The Concept of Facebook
By Andy Heath
Well over a year ago, I set up a Facebook page. About six months ago, I actually started working with it from time to time. It was interesting. You could check on friends and find people that you haven't talked to since the dawn of time and put updates on your mood, the music you're listening to, etc. You can even take these little quizzes such as "How Well Do You Know 80's Cartoons?" and things of that nature.
I am not unsavvy in technology, but I have to admit Facebook took some getting used to for me. It took me forever to figure out how to put a picture of myself on there. And then I could not figure out how to post things and do all the normal things that you do with Facebook.
But I have found it interesting. I have reconnected with some people that I used to hang out with at the ETSU Wesley Foundation back when I was in college. It's fun to talk to them now – and it was then too, but perhaps more fun now because I don't see them all the time.
I guess the biggest challenge with Facebook is the fact that you have to be selective in what you put on there. You can have "friends" on Facebook and all of them have access to the same information. So if your hot, steamy lover is your friend and so is your mother, then they're seeing the same information. It can be a scary concept. I have to say, my friends from the student Methodist center in college are not terribly happy that I read Tarot cards now, but I suppose that's part of the fun of Facebook. It seems people really get to know you as a person because you don't discriminate in what one person can see and another cannot.
But now I don't spend as much time on there. I get on there whenever I get an email that someone has "written on my wall" or sent me a message. But to be honest, I would rather just connect with people in other ways. I like having tea at Starbucks with friends (decaf, of course) and just reminiscing about old times. I would rather do that than sit glued to a laptop – not that I am never glued to my laptop.
I would not mind all of you asking me to be friends on Facebook, but then I don't know how to post the URL of my facebook page. In ways, it seems so much more complicated than MySpace – I always knew what my URL was when I had MySpace.
I think if I am ever to get used to Facebook, I will just have to sit down and learn it – but I doubt I ever will.
