FaceBook Update -- I Still Don't Like It

Big surprise, I know. Recently I bit the bullet and got more active on Facebook. I've been on FB for a while, but kind of in a secret, hidey, spying kind of way. OK, I'll admit that Farmville was a huge part of the draw for me to come back. But also because some of my former students kept needling me about it, and I realized that if I ever wanted a chance of staying in touch with them, I probably ought to be more active on Facebook.

I have really mixed feelings about Facebook.

Part of it has to do with the fact that to really participate in it, you kind of have to give up your psuedonysm on the internet. And I don't like that. For one thing, there are all kinds of articles about universities and employers snooping on people's Facebook pages. In fact, I use those articles as part of my Spring Rhetoric courses. My students' dorm resident assistants try to friend them on FB because they are encouraged by their superiors to snoop on the students' pages to see if there are pics of them doing things they're not supposed to do in the dorms. I've had several students kicked out of dorms because of pictures on FB. On the one hand, yeah, they were in the wrong. But on the other hand, they obviously weren't causing a disturbance if the only way they were caught was a pic on FB. Additionally, students in those pics who aren't doing anything wrong also end up getting charged just because they were there, which is completely unfair.

I think my bigger problem is family and FB. Despite my rabble rousing personality, I don't really like drama. I like raising a fuss when some right is being violated or justice and equality are being trampled on, blah blabbity blah. But otherwise, I don't really care very much for confrontation. Most of my family, in-laws included, are fairly conservative and religious people. I like being an open atheist. I like bitching about my family from time to time. I'd like to post things about my crappy hometown without expecting to get whined at over it whenever I end up coming home. Frankly, I'd like to think I'm not in the spotlight all the time.

FB also seems to be the place to find all your old high school friends again. First you have to get over the pictures people have posted of themselves. Some people look really fantastic. And some people ... don't. Finding them all seems exciting until you've friended them and then realize that they really haven't changed since high school, and why was it you were friends, again? The friend who was a bossy-pants in high school is still a bossy pants, but this time on Farmville, leaving bossy signs all over her farm about how you should run your farm. LOL. Or, people who aren't really friends at all are busy friending each other to ... what? Have more friends?

Then there is the posting. I'll admit that most of my own posts are Farmville accomplishments, but that's because whenever something good happens to you, if you post it your Farmville friends can potentially get a bonus off of it, too. Most posts, though, seem pretty inane, mine included. Few people post interesting things on FB, and rarely with wit -- I honestly think Twitter has FB beat on that score. You only have so many characters to use, including spacing, so you have to be thoughtful about what you tweet. It seems like micro-micro blogging instead of just ... niceties.

I dunno. Maybe I just need more FB friends. Me and my co-worker-buddy use Ning anyway. :p

-- DV

Oh, and Meg, you are the exception to the rule. Your posts are always interesting. :D