| Thursday, February 19, 2009 |
| Let's face it |
On occasion, I give my parents a bit of a hard time over the fact that they don't use a cell phone. When we were driving home after they picked me up at the Tampa airport a couple of weeks ago, we noticed that there was a huge back-up on the St. Pete-Tampa bridge, going in the opposite direction, i.e., the road they'd been driving on just an hour or so ago. If they'd gotten stuck in it on their way to meet me, I noted that they wouldn't have been able to call me to say they were running late, because unlike everyone else in the known universe, they don't have a cell phone!
However, according to Slate.com columnist Farhad Manjoo, I am, in my own way, just as out of touch as my non-cell phone using folks. Why? I'm not on Facebook.
Manjoo recently appeared on NPR's Talk of the Nation to discuss his Slate article, "Everyone else is on Facebook. Why aren't you?" He writes:
For a long while—from about the late '80s to the late-middle '90s, Wall Street to Jerry Maguire—carrying a mobile phone seemed like a haughty affectation. But as more people got phones, they became more useful for everyone—and then one day enough people had cell phones that everyone began to assume that you did, too. Your friends stopped prearranging where they would meet up on Saturday night because it was assumed that everyone would call from wherever they were to find out what was going on. From that moment on, it became an affectation not to carry a mobile phone; they'd grown so deeply entwined with modern life that the only reason to be without one was to make a statement by abstaining. Facebook is now at that same point—whether or not you intend it, you're saying something by staying away. Manjoo's argument boils down to this: Nowadays, everyone expects you to be on Facebook, from prospective employers to people you meet at parties, and if you're not on it, they may think you're a weirdo -- or just being difficult. "[I]n many circles Facebook is now the expected way to make these connections. By being on Facebook, you're facilitating such ties; without it, you're missing them and making life difficult for those who went looking for you there."
Why am I not on Facebook? For one thing, I don't want to spend the time on it. I maintain a MySpace page for one of the bands on my label, and I'm embarrassed to note that I haven't logged in to approve friend requests since Jan. 26. Then there's the issue of reconnecting with people. Joe, who is on Facebook, has been fielding requests from old college pals he hasn't seen, or indeed thought about, in years. Maybe I'm being petulant, but I'm super-easy to find on the Internet, and have been for over 10 years; and yet I think only one old high school friend has ever emailed me out of the blue (a guy who once took me to see William F. Buckley give a speech. Good times). And the issue of "friending" and "unfriending" seems fraught with anxiety.
An acquaintance of mine admits he's basically stopped blogging because he has now made Facebook the locus of his Internet activity. I kind of like the idea, though, that people might stumble on my blog posts by searching for some serendipitous phrase, something that would never happen in the walled-off garden that is Facebook.
The truth is, in this crummy economy, if I thought joining Facebook would help my business, I'd probably go ahead and do it. But as long as I'm keeping busy without it, my face will remain unbooked. |
posted by 125records @ 2:43 PM  |
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| 6 Comments: |
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If it makes you feel any better, my dad joined Facebook last week, which means it's officially on the way out. We'll finally be able to put the nail in its coffin 18 months from now, when my mother joins.
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My dad is also on Facebook. Funnily enough, I had to log into his FB account while I was visiting in order to troubleshoot one of my clients' FB issues.
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Yes on Facebook...but no on cell phone. For me, there are maybe one-two times a year when having one would have been convenient - which just isn't enough to justify the hassle. What hassle? Well, when I did have a cell phone, I'd always forget to check it (and I'd have to check it since I certainly didn't want to have to answer it in real-time: I hate real-time telephony - who are these people who think they have the right to interrupt whatever I'm doing?) - and since I never checked it, people wouldn't call me anyway...except for my students, and then they'd get pissed because I didn't check it. E-mail's way more reliable for me.
I can't imagine using Facebook for business purposes - although what do I know from business? But it's fun, socially - but totally unlike a blog.
Also: the word verification thingy is almost naughty: "whori"...
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You do not need to be on Facebook. Trust me on this.
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I'm stubbornly refusing Facebook also, though I suppose I'll give in eventually. I just don't want another thing to have to maintain. And maybe I'm a hermit by nature after all.
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My husband and I are on Facebook. I find it fun and very shallow. We are of the AARP generation, so I guess we have doomed Facebook.
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Name: Sue
Home: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States
About Me: Email me: talk at interbridge dot com
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If it makes you feel any better, my dad joined Facebook last week, which means it's officially on the way out. We'll finally be able to put the nail in its coffin 18 months from now, when my mother joins.