Trey Smith
In the past day or two, I noticed an announcement that Facebook has passed the one billion user threshold. Bully for them, I suppose.
I am happy to say that I am NOT one of those one billion users. In fact, the few times I have perused my wife's Facebook page, wall or whatever it is called, I can't say that I've been impressed. Most of the comments or notes seem rather insipid to me -- sort of like Twitter. I have yet to figure out why people think everyone is interested in the fact that they are at this or that store...or that they are stuck in traffic!
I've noticed that the few online companies I do business with (e.g., local PUD, phone company, bookstores, etc.) want me to friend them on Facebook. I'm sorry, but most of these outfits aren't my "friends"; they merely provide a service or products that I use. Seems to me that this friending strategy takes the friend out of friendship!
Yes, I am surely an old curmudgeon. I should get with the times. My reaction to social networking probably is not that much unlike my great grandparent's dismay at television or my grandparent's bewilderment with cell phones.
Oh well, it's probably just a generational thing!
I think not generational. There's plenty of noise and trivia there, but I have connected to several Tao-related groups, little virtual sanghas, some private, and have made wonderful connections around the world with practitioners, scholars, fellow travelers. You can learn a lot and contribute to others' development as well. You just have to know how to filter out the noise. (It's astonishing how noisy my own family is. And just because someone's your friend, doesn't mean you have to pay attention to them. Most of the people I communicate with are not my regular day-to-day family or friends. They aren't intersted in what I'm looking for anyway. And it is disturbing to have notices pop up that a freind or relative "likes" Wal-mart. Who would do that? Although I have "liked" a couple of enterprises I believe in, like The Teaching Company). So like any other technology, it's good or bad, depending on how you choose to use it.
ReplyDeleteYou're better off without it. Its more of a giant advertising platform than a site for connecting with friends, and your privacy will suffer (online and offline) if you're not careful. Before Facebook there was myspace and before myspace there was e-mail, and before e-mail there was the phone. Its just popular because it makes long distance socializing easier and more centralized. If you don't have a huge amount of friends you can get by without it (e-mail, Skype). Besides I like Twitter better for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that I ever got sucked into using FB. I was adamant about not using it, but then when I realized that all of my friends were traversing the terrain that is Facebook, I grudgingly created an account so that I could keep in touch with them. Lo and behold a few years later we are literally possessed by this demon. It is ever-present in our lives and it has become an indelible part of our culture. And when you try to delete your account, the FB creators make things very hard for you. Furthermore, they keep all of your information, all of your messages, etc. Once you start Facebook, it is nearly impossible to ever fully escape it.
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