I used to be on Facebook but deleted my account after a few months. I was wondering what you made of such sites: are they helpful? Harmful? Seemingly helpful
but ultimately harmful? Useless fun? A tedious necessity?
And why or why not?
I had two main reasons for deleting my account. First, I was checking it way more often than I feel comfortable doing. "Facecrack" is a term that I heard used to describe the addictive nature of Facebook, and I think that term is apt. Second, I was getting the feeling that Facebook would likely diminish the intensity of relationships even as it increased their numbers. In other words, I was worried and starting to see signs that my friends would bother less with direct one-on-one communication, preferring instead to get in touch with others via status updates or mass crap. But hey, I get to find out that the good looking girl in high school is less good looking now. Woohoo.
I'm starting to rethink my assessment. Re: the first issue, there's not much to rethink, unfortunately. But re: the second, I'm thinking that the behavior described may be due to my particular circle of friends. In other words, while my friends at the time may have been the type to let a strong form of communication be replaced by a weaker, less intimate one, maybe my current friends are not really of that type.
Other than that, I've noticed that life tends to improve (for me) to the degree that I remove interpersonal restrictions. It is almost always better to have people in my life in some capacity than to create hard and fast divisions. I wonder whether protecting the integrity of relationships by forcing them to take place over the phone or face-to-face may result in eliminating relationships altogether. After all, some people are likely to only be willing to communicate with me in a relatively low-effort way.
As far as I can see, here are the pros and cons of these sites:
PROS:
-easier access to people you know
-easier access to people who know people that you know
-ease of organizing multi-person events
CONS:
-severe privacy issues, such as Facebook's right to do stuff with the information you submit
-if you have embarrassing pictures, you may be screwed when they get linked to your profile
-the Facecrack phenomenon
-seems like a juvenile thing at times; I'm not entirely convinced that this whole online networking thing shouldn't or isn't mostly restricted to the under-25 crowd
-lots and lots of stupid people
-even smart people see their IQs drop when they get on Facebook and the like
-possibility of reducing intensity of established relationships
Any thoughts?
And why or why not?
I had two main reasons for deleting my account. First, I was checking it way more often than I feel comfortable doing. "Facecrack" is a term that I heard used to describe the addictive nature of Facebook, and I think that term is apt. Second, I was getting the feeling that Facebook would likely diminish the intensity of relationships even as it increased their numbers. In other words, I was worried and starting to see signs that my friends would bother less with direct one-on-one communication, preferring instead to get in touch with others via status updates or mass crap. But hey, I get to find out that the good looking girl in high school is less good looking now. Woohoo.
I'm starting to rethink my assessment. Re: the first issue, there's not much to rethink, unfortunately. But re: the second, I'm thinking that the behavior described may be due to my particular circle of friends. In other words, while my friends at the time may have been the type to let a strong form of communication be replaced by a weaker, less intimate one, maybe my current friends are not really of that type.
Other than that, I've noticed that life tends to improve (for me) to the degree that I remove interpersonal restrictions. It is almost always better to have people in my life in some capacity than to create hard and fast divisions. I wonder whether protecting the integrity of relationships by forcing them to take place over the phone or face-to-face may result in eliminating relationships altogether. After all, some people are likely to only be willing to communicate with me in a relatively low-effort way.
As far as I can see, here are the pros and cons of these sites:
PROS:
-easier access to people you know
-easier access to people who know people that you know
-ease of organizing multi-person events
CONS:
-severe privacy issues, such as Facebook's right to do stuff with the information you submit
-if you have embarrassing pictures, you may be screwed when they get linked to your profile
-the Facecrack phenomenon
-seems like a juvenile thing at times; I'm not entirely convinced that this whole online networking thing shouldn't or isn't mostly restricted to the under-25 crowd
-lots and lots of stupid people
-even smart people see their IQs drop when they get on Facebook and the like
-possibility of reducing intensity of established relationships
Any thoughts?
I really
like it for quick messages to my friends. Also, I have borderline personality disorder - think of it as a huge abandonment complex. Before one of my friends
got facebook I used to PM him at least weekly just saying "hi??" or "are you upset with me?" - the problem was fixed by him getting a
facebook account and playing scrabble with me.
