Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Facebook - I Finally Gave In

I'd been resisting joining Facebook despite multiple invitations. I have so many email accounts that it was hard to muster up the energy for another time sink. But I kept noticing just how many people I knew were on it which made it more intriguing.

But the thing that put it over the top for me was a different thing. I am working on a long blog entry about the drowning death of a childhood friend that rocked my community pretty hard (the rains remind me of him and his story needs to be told to the internet.) I did find references to it. You guessed it - on Facebook. Now most of the information I could get to and not be on Facebook but at that point since I was already there, it was just as easy to join and get full access.

Facebook is bewildering and that's even with help. What's scary is the amount of matching it can do and find people to suggest as friends and it turns out you know these people. Well most of them. There are a couple who sought me out and I don't know why they are. One of them I think I'll send email to and ask, politely, who the heck they are (we have one person in common so they're not a complete stranger.) the other was likely looking for a videographer as that invite happened when I publicized my No on Prop 8 video.

I must say this does bring up old High School anxieties. Even though it doesn't happen to me now (actually it never did - that was more my fear), what if someone were to send out friend requests and nobody responded? You could orchestrate a virtual shunning - something that I bet high schoolers are really good at. Especially since Facebook is really good about saying who took who as a friend. I can just imagine the drama. "You took Person-x as a friend? You are dead to me." Oh the tension. Oh the very real pain for some.

At least it's less tacky and more adult than MySpace and more relevant that Tribe, and I do have my advisors and it's a great way to keep track of agility people though that's not very hard. Just go to an agility trial with in 100 miles (or more). You'll find them. There are agility people who live hours away (even out of state) that I see on a regular basis. Now that's dedication.

Now about this sheep being thrown at me...

1 comment:

Elf said...

Well, I could have thrown a chicken, but a sheep seemed less tacky and more adult, plus apropos to herding.

I have often sent notes to people politely saying, sorry, I know so many people but I don't remember names very well; where do I know you from? And sometimes they don't answer (fine) and sometimes they do and they know me but I don't ever remember meeting them (I just thank them for the offer and say that unlike most FB users I'm trying to keep it to people I know in actual real life--although when I first started I wasn't quite so careful and added a few I didn't know. I don't regret it--agility people--and I did meet a couple of them AFTER that at scottsdale, so it's a way of expanding one's friendships), and a couple have surprised me--oh, you're THAT Joe! Gosh, it's been 20 years! Cool!

-ellen