Me + Facebook

At an impromptu dinner in Massachusetts on Sunday, Nathan questioned my Facebook aversion by suggesting that I was ignoring the one social network that actually seemed to be popular. After fumbling with some logic about how I preferred my social networks to knit me to friends I seldom saw otherwise (like those who live in Denmark), I realized there was some truth in what he was saying: if this is, to some extent, my “field,” then it’s foolhardy to ignore Facebook.

So after opting in and out several times over the past year, my Facebook account is now back in business, and I’ve jumped from having 4 “friends” to having 108 in the space of a few days (man Leo Cheverie knows everyone!).

In the process, I’ve actually re-connected with some lost souls, which has been nice. So far I think the killer feature of Facebook is simply the fact that it makes “building your network” so darned easy (that makes it the most annoying feature for some, of course, given the associated flood of friend requests the result).

I’m still conflicted about whether there’s any long-term value in the whole “continuous partial attention” thing, but I’m suspending my disbelief long enough to hang around for a while.

Comments

Yoel Roth's picture
Yoel Roth on June 29, 2007 - 15:00 Permalink

It sort of amused me that you posted this right as Facebook entered one of the longer outages I can remember (going on an hour, which I guess is a testament to its stability). Unless it’s just my connection selectively deciding that Facebook is no longer worthy of being loaded..

Andrew MacPherson's picture
Andrew MacPherson on June 30, 2007 - 18:45 Permalink

Reading this blog kind of got me primed for facebook. I signed up for Plazes after reading about it here but lost interest because I didn’t know anyone using it. That is the real Facebook magic is it has reached a threshold where….who knows where it will go. It may be exagerating to say it is as big of a jump in communication as early email but not much.

Jennifer L's picture
Jennifer L on July 1, 2007 - 01:44 Permalink

This post amused me greatly!

I was adverse to the idea of facebook- why would I want to connect with people I barely remember from the past decade? ;) However, I have now come around to the addictive side- minus all the insane add-ons that drive me batty.

Facebook has provided an interesting way to be social without _having_ to be social. Very convenient for “thinking of you” notes, and our societal trend to…well, just see what our neighbours are up to!

Welcome to the insanity- love your blog! ;)