It's two years and three months since my daughter Kath me to sign up for Facebook. I wasn't very enthusiastic about it and quickly lost my log in details, and had no reason to retrieve them. Only recently I stumbled upon them, occasioned by trying to explain to my sister June, who signed up accidentally, while still learning the ins and outs of the internet. She wanted to know how to escape the torrent of emails it precipitated on to her computer from a few users she knew. She didn't understand the point of it and wanted out.
I said I'd try and find out for her, and then started poking around, out of curiosity and poking around discovered the login details I'd failed to write down at the start. It seems that quite a few people I know use it, though apart from occasionally interesting photo galleries (small sized in comparison to my preferred Picasa) there's not much content of compelling interest from most people. It's a bit like being at a party with lots of acquaintances, swanning around exchanging greetings, banter, snippets of news, references to books music and videos for the most part. You may have a good time meeting and greeting, but it all feels somehow superficial.
I suppose there are situations apart from publicity where it could be a useful tool for networking with like minded people, but I'm not sure it has much to offer a dyed in the wool introvert like me. I'd rather ramble on with this blog - the old bore in the corner, I guess. But every now and then my curiosity gets the better of me, or I get an advisory email from someone I know, or sometimes don't know, wanting me to be their 'Friend' - very odd choice of phrase. No wonder comedians get such mileage out of poking fun at this. Unless I can achieve something with Facebook which I couldn't so easily with any other cyber tool, I shall remain skeptical.
I said I'd try and find out for her, and then started poking around, out of curiosity and poking around discovered the login details I'd failed to write down at the start. It seems that quite a few people I know use it, though apart from occasionally interesting photo galleries (small sized in comparison to my preferred Picasa) there's not much content of compelling interest from most people. It's a bit like being at a party with lots of acquaintances, swanning around exchanging greetings, banter, snippets of news, references to books music and videos for the most part. You may have a good time meeting and greeting, but it all feels somehow superficial.
I suppose there are situations apart from publicity where it could be a useful tool for networking with like minded people, but I'm not sure it has much to offer a dyed in the wool introvert like me. I'd rather ramble on with this blog - the old bore in the corner, I guess. But every now and then my curiosity gets the better of me, or I get an advisory email from someone I know, or sometimes don't know, wanting me to be their 'Friend' - very odd choice of phrase. No wonder comedians get such mileage out of poking fun at this. Unless I can achieve something with Facebook which I couldn't so easily with any other cyber tool, I shall remain skeptical.
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