I guess Thursday will just be my regular blogging day from now on. Seriously. I don't mean to go a week between posts, it just happens. Life just happens. And in my life, along with the cleaning, cooking, shuttling, and child-rearing, Facebook happens.
Facebook sucks a good bit of what little free time I have. I have tried to give it up, but I really do need to know what all 92 of my friends are doing every day and I just know they are waiting on the edge of their seats for my latest updates. Just nod and agree with me.
As of today, I have been on Facebook for a whole year. I created my account at the invitation of a friend under the ruse or COME SEE MY AWESOME PHOTOS!! And being the nosy ass person that I am, I signed up JUST TO SEE THOSE PHOTOS. Really. I mean, what was Facebook if not another My Space and, geez louise, I am wwaayy too old for My Space.
But then I checked it again a week later because I got an email, MORE PHOTOS!, and I had some friend requests. Me? Friend requests? Who doesn't want to be requested to be another's friend? So I accepted and began keeping in daily touch with high school/college friends I hadn't seen in years. YEARS! I didn't know what they did those twenty years since we'd seen one another, but I instantly knew what they had for breakfast most mornings.
And that was it. I was hooked.
But here I am, a year later, and I'm wondering if there is a Facebook for Dummies book I can check out from the library.
Is there a Facebook etiquette book out there? Because I need to know the following:
1. Applications. What's up with those? I liked My Little Green Patch last spring when I had six friends and could click my new plants every day within three minutes. But I currently have thirty-two plants waiting for me and that might take me, well, forever to add so they just sit there mocking me in the upper right corner every time I log on. What happens if I don't accept them? Does a notification shoot back to the giver saying ANDRIA DOES NOT WANT YOUR PLANT! SHE IS A BAD FRIEND!? Am I bad person because I don't want to throw some Mardi Gras beads? At my next job interview will they be able to find out which 80's movie defines me? To apply or not to apply? That is the question.
2. Memes. Now, ya'll know I love a good meme. I mean, why do I blog if not to talk about myself some more? No one can accuse me of having low self-esteem. But I do know some people hate them with every fiber of their being so to tag or not to tag? If I don't tag I feel like I'm letting all my friends think that I don't really want to know 25 thing about them, but if I tag, are they going to be mad because they have another request in their corner? I do have to confess. If someone else gets tagged and I don't, I do wonder, does this person not like me anymore? Did I offend? Okay. Maybe a little self-esteem issue.
3. Friend requests. Let's just start by saying I have not friended anyone I didn't want to friend. I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea here. I think it's cool if you read my blog and you want to friend me. I'll accept your friend request. If you turn out to be a weirdo, I'll just defriend you. I like that I have new friends now that I wouldn't have without FB. What confuses me, though, is people I barely knew years and years ago, some of whom were downright mean to me, who send me a friend request. WTH? Now, maybe if they added something like, HEY, I KNOW I TREATED YOU LIKE CRAP IN JUNIOR HIGH, I'M SORRY, LET'S BE FRIENDS., then maybe, but an anonymous friend request to add to three hundred others? That kinda reeks of a popularity contest to me. Does whoever have the most friends win? But then how do I look if everyone else I went to school with is friending that person and I'm the lone hold out? Does that make me a b*tch? Which brings me to...
4. Friend suggestions. WHAT? Okay, I can see where this might be helpful to someone who hasn't noticed the search box at the top, but seriously, can I just decide for myself if I want to friend someone? I don't know what to do about the friend suggestion. If I don't want to be friends with the suggested one, I can ignore it sure, but doesn't the friend who sent it to me know I didn't take her suggestion? Does that just say HEY, WHY THE HECK DOES SHE THINK I'D BE FRIENDS WITH HER? GAWD. SHE MUST BE OUT OF HER MIND. I SHALL IGNORE THIS BECAUSE HER SUGGESTION IS LAME! And then do those friends talk about me behind my back on the chat and wonder why I didn't friend? I said I didn't have any self-esteem issues. Shush.
5. Games I just want to add here that Word Twist, Scavenger Hunt, and Hatchlings are a huge time suck and I want to defriend whoever invited me to play in the first place. Not really. But please. Do not invite me to play any different games. I'm stepping away from Parking Wars. I don't care how much fun that looks. But if you want to try and beat me at Word Twist, bring it on.
Are you on Facebook? Are you as confused as I am or am I just old for this?
Excuse while I update my status.....
13 comments:
Oh my gosh, everything you said is SO true! I joined FB a couple of months ago and I feel the exact same way as you do on all five of your points. I also discovered that the mean cheerleader that never talked to me in high school (but magically wants to be my friend now) is still the most annoying person on earth. Some people never change.
I promise to not send anymore plants. But you are still getting drinks:O)
I've been tagged with so many meme's and I've done...one. I just don't have time (and frankly I don't want all those high school people and ex college boyfriends to know THAT much about me). Friend suggestions are just odd. I've accepted all of them even though I didn't want any of them and one person never responded (what up with that?). It's all too strange.
Oh girl, I have NO clue how to answer those questions. Sadly, I never joined in on the Facebook craze. I can barely keep up with my blog. haha
You always make me laugh. I often wonder the same thing about people wanting to befriend me now. One in particular I am SURE never said a single word to me. Now they are my facebook friend. Go figure.
Funny how there seems to be a balance between facebook and blogging. I go from one extreme to another every couple weeks.
As for the friends. Someone pointed out to me that people might be just nosey. Maybe the insecurities of highschool continue into adulthood and they want to see where you are in life compared to them? I had someone friend me who was like that in high school and it's clear nothing has changed. :)
I have a FB, but don't do anything with it-sometimes I say hi to an old high school friend or two, but that is about it. I don't get it at all.
Holy moly I laughed hard reading this.
I have 1,587,633 requests for plants and stuff sitting there waiting for me to decide what to do (it might not be exactly that many). I keep feeling like someone is going to take me off their Christmas card list because I didn't take their Australian Hog Fish or whatever. I don't think they'll know...but I guess I'm afraid of Karma, so I let them stack up.
And I think people have short memories. They know we knew eachother, but aren't sure if we were friends. I got a friend request from a girl who ganged up with another girl and beat me up..hairline fracturing my jaw. They might not remember that but *I* do...
AHHHH... I'm fairly new on facebook... and I'm totally addicted!!!
here's a thought for you... I just wrote about this -- what about sharing pages???
My hubby is sharing mine... taking over mine. It's quite the topic among our friends...
ps. how do you defriend??? good to know...
Total Facebook addict here and this post made me laugh :) I'm a bit OCD too so having those requests and updates stay there too long really bothers me - I have to take care of them one way or another. So, yes, I ignore some things like being kidnapped or mafia wars (what is that, anyway?) but I'm a sucker for the Lil Green Patch and MyFarm and PetSociety and Word Twist and Scramble and...eek I really am an addict! Oh and memes. It's funny, I have never done memes sent by email to a group of friends I regularly see and email but do one for people I haven't seen or really talked to in years? Sure! It makes no sense.
I had to actually go look to see when I joined Facebook - 6/6/07! Whoa! :) It's only been the last 6 months though that it's started sucking the very life out of me. Haha. But it's fun! ;)
Facebook is one of my big time suckers, too. I have found so many long-lost friends! I have found myself checking it several times during the day for updates, and then wonder why I am doing it!
1. You can click "ignore." No one will know. And no one will care. If they do, then screw 'em.
2. If I get tagged, I consider it more of a "come read what I wrote" instead of a "YOU MUST DO THIS." So tag. Or don't. And if you do tag, they don't get a request, they just get notified you tagged them... and they can do what they please about that.
3. This is a hard one for me. I tend to accept all friend requests. But now I've got something like 300 something friends and I don't even want to be friends with all of them. Here's the scoop: If you ignore a friend request, they don't know you ignored them. They might think you never logged into Facebook again. OR maybe they'll know you ignored them, but so what. They probably sent friend requests to everyone at your school. Most likely they won't really care. And, as you said, they can send you a message if they really REALLY want to get back in touch.
4. The friend who sends you a suggestion will only get a notification if you DO accept that new friend. I have always considered this a help to the person that's new to FB. So if a new law school friend joins and somehow finds me, I might suggest to other law school people to add that person. I don't care if they ever become friends. I'm just Helpful Hattie.
5. Does this mean you want to continue beating me in Word Twist? Cause we haven't played in a while.
Does that help? Cause I seriously do nothing all day but hang out on Facebook.
You've said pretty much everything I've thought! I also wonder if people know when you ignore the applications that are sent to you, because I ignore pretty much every one of them, and then feel guilty about it! Sigh...and the friend request? I feel bad/rude if I don't accept them. Half the people I don't even know! They aren't people I know from blogging either - the only thing I can see is that we have a kid w/Ds in common...so the friend me and then never leave any comments. Ok...what is that about? Just to have your friend count go up?
Well, you know I'm on fb and LOVE it! See you there. :)
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