… I was also sucked into Facebook last week by my cousins and siblings. I initially felt too old but then a bunch of people in my class in grade school and high school contacted me immediately so I already feel like I belong a little. We were making fun of Facebook at work recently. One jibe was that it’s a classic force multiplier: it allows you to form cliques and shun people at great efficiency! Before you could only shun people in sight, while out socially — but now you can shun people anywhere, anytime!
When did you sign up on Facebook, and how long did it take for people you hadn’t been in touch with in ages to start contacting you? If you haven’t signed up, why not? There’s like, a Booman Tribune group now and everything. ;D
No Facebook and wouldn’t want one if you paid me. Don’t know why I have such a thing against it, but I do.
I signed up for facebook at little after I moved to Philly, and started getting nagged by my friends in England that I should join. The funny thing is that my friends in England are mostly on it, but my friends from before that are mostly not.
Join the Booman Group
I was on Friendster when it was the flavor of the week. Then I moved to MySpace because a large cluster of people I knew from way back when were there. I just flat out refuse to do Facebook as well.
There’s a curious thing about reconnecting with people you haven’t seen in twenty years: there’s a reason you haven’t seen them in twenty years. Sometimes you fall out of touch with people purely as a result of circumstances, but most of the time, it’s because there really isn’t enough to hold the relationship together.
I’ve run into a handful of people on social networking sites that I was glad to reconnect with. I’ve met a couple of new people who turned into real-world friends. For the most part, though, I have a friend list full of former high school classmates who generate enormous quantities of spam bulletins consisting of annoying quizzes and stupid chain-letter games and who remain on my list because I don’t want to hurt their feelings.
Not a chance.
Message on my answering machine: “Sorry I missed your call, but I’m making some changes in my life. Leave a message, and if I don’t get back to you, you’re one of them.”
I have a handful of friends, I talk to them whenever any of us feel like it, and it’s good. The cybernetic “friend” thing reminds me entirely too much of the cliquekids in high school who kept a running tally of how many classmates had signed their senior yearbooks and thought it meant something. (My score: 0 signatures, 0 books signed. Perfect.)
If I haven’t been in contact with someone for 20 years, I haven’t WANTED to do so. I doubt seriously that they’ve become more agreeable company in the interim. I know damn well that I haven’t.