't plan to either. Lord, I'm barely managing as it is...

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  3. I keep saying I'll only do one social media, but it seems to be growing. I like fb - nice a quick. also like blogger for the friends I've made. And twitter is starting to grow on me now too!

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  4. Hi TerryLynn: I think you'll do great at whatever social media you'll try. As long as we have fun, right?

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