Can’t. Stop. Checking. Facebook…
Well, OK, actually I CAN stop checking–at least, I can anytime I want to, I know I can… why do you doubt me?–but I think my circle of online Facebook friends finally hit some kind of critical mass because earlier today I found myself adding and checking and sending messages obsessively.
I’ve been on LinkedIn and other networks for years, but never check them regularly.
The problem with LinkedIn is that nobody sane puts ALL their good contacts into the service, so it’s ultimately a way for people to get in contact with a lot of folks at their same level. It’s GREAT for that, but if you’re trying to make friends with billionaire VC investors (note: I am NOT trying to do this), then LinkedIn ain’t for you.
But why is Facebook different? I think it’s the constant chatter, the eventful (there’s that idea again) quality of the chronic updates. I know that Facebook caught a lot of hell when they launched their feed application (one former iMedia intern even called me on my cell phone when I was driving into the office to find out what I thought about it… I didn’t know what he was talking about until I got to a computer), but that chronic update means that there’s nearly always something NEW happening.
And you can reconnect with old friends without having to join one of those sites that wants you to provide your first born child. For example, for a while I’ve been running across the name Kevin Werbach in my internet circles and have distantly wondered, “is that the guy I went to high school with?” But I never got around to doing the Googleathon about it. Then, when I saw the name in a mutual friends Facebook circle, one click later I saw his photo, and it’s the same guy! 10 minutes later we’d traded emails. Now that’s interesting!
Another reason that the chatter is helpful is that you can contact somebody casually through the in-network email application and not have it be a big deal. “Hey, do you know somebody who?” or “See you at the conference next week!” or whatever. This is a way of conveying a message without infliciting the burden of a reply, which email seems to have with it. So we might even rename this online community SavingFacebook.
I’m still not sure where this fits into the community vs. mass culture question, but it sure is interesting.
It’s also potentially bad for my writing, so it’s a good thing that I’ve created that filter for myself.
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