How is Facebook different from Twitter? And why don’t I use it to “stay connected”?
A friend asked in the comments section of my Twitter post where Facebook came in to the whole “how I stay connected” subject. I dubiously answered “in anodder post” (anodder = another).
Although Facebook is just as much a communication medium as Twitter is, and maybe even more popular because of all the activities that it offers to people, to me it is a whole different kind of medium. I recounted the times Twitter has kept me grounded with news from my world and how it keeps me connected in that way. However, I have to admit that the Facebook brand has not evolved into a serious medium for me. And I can only speculate why.
The answer may lie in the history I have with Facebook. I joined somewhere around April of 2007 after reading one of my favourite blogs and seeing her mention it. I even blogged about it:
i found this place… http://facebook.com … quite by accident when browsing one of my favourite blogs … somehow it seems to have caught my attention far more than myspace or hi5 ever did. i really don’t know why. in any case, i think i will try and keep up with this one – at least for a while. should be fun.
Based on the other site references in that paragraph, you should be able to surmise the mindset I had when I joined: another place to be spammed and harassed for dates and “hook-ups” and people “wanting to be friends” (does anyone really value the meaning of a “friend” anymore?)
Thankfully, Facebook turned out to be less of an annoyance for me than the other two places and I have stuck with it. The other 2 haven’t been as lucky and whereas my myspace account still exits, my Hi5 one met the delete key quite recently.
Some might accuse me of being anti-social, and in a sense that might be so, but when you REALLY don’t want people randomly sending “friend” invites just because your photo looks good or intriguing or interesting or they just want someone new to talk to …
Look, don’t get me wrong – I am NOT in the least bit averse to making new friends. I welcome the opportunity to make new friends (wow, I never knew how passionately I felt about the whole concept of “friending” on social networks until I wrote this post) and when I say friends, I mean FRIENDS – people I like, have things in common with, can have more than a how’s-the-weather type conversation with, someone who ends up caring about me and me about them … that kind of thing takes time and interaction.
Facebook does provide the perfect medium for that kind of interaction and I have made a few friends – some are friends of friends; in the early days, I did the random accept friend-invite thing too just to see what it was like ; those who I accepted because of games I played (Metropolis requires you to “friend” your neighbours); and of course, there are the people who you lost touch with (school mates and old work colleagues or even family members) who you just have to re-connect with.
Frankly, Facebook tends to be quite “spammy”. I can’t seem to get away from the Hi5 and myspace relationship that the service has. It doesn’t help that quite a few people on my “friends” list actually use the service to entertain themselves (Oh how I miss FB Purity and it’s ability to block the random “I just levelled up” messages).
It’s not that I don’t want to know that you’re having a good time playing your games, it’s that if 50 of you are having a good time playing games, then I miss the messages from the 10 other people on my list. Messages that I actually would like to respond to from time-to-time. It’s a lot of work to wade through 50 people talking about their game activities to find the one “I tested Google Chrome on my Linux box today and oh boy am I excited” message to respond to.
To sum it all up … Facebook provides me the opportunity to check in with people and say “Hey, how ya doin?” and provide others with the “how I’m doin’” updates as well. Yet at the same time, it tends to be off-putting simply because most people use it as a party medium. I like Facebook, and will probably always use it, but don’t expect me to view it in the same light as I do Twitter. It just isn’t the same for me.
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Comments 2
I agree.
Posted 13 Dec 2009 at 12:14:42 ¶Oh, and it is just as difficult to not publish what you are doing in those games…the most irritating thing about the games is that you end up spamming everyone.
Indeed. And that is part of the reason I stopped playing them … hate the idea of spamming my friends.
Posted 13 Dec 2009 at 12:28:13 ¶