Monday, February 21, 2011

Facebook vs. Blogging

So I got a new phone, one of them Droids, and since it had this widget just sitting there saying, "Hey, why don't you connect this to Facebook! Are you too old or something? All the cool kids are doing it...", well, I decided to give it a shot. I'd had a Facebook account already but I only used it for contacting people or having them contact me -- so that we could then switch to e-mail or whatever. But now I'm giving it a shot.

It's actually sort of cool seeing my friends' little updates about what is going on in their lives and stuff. But I also had to unfriend someone within the first 24 hours so as to be able to keep her friendship (ironic, eh?). See, she posted an article from Joe Mercola, and it turns out when I think someone is factually incorrect, I am totally incapable of keeping my mouth shut... so better to just not see the updates.

Which leads me to my point -- I am thinking, if you are going to say something controversial, get a blog or something. Use Facebook for social stuff, not for political or other controversial stuff. I'm also thinking of the time that my wife and her uncle mixed it up on Facebook and sort of wound up on temporarily bad terms, because of some sort of political/religious discussion.

The thing with Facebook is that what you write goes out to all your friends. Not just the ones who think your scholarship on the Peloponnesian War is fascinating, but all of them -- so if you want to write about the Peloponnesian War, get a blog.

I dunno, just thinking about it...

8 comments:

  1. When I first got on FB, almost immediately I got "friended" with a bunch of old high school friends. And then I found I was getting continually bombarded by updates about every trivial thing two or three of them were doing. Like, I haven't seen you for 30+ years -- I'm supposed to care that you had a nice bike ride on Sunday? And no, I'm not going to feed your fucking sheep in Farmville; I've got my own lame-o ways of wasting time if I want to....

    So yeah: controversial and hobby stuff goes on blogs or special-interest forums. I mostly ignore FB.

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  2. Ueah I have one "friend" who is really more of a friend of a friend, who posts pretty frequently. To make matters worse, her profile photo has a much closer friend in it so I always think it's her.. heh

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  4. One other thing: My FB acct and model railroading activities are under my real name. All the really scarey stuff is under this 'nym. OK, go ahead and call me a coward ;-).

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  5. I have had some second thoughts about using my real name for the blog. The worst part was when I posted a rather vulgar rant about a version control tool we use at work, and the lead engineer for the vendor figured out who I was and called the relevant team at our company to make sure I was getting the support I needed. Oops. :/

    Then you've got Markuze, who is probably ultimately harmless, but I still don't like what amount to freakin' death threats being directed towards my actual identity...

    If I had it to do over again, I think I'd still use my real name. But still...

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  6. My brother and I are no longer speaking because of what ultimately boils down to, a FB rant. Chances are I would have eventually grown weary of his self serving, narrow minded antics any way. Oh, and his f-ing spoiled brat wife. On another somewhat related note, he had a hand in getting Justin fired from his job at Arigato, and ruining my original wedding plans. However, I must add that ultimately our wedding was perfect in every way. Despite my D-bag brother and his stuck up wife. :)

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  7. Oh my god! That's awful... This is Chuck, that brother? Yeesh, that's really sad to hear. I didn't know you'd been having issues with his wife too. That sucks :/

    Should have made him wait outside at your wedding.... ;)

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  8. Yep, Chuck. It is sad. Haven't spoken to him since August. Eh. Gotta love family.

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