My Friends Aren't Social

I run hot and cold on social networking sites. Since 2003 and the start of this blog, I've waded through a number of services such as Orkut, MySpace, and the old Facebook. I got irritatingly addicted but the love affair was always extremely short lived. There seemed very little payback for the time invested.

A few days ago, I revisited Facebook as I had received a few requests to add friends. I'm happy I took the time to look around. Although I sense a general dissatisfaction among many users resulting from a recent major revision, I think it suits me much better now. Facebook has achieved that critical mass where more likely than not, at least a few people in nearly everbody's world has already joined. It's quite astounding how easy it is to find someone with whom one's completely lost contact.

I really think the new integration with Flickr is useful. I don't want to start uploading directly to Facebook, but that would be a great option for people staking their first claim on the Internet. I like how my eJournal and images entries, such as this one, will end up in my notes area due to RSS. The fact one can chat with any friends who are on the Facebook page sort of negates the need for online chat programs. Using people's wall is a step beyond email. The status updates implements a sort of Twitter tool. Those are a lot of pluses.

If there's anything sad about my renewed interest in social networking again it's the lack of people I can find to add. Unlike the previous social networking sites mentioned, Facebook relies on the interaction between people who already have real-world relationships. This is great for kids who grew up with the Internet. Unfortunately, hardly any of my real world acquaintances will bother to join. I feel sorry that many will never understand how this form of communication works. I'm sure they always hear about Facebook petitions in the news. Even one of my local candidates for Parliament set up a group as a method of communicating with potential constituents. By not participating one is missing a critical shift in how the world now works.

I remember a time when people didn't have an email address. Yet today's high school students can hardly remember a time when people were without a Facebook page.