I joined Facebook sometime around March 2006, at the request of a waitress friend who had created a group for the bar I was hanging out at.
No one can accuse me of not being productive.
Like many at first, I answered the request, but never filled out a profile or did anything else. For about six months, that famous question mark appeared as my image.
Then one day, because I had decided to get involved in politics (very, very loosely involved), and needed a way to stay in the loop with regard to upcoming events, I decided to bite the bullet and expand my profile somewhat, and in the process started discovering how Facebook works. It was an eye opener.
It doesn’t take long to realize that Facebook is really a very powerful tool, and like all powerful tools, can be used for good and for other purposes. I will refrain from describing how it works here, as almost everyone with a computer (and under the age of 40) has a Facebook account now. Our profiles become an extension of our lives, and can grow to amazing lengths when they include applications we have added (such as the famous Scrabulous, a rip off of the game Scrabble), not to mention the causes, video skins, events, and everything else either built in to Facebook or added there by its millions of users. The problem is, unless you take the effort to filter what gets viewed, especially by your Facebook friends, this is all very public, which is poison to both the private and in particular the paranoid. Stop staring!
Oh yes, and that concept of a friend in Facebook is loosely interpreted. Many of us have friends in facebook we barely know. Some people collect friends as though they are postage stamps, competing for the highest quantity. I have had people add me as friends who I have never even met. Seriously! In my case it is understandable, given my good looks and all, but still!
My first negative encounter with Facebook was almost immediate. It took me no time to notice that the same waitress who had invited me to join Facebook had also tagged a photo of me. It was a nice picture, of myself holding a beer and sitting at a video lottery terminal, which was exactly the opposite image I was trying to project of myself to the vast, always online, searchable world which is the internet.
And being a formerly heavy gambler, I had other issues with the image aside from aesthetics. Nobody likes being caught in a lie.
Fortunately we can delete these tags, but who has time to stay on the lookout for such things? We can only be so diligent, after all.
Luckily, Facebook provides the solution. Every time anyone gets tagged, they get an email with a subject line similar if not identical to “Suzie Smith just tagged a photo of you on Facebook”. Also if someone sends you a message, or more likely, invited you to use some crappy application that is of no interest or use to anyone except maybe a couple of weirdos or your bed ridden Auntie in Regina, you receive an email.
In fact, if you don’t set your notification settings accordingly, you will soon start feeling very popular, as the emails will start to flood your inbox. I assure you this feeling of popularity will be short lived.
As an example of one of those aforementioned applications, I recently received a notification that I was sent ‘good karma’ by a friend (my apologies, Sandra), and I was asked if I wanted to return the good karma.
I would certainly like to keep my karmaic emissions as positive as anyone, and have nothing against sharing. However, I always believed that we established karma by our actions, not by clicking a button on a mouse. It is a setup begging for abuse. Think about it (not too hard, please). It is as though I can diss everyone I know, stab the hearts of all sensitive souls around me, and make it all okay by sending good karma through Facebook. How marvellous!
There are literally thousands of these type of applications. Admittedly most are fun. Some of course are pure tripe, but I will save imposing my tastes on you for another time.
An element of Facebook which I find specifically weird, and the most embarassingly public at times, is the ‘Status Update’, where we see the status of each and every friend we have. Although I admire the honesty of many people who keep this up to date, I am not sure everyone appreciates the news that Johnny just attended kiss a cowboy night at a bar in the gay village. I humbly believe that some things are just best kept personal.
The overall impression I get with Facebook is that, very much like with this post and this blog, it is a source of mildly entertaining content, but when you are done you’ll find yourself asking where all of that precious time went. And as far as being a valuable tool for social networking goes, it is indeed, although honestly it’s not all that more valuable than simple email if you’re organized.
So in conclusion, I offer simple, if not useless, advice. If you value your privacy or feel that time is precious, the telephone is a preferable form of communication. If you are unfortunate enough to count yourself among the paranoid (not that you would know it), junk your computer and your telephone right now, light another one, close your eyes, and remind yourself that, other than the government of course, most of us are too busy worrying about ourselves to really care.
nice work, man