7 Jun
2012
7 Jun
'12
12:22 a.m.
On 06/06/2012 08:11 PM, Liam Proven wrote:
I agree 100%.
Our opinions
on social media are very much the same, though. I have a
Facebook account, but mainly to find and keep in touch with people who
haven't figured out "real email" yet; mainly old childhood friends.
Overall, my position is that I'm a busy guy, and I will NEVER have
enough free time for Facebook. It's little other than a huge time sink
for people who don't have anything better to do. :-(
You know, it is not mandatory, or even useful or helpful, to play with
it to use it. I don't put many pictures on it. I seldom update
my status - that's
what Twitter is for, so I feed it through. I prefer email for
contacting people. I don't play any games on it at all and rarely
browse it - maybe on 5-10 min session a week, if that.
You don't need any of that.
I'm on Facebook for 5-10mins every two weeks or so.
But it is becoming the Internet's telephone
directory. It is a simple
easy way to find people and build a big address book, to contact them
if needed, and to use as a birthdays-reminder system and so on.
Calling someone for the first time in ages? Quickly look at their page
and see what has happened in their life recently.
Yes, I agree...but..
Its events system is also usable and can be syndicated
out via
standard protocols - I sync mine into my Google Calendar, which is
synched into my phone automatically. Much easier than setting up and
running my own Exchange Server, which I am perfectly capable of doing
but see no reason to.
You don't have to live on the damned thing to make use of it.
...this is where I have a problem. Nearly everyone I know uses
Facebook. Of them, I can count maybe two or three who DON'T "live on
the damned thing". It's built to become addictive to people who don't
have anything better to do, and let's face it...most people (excluding
people like us) DON'T have anything better to do.
Using it periodically for the reasons you state isn't the problem.
People living and breathing the stupid thing is where it becomes a
problem. Marriages are ending, jobs are being lost, etc etc all because
people just can't wait to rush to the nearest computer and "check in
real quick" on Facebook...where they sit for the rest of the night.
That's the part I have a problem with. Not the usage pattern you
describe.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA