One of my cousins invited me to join Facebook and “friend” him. So I did. By the way, if you’re there, I’d be delighted to “friend” you, too.
So my big question now is, now that I’m there, what’s great about Facebook? Any of you folks use it, or know what’s cool about it? What do YOU do with it? I’ve vaguely heard of it, but have never even been there until today.
by
Tags:
Facebook is very fun! You can play Scrabulous (online Scrabble). You can add the Twitter application and tweet from Facebook. You can keep in touch with people and it’s easier than blogging or email. I love it.
Facebook has been good for me to keep up with my adult kids (especially when they were tromping around South America for three months last winter), my nieces and nephews, and friends from long ago.
A number of authors I know use Facebook to get word out about their stories; some have fan clubs set up there (under groups–and I’m pretty sure they didn’t set them up themselves but it was done by their fans).
I love Facebook and check in daily. Thanks for friending me!
It took me awhile to figure out Facebook. There are several people there that aren’t fanatical about their pages, so don’t stress. Acclimate at your own pace. 🙂
I’ll friend you, too. 🙂
Delurking (finally!) to say that I got into Facebook in the reasonably early days (when it was still students-only!) and it’s proved a brilliant way to stay in touch with friends.
(That only works because almost all my contemporaries at university got into it, though…)
Like others, I hate the applications. I’ve tried to keep my Facebook page with the nice, clean original feel that made Facebook so much better than MySpace! Just ignore all the “Fun wall” applications and you’ll be fine…
Like Annalisa, I too love the NaNoWriMo application 😀
Ali
Oh and Annalisa just reminded me of the applications. It seems like you don’t get to actually use them unless you pester a list of other people to add them to their profiles as well, which seems annoying. I’ve actually turned off the email notifications for those, because I got so many it was irritating.
Honestly, I have an account, but I always forget about it. My brothers and some friends are on it, and they seem to like it, but it doesn’t offer me anything that I don’t already have re: sharing photos, keeping up with people, etc.
I’ve already sent you a friend request, Holly. 🙂
I think of Facebook as a more casual form of e-mail. It’s a great way to leave quick little “just thinking of you” or “hi, how’s your life going?” messages. I am having trouble articulating the exact dynamic, but essentially Facebook feels like less of a commitment than e-mail. As vanity points out, it can lead to birthday spam messages, and some people use it to post inside jokes back and forth. Still, I think it’s valuable for reconnecting with people you’ve lost touch with and keeping in touch casually. Too often people don’t write letters or phone because they “don’t have the time” but Facebook helps with that.
Another thing about Facebook that is more curse than blessing is applications. Ugh, applications. These are the little programs that make profiles clunky and ugly with graphics, pointless quizzes, and other junk. However, there are just a few apps that I enjoy. Visual Bookshelf is one that you might particularly like, as it allows you to show books you’ve read, books you’re currently reading, and books you want to read. You can also review the books and post stars. It is a little slow at times but mostly works well. Also I have the NaNoWriMo application, which is exciting for me during November.
One more thing about facebook: A couple of days before someone’s birthday, facebook puts the “upcoming birthday” notification on other people’s facebook main page to remind them.
I absolutely hate getting the “happy birthday!” one liners on my wall, so I remove my birthday date from my profile a week before it and put it up again a day afterwards. While I don’t get many birthday messages at all this way, I prefer that situation over getting all those spam-like one liners.
facebook is good for keeping up with old school friends, posting photos and seeing other people’s photos etc, hope you have fun with it 🙂
These days you get a news feed, what your friends have been up to recently. While that is often put down as the “stalker feed”, it’s actually quite neat to get an update on current events of people you know, but kinda lost track of.
While e-mail or a blog would accomplish the staying in touch / pointing out what you are up to, just as well, facebook is a kind of hybrid between the two and as such has some merit.
Hi Holly,
Facebook is an awesome social networking site (as I’m sure you can tell) akin to MySpace. The difference is that Facebook has more to do, is more mature, and is leaps and bounds safer. (To give you an idea, no one I know can hack a Facebook profile, but even my girlfriend’s 14-year-old sister can hack a MySpace.) I use it to keep in touch with different people, to pass along mass messages about band (as drum major, it’s my responsibility to get any information from the director to everyone else–thank you, facility through technology!), and to procrastinate. For you, it’s a great place to advertise and reach both the same audience in a new way and new audiences.
It takes a while to get the hang of the site, but once you learn the ropes it’s fairly simple. If you ever need help with it, you have my email, and of course I’d be happy to help!
Best wishes,
Brian
P.S. There’s a friend request on its way from Brian C.
Leave a Reply