Why Facebook? (or, My profile seems like a joke) [Archive]

Deadly

2011-07-21, 06:43 AM

So I signed up on Facebook a while ago, thinking I had to see what the craze was about. I haven't really used it since, and I kinda feel like my profile is a joke.

I have 2 friends there, one is my sister, the other is a guy I haven't talked to in 10 years who suddenly dropped in and said hi, and then we haven't talked since. I'm terrible at keeping in touch with old friends... I never have anything interesting to talk about, and I don't do small talk very well.

I'm really having a hard time figuring out what to do with Facebook. It seems... pointless. Like, what can I do with Facebook that I can't already do without it?

I have my e-mail and phone in case people need to contact me. Heck, I even have AIM and MSN despite not really liking chats (they move too fast, I get stressed).

I have a website in case people need to find me. If there are any old friends out there who I haven't seen in ages, they can simply google my name and my website should be the first thing to show up. It's not a fabulously interesting site, but it has my e-mail.

And then of course I frequent varous forums, like this one, where I occasionally post and talk with others. And I've also begun to use my deviantArt account, where people can also comment or send me messages if they feel like it. And I even have a twitter account, which - like Facebook - feels like a bit of a joke because I never have anything interesting to say.

But I feel like I have "contact with other people" covered, at least in theory because I don't actually have a lot of friends that I talk to in the first place (what a sad statement for a brony).

And then there's the problem of language... if I were to use Facebook for something, like writing about whatever I find interesting (isn't that what twitter and blogs are for, though?) should I write in English or my native language, or both depending on the situation? If it's mainly going to be my family who visits my Facebook page, then English won't do because my parents suck at English. But then, I don't really have anything to say on Facebook that would really concern my family, I think. I can just call them.

And now I hear a lot about Google+ (what a bland and boring name, you'd think Google could come up with something more creative), and from what little I've heard it seems like it might be better than Facebook, so I wonder...

Why should I care about Facebook?

But everyone's one Facebook... and maybe I'm just missing some amazing part of it. And I don't want to seem like some kind of neo-luddite; nothing could be farther from the truth. I feel like I'm being outdone in tech-savvy by my completely tech-incompetent sister who recently joined Facebook and has been using it much more than me (though I suspect she had a lot of help from friends).

And I'm rambling... but I really want to find some use for Facebook. If nothing else, then something creative and unusual.

Serpentine

2011-07-21, 06:51 AM

I would call Facebook a fastfood website: convenient but crappy. If you don't have any use for it, then you have no use for it. Here's what I use it for, though:

- Photo storage and sharing, and seeing those of others.
- Getting in contact with people I wouldn't otherwise. You say you have a website if people want to talk to you, but, first of all, people are much likely to use Facebook if they want to find someone for contact purposes, and, well, I don't have any such website. It is convenient, it's big, and it's low-pressure - without Facebook, someone contacting you out of the blue is admitting that they specifically tracked you down and went out of their way to talk to you. With Facebook, it's... well, what it's for, and there's "I saw that so-and-so had added you so I thought I would too" that sorta thing.
- Chat. Again, it's crappy but convenient.
- It's huge, and people use it. Again, I'd compare it with something like McDonalds - it's popular because its popularity means there's restaurants everywhere. It's certainly not popular cuz the food's good... Similarly, Facebook is popular because heaps and heaps of people you might know are on it, and it's a convenient way to stay in touch with them.
- General link sharing and stuff.

Mono Vertigo

2011-07-21, 06:52 AM

I had an account I'd created just in order to view some content there; I finally got around to delete it for good last month. And I'm considering creating another profile... with a made-up name, that only a handful selected few would know about, if they want to link me stuff.
Many of my friends are smart, and they're smart enough not to have any active use for Facebook. Facebook is evil. :smallbiggrin:
You're not alone.

CrimsonAngel

2011-07-21, 07:03 AM

You wouldn't understand. You probably didn't even drink the sauce. The initiation sauce. You can't understand facebook without it. I am pretty sure that it was just milk with food dye.

Necro_EX

2011-07-21, 07:04 AM

A brony, you say?
Well you could always join this group, (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bronies/219823134726510) which is a nice community and the updates from the admin are always entertaining. Of course, like you said you've already got 'contact with other people' covered and there isn't much there that you couldn't find elsewhere, but they're still a nice bunch.

Other than that, I can't really say Facebook is useful.
Doesn't stop me from having a tab with it open almost all the time.

Xanmyral

2011-07-21, 07:05 AM

Meh, Facebook, Myspace, Google+... All the same to me really. I've never, and probably will never, understand the need to share personal information over an insecure source. I remember the days when if someone shared personal information they would be laughed at. Now? Your weird if you don't. I've seen Myspace rise and fall, I'm currently seeing Facebook rise and fall, and I will see Google+ rise and fall, with whatever will soon follow. Also, I tend to hate things made to pander to egomaniacs. *Cough*Tom-and-Mark*Cough*

Comet

2011-07-21, 07:09 AM

Facebook is awesome.
For sharing pictures, the occasional real time chat, message back-and-forths between a bunch of people to organize parties or somesuch and more hidden message boards for random joking, funny links and keeping in touch with good friends while wer'e all off on our crazy adventures around the country.

Sure, you could do all that with separate services for each respective action, but Facebook has that all in one place. Convenient. And on a final note, waking up after a party or other activity and seeing that those cool new people you met last night have added you as a friend FB really does make you feel rather good about yourself.

The blogging aspect, posting wall messages every second and generally shouting at the world I don't quite get myself, but it is admittedly entertaining to read.

Deadly

2011-07-21, 07:12 AM

Thanks. I realize that Facebook is probably useful for a lot of people, and that I may be a special case in many ways. So I'm not bashing Facebook or anything like that. Just wanted to be sure that was obvious :)

I can see how it might help people find each other. I suppose many of my very old friends may not remember my actual name, just "that guy back in high school". Finding me through other means than my name could be tricky without Facebook, I suppose.

As I see it, a lot of people may "judge" you based on your Facebook profile and what you do with it, because it's all they really know about you. My family for example doesn't really know about all the things I do on forums, like here, because it doesn't really concern them, so they mostly have facebook as a window into my online life... which in my case may give them the wrong impression.

That sort of thing kinda bothers me, and is mainly why I want to make something of my Facebook profile.

KuReshtin

2011-07-21, 07:23 AM

It usually doesn't do a lot of good if you put a lot of your contact information on your profile unless you connect to people that might want to get hold of you.

-Try looking up friends and/or relatives that you might want to keep in touch with and add them as friends.
Having a facebook account and not telling anyone about it is like getting a new phone number and not telling anyone what the number is and still hope to have people contact you on it.

-The 'What's on your mind?' feature is mainly for just short messages, so not really blog material.
It can also be used to promote your blog, if you have one.
Say for instance that you watched a movie and decided to write a bog review of the film. You write up the blog and post that, and then you go to facebook and type in your status something like: 'Just watched Film X and have shared some views about it at [blog url]'

-Use facebook to search for groups about your interests and get into discussions about those interests with people you haven't already beaten topics to death with. If you're into Role Playing, you might find that your Local gaming store has a facebook page and there are people looking for new players to join, or the store itself may have special offers for facebook followers.
I know that at the moment, my local gaming store has a facebook offer of 'Buy one RPG or board game and get one free' until the end of the month.

facebook is an active forum, and things don't just start happening by themselves when you sign up.

Castaras

2011-07-21, 07:36 AM

I use facebook to talk to people. It's my primary method of talking to people, followed by Skype for anyone I wanna talk to voicechat-wise. And occasionally steam. I like it for keeping tabs on what's going on with friends at school (i'm very out of it at times).

oh, and random question: If I'm not mixing you up with someone else, where did the rakkoon avatar go? :smallfrown: :smalltongue:

DeadManSleeping

2011-07-21, 07:37 AM

Facebook and Google+, for me, occupy an interstitial space between e-mail and forums and, well, life. Here are some things that Facebook/G+ can do that are fairly unique.

1. Status. Some people use their "status" to communicate thoughts and such, but oftentimes, the "status" entry is actually used to display information about the user's current state. In another country? Let everyone know so that nobody calls you and expects you to come out for drinks or whatever. Busy with finals? If most of your friends aren't in the same school as you, they wouldn't have known, and now they won't expect you to have free time until finals are over. In addition to the more blatant stuff, you can get subtle ideas from it. Is one of your friends posting something ludicrously existential and emo-riffic? Maybe they're feeling down and could use some cheer. Girlfriend making 'general' statements about what 'could' go wrong in a relationship? Maybe you two need a little chat.

2. Comments. The 'comment' form of communication is very different from e-mail and forum posting. Like with a forum, you have some guarantee that it will be read by the people who have an interest in seeing it, whether you know who they are or not, because the comment is attached to the interest thing. Unlike a forum reply, a comment is still somewhat personal, because it's attached to the person who made the original post (of whatever nature). That can be good or bad, depending on your viewpoint, but it's certainly a niche in communication.

3. Events. The Facebook 'event' system is rather efficient for getting stuff together. Let's use a birthday party for example. Assuming that people have the good graces to actually click a single #$@#%$ing button to RSVP, you've got a quick (if usually sliiiightly inaccurate) tally for important info like "how much food do we get" and "is there enough room in the living room for this". Being able to post to the event's "wall" allows people to network with everyone involved in the event, which is an effective way to organize transportation, make sure only one person brings chips&dip, and warn everyone ahead of time that you're bringing your baby so they all know to prepare to enjoy the event slightly less but not tell you about it (and, conveniently, an RSVP is easy to switch).

There's more, but I think I've made my point: the form of social networking that Facebook brought around is something you can't get with other forms. If you don't HAVE people to socialize with, then yes, OF COURSE it's going to be useless for you. Seriously, that'd be like buying film even though you don't have a camera. But, then, if people have been telling you to get Facebook, I'm guessing they're the ones who expect to socialize with you.

Deadly

2011-07-21, 07:46 AM

Hmm...

Well, one thing that bothers me about Facebook is how, whenever I friend someone, or join a group or in any way relate myself to someone or something, it gives me a crap load of stuff related to all of that, most of which I have no interest in. I probably don't care about most of what my friends do or say most of the time, or what some group about some random minor interest of mine has to post every minute of the day. Maybe there's the occasional piece of interest to me, but the vast majority is just spam. Facebook seems like an awesome conduit for spam.

I know you can set some rules for what you share and don't share with what people and such. But it seems way too limited, especially because as far as I can tell much of this is something others have to configure, not me.

oh, and random question: If I'm not mixing you up with someone else, where did the rakkoon avatar go? :smallfrown: :smalltongue:

I still have them, but I haven't used raccoon themed avatars in a while... I suppose I could bring it out for the sake of nostalgia, though :smallbiggrin:

Hailphage

2011-07-21, 08:25 AM

I signed up to Facebook back in 2008 following some pestering from friends who wanted me to join.

It was pretty awesome for the first 3-4 weeks, as I discovered a whole heap of old school friends that I hadn't seen in over a decade. By the time a month had rolled around however (and a whole heap of unanswered friend requests) the novelty wore off and has continued to this day.

These days, I only use it as another communication medium (along with e-mail and phone/texting) when someone either sends me a message or posts on my wall. I don't bother getting involved with all the Farmville rubbish and all those other stuff that I seem to get 100 invites for every month.

Also the ability to keep tabs on what all your friends/family are up to can be a double-edged sword - it's cool to keep tabs on them all, but can be disappointing if for instance you discover once of your best mates was in the neighbourhood barely a month ago but they didn't drop you a line or even let you know they were about. :smallfrown: (yeah, this happened to me last week - they were busy but it still kind of sucks they didn't even say hello)

3. Events. The Facebook 'event' system is rather efficient for getting stuff together.
Oh yeah, this is pretty good too. I organised my brthday this way earlier in the year and got most of the responses back within a couple of days. Chalk this one up as another good thing.

Feytalist

2011-07-21, 08:46 AM

While I've never bothered with Facebook, I do use Linked In, a much more professionally oriented site. A lot of my friends are on it, as are all my business acquaintances. It is quite useful in that context. It can even help you look for a new job.

I do imagine though that it is not much use for anyone still in school or university.

DeadManSleeping

2011-07-21, 08:50 AM

I probably don't care about most of what my friends do or say most of the time

Sir, I believe I have found the crux of the issue.

Deadly

2011-07-21, 08:55 AM

Sir, I believe I have found the crux of the issue.

Indeed, but how to deal with it is the real question :)

DeadManSleeping

2011-07-21, 08:58 AM

How do you deal with not caring about what your friends do and feel? I dunno. They might have medication for it, but you're probably better off with non-chemical therapy.

Deadly

2011-07-21, 09:10 AM

How do you deal with not caring about what your friends do and feel? I dunno. They might have medication for it, but you're probably better off with non-chemical therapy.

Thanks, you're so nice :smallannoyed:

So all your friends and everyone you know on Facebook are perfect clones of you? None of them have any interests that you don't share with the same passion? None of them ever do anything that isn't related to you, things that might not really concern you?

I never said I don't care about my friends, only that they may have lives too and don't need me to share every second of it.

DeadManSleeping

2011-07-21, 09:45 AM

I never said I don't care about my friends

Well...

I probably don't care about most of what my friends do or say most of the time

I suppose that's technically not the same thing.

Anyway, most of my friends have a lot of interests I don't have. Why, let me look at what my friends have put in my Facebook feed right now.
-Complaining about it being really hot
-Political stuff
-Talking about how moving to the new place is going
-Some kind of jazz and ribs festival

That last one is the only thing which might pertain to my life in any direct sense (ribs are awesome, jazz is cool too). But I don't regard any of these posts as clutter, or stuff I would rather filter out of my life. And it makes me feel nice to think that when I gather up the whimsy to post on Facebook that I enjoy my latest videogame purchase, those people whose posts I read look at what I have posted and give .5 seconds to feel happy that someone they know is having a good time. That's what Facebook is all about. If you don't want to talk to your friends about random stuff which the other party may or may not be interested in, well...actually, there is no solution to that. It's the essence of human communication. As a race, we naturally end up boring a lot of people when we talk about what interests us. We have been doing it ever since two cavemen were out hunting and one caveman would just not shut up about what his kid had gotten up to. My GOD Ugg, how is this story about little Urg spreading poop on the walls different from the LAST story about little Urg spreading poop on the walls. I think the only reason I haven't killed you is because I'm hoping you'll bore the prey so much they fall asleep and we can go home early. ARGH!

I think I got a bit off-topic there, sorry. Point is, Facebook is for people who want to see what their friends are up to, and want to share what they themselves are up to. If you don't want to do that, then yes, Facebook is useless to you except for Event-planning, and Google+ is entirely useless to you. But hopefully, you now know the answer to your question: "Why Facebook?".

Deadly

2011-07-21, 10:05 AM

Thufir

2011-07-21, 10:29 AM

Well, I like the fact that with e-mail or other "classic" communication, if someone calls or writes it's supposedly because they want to talk to me, or have something to tell me, or at least think what they have to say may interest or concern me.

Well that can also by done by facebook - you can write something on someone's wall, or send it as a private message to them if you don't want the rest of their friends reading your conversation.

If Facebook is seen as a form of communication, it's rather spammy, because everyone just post everything in one place and I have to sort through it and pick out the parts I'm actually interested in, or which is relevant to me.

I don't really see it that way - people posting statuses is like a continual answering of the standard questions of "How are you?" and "What have you been up to lately?" as you would have in an in-person conversation. And then, as in an in-person conversation, either you have something to add to that (in which case you leave a comment) or you don't.

Deadly

2011-07-21, 10:58 AM

I suppose I could see it as a place to dump everything I come across that I find interesting, or write about whatever comes to mind... though I have to wonder what the point of Twitter is, then, if Facebook does that just as good along with everything else it does.

A brony, you say?
Well you could always join this group, (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bronies/219823134726510) which is a nice community and the updates from the admin are always entertaining. Of course, like you said you've already got 'contact with other people' covered and there isn't much there that you couldn't find elsewhere, but they're still a nice bunch.

So, stupid question no doubt, but how would one join something like that? I see the option to "like" it, but that's all.

ghost_warlock

2011-07-21, 12:53 PM

Well, I like the fact that with e-mail or other "classic" communication, if someone calls or writes it's supposedly because they want to talk to me, or have something to tell me, or at least think what they have to say may interest or concern me. If Facebook is seen as a form of communication, it's rather spammy, because everyone just post everything in one place and I have to sort through it and pick out the parts I'm actually interested in, or which is relevant to me.

I just found out that you can hide these things so you don't have to look at them more than once if they don't interest you. I didn't know that. This helps immensely, but still, as a form of communication it's a little messy.

Think of facebook as an online bulletin board, except that the only people posting notices are your friends.

I suppose I could see it as a place to dump everything I come across that I find interesting, or write about whatever comes to mind... though I have to wonder what the point of Twitter is, then, if Facebook does that just as good along with everything else it does.
Yeah, a friend assures me that twitter still has a purpose, but I have yet to figure out what it is. :smalltongue:

So, stupid question no doubt, but how would one join something like that? I see the option to "like" it, but that's all.
You join by clicking "like," yes.

Deadly

2011-07-21, 01:02 PM

Think of facebook as an online bulletin board, except that the only people posting notices are your friends.

I suppose that works.

Yeah, a friend assures me that twitter still has a purpose, but I have yet to figure out what it is. :smalltongue:

:smallsmile:

You join by clicking "like," yes.

Huh, odd use of the word "like". Oh well, thanks.

Maxios

2011-07-21, 01:04 PM

I only use Facebook to talk to my brother

Deadly

2011-07-21, 01:08 PM

I suppose it might be a good place to point people. And a good way to identify yourself when posting on various blogs and what not.

How is the chat on Facebook? I'm a little weary of AIM and MSN, but my brief encounter with chatting on Facebook tells me it's rather odd, impractical maybe. Can you make it work well?

GeekGirl

2011-07-21, 01:10 PM

Currently my favorite (and really only) use of Facebook, is keeping my gaming groups organised. I run 2 game and play in another 1-2 depending. I set up a set of forums before for the same purpose, but it was a chore to get everyone to look at it. All my group is always on Facebook anyway, so i just made groups for each game. This way they all get notifications when I need to give (or get) info.

I really don't post photos or even talk to people on there, a few exceptions. I pretty much only keep it up for my games.

Weezer

2011-07-21, 01:10 PM

I use facebook for three things:
1) Pictures
It's the easiest and most convenient way for me to get pictures my friends have taken of me and for me to disseminate my pictures to my friends.
2)Quotes of the day
I post a quote, usually literary or philosophical, every day. Don't really remember how it started, but i've gotten in the habit of it and many of my friends have mentioned (both on and off FB) that they enjoy reading them, so I keep it up.
3)Girlfriend
I actually met my girlfriend on facebook (story for another day) and now we mostly use it to send each other links.

I don't really use it for it's intended purpose of keeping in contact with friends, but I've found some uses for it.

Nameless

2011-07-21, 01:12 PM

Facebook is an MMORPG where the objective is to collect as many "friends" as possible. There are also many side-plots such as "Pages" and "Groups" you can join, although I personally don't bother much with Groups. Other players on the same Group keep trying to contact you via the communication network called "chat" which starts to get very annoying.

Vacant

2011-07-21, 01:18 PM

I would call Facebook a fastfood website: convenient but crappy. If you don't have any use for it, then you have no use for it.

Don't you dare put facebook in the same category as Church's Chicken and their honey-butter biscuits. :smalltongue:

Actually on topic, though, I don't have a facebook or really get why people have them. If there's anyone in whom I don't have enough actually put some effort into staying in touch with, there's probably a reason.

I'm da Rogue!

2011-07-21, 01:20 PM

I used to have a fb addiction for one year.

I'm clean 2 and a half years now.

druid91

2011-07-21, 04:12 PM

Aedilred

2011-07-21, 05:46 PM

Well, I like the fact that with e-mail or other "classic" communication, if someone calls or writes it's supposedly because they want to talk to me, or have something to tell me, or at least think what they have to say may interest or concern me. If Facebook is seen as a form of communication, it's rather spammy, because everyone just post everything in one place and I have to sort through it and pick out the parts I'm actually interested in, or which is relevant to me.
Actually, for me, this is entirely the point. If I am to call or email someone I feel I have to have something meaningful to say. If it's someone I haven't spoken to for a year or more I feel it has to be something important, to justify contacting them after that length of time. With Facebook, they post status, update, whatever, I comment on that- there's much less pressure, and it means I'm staying in contact with people I would otherwise have drifted out of contact with entirely and would rather stay in contact with.

It's also quite handy, on the "sad" scale, for updating people about relationships ending, bereavements and the like. It saves a lot of awkwardness and potential hurt if there's just a straightforward notice to say "x and y have split up" or "y's father has died" or whatever, because everyone is made aware without having to be told explicitly (and thus largely avoiding the risk of someone accidentally saying something inappropriate at a later date*)

*Actually, this did happen to me at my ex's birthday party, when someone wasn't aware we had split up and introduced me as if we were still together. But he wasn't a friend of mine on FB for whatever reason, and he was very apologetic, so I forgave him even if I still cry myself to sleep at night about it, etc..

Ceric

2011-07-22, 03:41 AM

I use Facebook for:
- Sharing photos. If I want to email photos to a friend, I have to send them as files, about 5 per individual email, for the other person to open, close, open the next one, close, etc. My mom still does that. I could upload them to a photo-sharing site like Photobucket and give out an album link. Or I could upload them to Facebook, which is like Photobucket except I wouldn't have to give out the link.
- Arranging events. The Event pages are pretty handy and well-organized, and I can update the event specifics at the top as the conversation goes on in the comments. I find it much nicer than the event I'm trying to arrange by email right now, with people who look at the 30 new messages in their inbox, give up, and have to ask for a summarized version. It's usually mostly spam between two or three people trying to figure out some detail, and it would get hidden in the comments section of an FB event page. Also, on FB, responses from everyone come pretty quickly.
- Easier connecting with new people. Your Mileage May Vary on this one, but I find it a lot easier to friend new people via Facebook than give them my email address. One only requires knowing your name; the other usually needs a pencil and sheet of paper to remember all the random words and numbers. This also means I don't have to give out my email address to everyone and can save it for family, closer friends, and important non-personal notifications.
- Easier connecting with old people. My sis had a friend from elementary school who moved to Japan and she couldn't find again. The friend wasn't answering her email, etc. Recently (at least 5 years after elementary school), she got a Facebook account and located her friend, and they've been chatting again.
- Easier chatting with people. I don't have an AIM (so again, mileage varies) so I can only IM about half of my friends (specifically, those who have Gmail). However, everyone has a FB. (This argument can work the other way; I should get an AIM, because everyone has an AIM. This does, however, lead into...)
- Because everyone else is. Bluntly, this is true. And if someone has to contact me and a lot of other people, I don't want them to have to use 4 or 5 different mediums of communication to do so. Along similar lines, it's much easier to announce something to as many people as possible via a Facebook status, if you wish to do so. Not to mention that every single one of my above points is dependent on this one.

Of course, there's a few things I don't do on Facebook, such as play any of the games, update on every single personal aspect of myself, or befriend everyone I do and don't know. Personally, I feel this is where Facebook stops being useful and starts to really deserve all the criticism it gets.

It's also quite handy, on the "sad" scale, for updating people about relationships ending, bereavements and the like. It saves a lot of awkwardness and potential hurt if there's just a straightforward notice to say "x and y have split up" or "y's father has died" or whatever, because everyone is made aware without having to be told explicitly (and thus largely avoiding the risk of someone accidentally saying something inappropriate at a later date*)
Agree with this. Definitely saves the awkwardness of having to tell people one-by-one. On the other hand, Facebook is a great way to announce an engagement and put up pictures of the ring for everyone to see, as my cousin recently did :smallbiggrin:

Lappy9000

2011-07-22, 04:14 AM

I've actually met a couple of people through facebook, as well as gotten close to friends of friends who I had never talked to before. I check it often 'cause it's always updated by my friends, but I mostly use it for:
Keeping in touch with friends. Work and school make hanging out difficult sometimes, and I have friends spread out all over the state, of whom I'm able to keep in great touch with, despite a 5 hour-ish distance.
Organizing games. Putting together a regular D&D game is much easier to organize with facebook chat. This also applies to parties and get-togethers.

Zeb The Troll

2011-07-22, 04:28 AM

Warning: This will be rambly.

I find Facebook handy for casual contact with close as well as casual acquaintances. Sometimes I just want to share a joke I just heard or a funny story about Urg smearing poop on the wall. Sometimes I want to rant about my day or have a problem I've been unable to solve on my own. Sometimes I like to get my fellow Playgrounders' thoughts on Erik Ted O'fishel's stance on Propose-All. :smallcool: People I've befriended on Facebook can scan my cranial flatulence at their leisure and respond or move on as they see fit. I, personally, don't update a lot, but many people do and I enjoy reading about what's going through the minds of acquaintances from around the globe that I wouldn't likely hear about if I weren't reading Facebook. It's true that most of what gets posted I either miss or skip over, but to me it's worth skimming the updates for that gem that leads to a discussion about Anuan's unmanning of New Zealanders for an afternoon snack. :smallwink:

Agamid

2011-07-22, 05:04 AM

I have friends all over the globe, and my boyfriend is often not in the same country as me, so i find facebook as a good place to keep in touch with everyone at once in a general kind of way.
Lets me know what all my friends are up to and lets them know what i'm up to without writing a hundred emails or letters.
It also lets me know when things are happening in my city, like theme nights at the local geek bar, or when the local goth clubs are running, without having to go into town and trawl music stores for fliers.

A lot of photographers i know are on facebook, and it's where photos from gigs and events get shared as EVERYONE (just about) has a facebook account so it's good exposure for them and it means i get to see most of the photos from shows i've done without much hunting.

I've even bought clothes and advertised my own wares over facebook, and found contract work with modelling and other work.

And to be honest, it's good for time wasting. people are always linking interesting news articles, music videos and silly little games.