facebook?

[Captain John]

I've found it to be very cool to be able to keep in touch with/find acquaintances friends from all over and from all walks of life.

You can do as little or as much on there as you wish. I prefer to use it to communicate mostly, but some people that I know and love dearly spend a lot of time playing games, sending friends silly stuff, etc. - as long as they enjoy it and it doesn't interfere with more important stuff, more power to them.

I tend to mostly ignore the drinks, gifts, etc. that people send me, so if you're one of them, don't take it personally - I still love to hear from you!

And if you don't feel like adding me to your friends list JT, I won't take that personally!

I'm with Augie on this one. I've been in touch with people I haven't seen or heard from in over 40 years. Alot of fun and alot of laughs.

[bevm]

I accidently set up a page myself and now wish I could just delete the account as I really don't get it. My email account was blasted for awhile there with requests, seems to have stopped now though.

All you have to do is go to "settings" and deactivate your account if you no longer wish to be on there.

[Cid]

I've found it to be very cool to be able to keep in touch with/find acquaintances friends from all over and from all walks of life.

You can do as little or as much on there as you wish. I prefer to use it to communicate mostly, but some people that I know and love dearly spend a lot of time playing games, sending friends silly stuff, etc. - as long as they enjoy it and it doesn't interfere with more important stuff, more power to them.

I tend to mostly ignore the drinks, gifts, etc. that people send me, so if you're one of them, don't take it personally - I still love to hear from you!

And if you don't feel like adding me to your friends list JT, I won't take that personally!

Steve, you summed up what I was going to say perfectly! I've also found Facebook useful for sharing interesting/humorous articles.

As for Twitter....who cares!!! I can sort of see tabloid types following celebrities, but does anyone care that the kid at the local convenience store just drank a blueberry slurpie? I bet even his friends don't care. Heheheheheee....

[Berlingirl]

Thanks for posting. I started up on Facebook back when it was starting up with a group of like minded ladies who talked about Designer bags...like Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci, etc. You get the idea. My friends in this hobby are all over the world. It wasn't long before it bacame a hot social networking playground and everybody and your brother is now on it. The minute and I do mean the second that happened I dropped it. I am an extremely private person. I don't want my business as public knowledge and shouted out to the the world. I got a friend request (from someone who wasn't) and right away I changed my name and became private. I haven't been on in months. I constantly am barraged by people to "join", "oh, it's so fun", etc. I looked at it a few months ago just for the heck of it. I wasn't surprised to find that it's just like high school all over again. The more "popular" people signing up dozens of "friends". I left that behind gladly over 30 years ago. I hear that from people at work...so and so has xyz friends...Yuck. Not for me, it was fun while it lasted as a hobby forum, then time to move on.

[DCphoto]

What can be better to find out where Capt. Brandi is going on his many adventures! Besides that I have reconnected with so many friends I thought I would never hear from again. It has been great for me, I still live in my hometown and I frequently meet up for lunch with past friends and also I have a pretty big family and it is fun talking with all my cousins, I even have my Mom signed up who is 71, she has found high school friends which she was thrilled with. It is all about how you want to use it. I don't let it consume my life but it has been fun and also it has been great for business.

[lprof]

My impressions of Facebook, pros and cons, are just what I have been reading here...some connect happily and some are not interested after all. I still stay in touch by phone, email, and in person with most of the people from my past whom I like to follow and have following me. Of course I am curious about some that I have lost; but I would rather be lost to others who might be looking for me!



Cid said
"As for Twitter....who cares!!! I can sort of see tabloid types following celebrities, but does anyone care that the kid at the local convenience store just drank a blueberry slurpie? I bet even his friends don't care. Heheheheheee...."

I had felt the same about Twitter but joined after Anthony added Twitter to VIOL. I follow 12...the CDC, CNN, Barack Obama, Daily Coyote, VIOL, and other St John related businesses/websites. When someone from the forum is known to be on the island I "follow" them until they go home. I enjoyed following teefal recently when he was on St John and tweeting pics. If I ever get back to the VI I may tweet too; otherwise I'm pretty quiet.

Guess that I am just too old for all this stimulation...

[Terry]

I'm already on the computer at work and home way too much.

Facebook, MySpace, Twitter are only another reason to be on this thing.

My definition of Facebook is when a friend or neighbor can't get us to come answer the front door so they take it upon themselves to walk to our back patio door, which is open, and yell in the house, "Hey you guys didn't answer your front door."
Oh hum. Maybe we need a fenced backyard with a big dog.

[JT]

Wow, it's interesting to read everybody's pro's and cons. Like Lex said, I,[ so far], feel like it kind of exposes one to a little more then I feel comfortable with. More then anything else I'm confused with the proper etiquette of the whole thing. I've already gotten poop for not responding because somebody wrote on my wall or sent me a weird e-gift that I don't even know what I'm supposed to do with. So now I feel like I'm being rude if I don't respond to each message individually. Shoot, I don't even have a freaking cell phone and that's one of the reasons! I don't want to hear, "I left you a message and you never returned my call."
I feel like I'm coming across as anti-social and that really isn't my persona. I just don't like being connected all of the time. This just doesn't seem to be my cup of tea. It kind of reminds me of the CB radio craze from 30 years ago. I hated that, too!

[Lulu76]

I used to have to be connected ALL the time. To to the point that when I lived in the sticks, I rearranged my commute to hit an area with a cell tower so I could check voicemails and texts that I couldn't get at home.

Then, at some point I grew up and found a ready-made family and realized there are lots more important things than Twitter, Myspace, Facebook or anything on the Internet really. I don't even get over here like I used to (which makes trip planning difficult, although to be honest, I'm to the point where I'd rather take the little one to Florida to visit her new "cousin" and meet Mickey Mouse). Priorities change.

Of course, part of why I don't like the social networking stuff is because I feel like there are too many people in my business. I've pretty much left Myspace for dead rather than delete "friends" and/or my profile. Facebook is better. I very rarely ask anyone to be my friend, although there are a few people that I reluctantly agreed to their requests and now wish I had not done that and don't know how to be diplomatic about deleting them. So, I just ignore them.

I still worry about work colleagues on there and such. I have my information private in both places so that no one can see anything about me without knowing who I am.

I'm not sure I like any of it, but it really is cool to catch up with people I haven't seen in 10, 15 years. I hate that I've lost touch with those friends (for the most part), and it's been nice to see pictures of their kids (without having my e-mail box filled) and hear about what they are doing.