Social Networking

I heard a statistic on the radio the other day that something like 50% of all women in my age bracket check their social networking site before even using the bathroom when they get up in the morning. Okay, so i am not that bad, but I check it as soon as i can and sometimes go on Facebook in my lunch hour when i am in Tauranga Library(as Ele would have noticed!).

Personally I love Facebook, I think the media's interest in privacy issues is just scaremongering. I persuaded Geoff to sign up and then he read an article that scared him from ever using it. For now, this is a good thing untl he improves his computer skills and is then able to play with the privacy settings himself, because they do change a lot and its hard to keep up, but i worked so hard to get him to look at it! Mistrust of Facebook etc is surely a generational thing, he wants me to just pick up the phone to stay in touch with friends, but my toll bill would be astronomical and i would have no time to do anything but ring my friends if i wanted to keep up with what they are doing as well as i do with Facebook.

I think FB also extends your network of friends, people who you have lost touch with from school, or old family friends can be caught up with, without the awkwardness of person to person contact with someone who you only have a little in common with. My partner says that is just being nosey, but i disagree! its nice to stay friends with a lot of people. I reckon its the equivilent of exchanging christmas cards with an old friend, but instead of a once a year staid letter loudly proclaiming the achievements for the preceeding year, you get to keep up with even the smallest of a person's life experiences. Whether this means you learn from someone else's mistakes, find out about an old friend's illness or wedding, or just get to see pictures of their children and dogs and cats and admire from afar, i still think this is a good thing! Maybe i am a sucker for attention, but friends posting a comment on a status when i am sick really helps, and i like to think that an old school friend appreciates my comments about how lovely she looked in her wedding dress and my contratulations about getting married - without having to invite me to the actual wedding!

I also have a Bebo and Myspace accounts, but hardly use these. I joined these to keep in touch with those friends that only used those sites, but even they have come over to the dark side and joined facebook now. My mother, brother, boyfriend, sister in law and heaps of my friends are on facebook. I have a few friends (mainly in the psychology industry, where privacy is very important) that have not joined up in case someone they would rather not contacts them, but even one of these naysayers has joined up - under peer pressure, because of us FBers who constantly put photos including her up on FB and she wants to have a look. We have an agreement not to tag more than one photo (as being her) and she untags once she has looked!

I think that these sites are a great way to keep in touch with friends, especially seeing as most of mine do not live in the same town (or even country) as me. Its become an addiction, and i do not need to look at it every day, but i do, just in case someone has commented on a picture or posting i have made. I try to come up with provocative or interesting Status messages all day and then post them when i get home to see who will comment or 'like' them. However often i forget the status by the time i get home!

I also upload pictures of what i am up to and show off videos and pictures of Ruby winning at agility!

I can see the negative aspects of Facebook, privacy is only one of them. However i do realise that it is a business and it needs to make money, so certain information has to be made available to advertisers so as to target their market, otherwise they wont want to advertise and Facebook couldnt be free any more. I even occasionally click on their ads just to keep them coming back! I obviously have it bad for Facebook because i often start talking to non Facebook friends about something that i assume that they already know about and they stare at me wondering what on earth i am talking about. I then realise they havent read my 5th status of the week and dont know that Ruby won another agility ribbon last weekend (or whateva)!

I make sure all my photos and videos that i upload to FB are 'friends only' and have a completely private account. I try not to sign up to to many FB pages or applications (which can then download your information) and if i stop using any i have signed up to i delete their access. I was shocked to learn the other day tho, htat my profile pic cannot be made private - not much of an issue as it is currently of Ruby - but something to note for future pics!

Facebook is not only about keeping up with friends, but you can follow news and tv programs and other interesting things that are happening in the world.

So in summary, i am a Facebook fiend, and if you dont have an account, i will try and convert you and am i not prepared to listen to anything negative about it! For every negative point, i have a positve!

C

Addendum: Check out this amusing article http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/blogs/connector/3934697/Sorry-my-friend-quota-is-full about making and breaking facebook friends