Posts tagged facebook

Part 1.

It’s been 17 days now sans Twitter and Facebook. I’m amused that people think that this is some sort of epic giving-up stunt; so many people have reacted with Really?s or How?!s or Why?!?s. For our generation, though, it’s pretty odd to imagine going without either or both of these services, even for a little bit. I’ve gotten more of those reactions because of the Facebook thing, though, which is understandable; I’ve been on it since 2005 and it really is kind of a given assumption that if you’re of a certain age, you’re on Facebook.

Some funny things I’ve noticed:

1. I met some people for the first time this past week and I automatically wanted to ask them to Facebook me so we could keep in touch. How do people actually do that without Facebook, these days? (That is not a serious question.) Taking down someone’s number and/or email feels formal, personal, and intrusive all at the same time. Being Facebook friends is so much easier.
2. Even an old professor from Kalamazoo College (Hi, Dr. Batsell) commented on my not being on Facebook at the moment. It’s so pervasive now.
3. I’ve missed out on a few event invitations on Facebook during this time, actual events that I would have wanted to attend and do plan on attending now that I know about them. Do we not make personal contact when we want people to come to an event anymore? If that doesn’t happen, is that a subconscious sort of hint that they maybe don’t care about your presence that much, if they don’t want to follow up on whether you’re attending or not? I know that this is kind of reading into the situation, but i just think it’s interesting that we’ve lost a lot of personal communication.
4. I have missed birthdays because of not being on Facebook. This is one thing that I still use it for, even though I didn’t go on Facebook all the time like some of my friends. I still feel bad about having to send belated rather than timely wishes. Sorry, Hetty.
5. Photosharing is so much easier on Facebook. I need to actually say things like “Will you email me these pictures so I can see them?” instead of waiting for the notification that I have been tagged in photos on Facebook. I remember when photos weren’t even on Facebook and the tagging thing was new and confusing.
6. I spend a lot of time on Goodreads these days for no reason. It’s not even like I have a lot of friends on it. Besides, what am I going to do with the knowledge of what my friends are currently reading/want to read? This is transference, 100%. PS, check out my books!
7. Speaking of Goodreads. So far, I’ve resisted the urge to update my page-count on my currently-reading books obsessively, even though I downloaded the iPhone app so I could if I wanted to. Since when did our generation decide that it was super important for everyone to know little things that can be pushed out to everyone via Facebook status messages, Tweets, or even Goodreads statuses? I never thought it was necessary to email all of my friends with, “I am on page ___ of __________ right now!” Besides, unless they know the book intimately and obsessively, that’d mean nothing to them. So why do I want to do it so badly? Oh wait, because we’ve somehow been conditioned to do this. When Facebook status messages came out (remember? You had to have a “—first name— is” before every update.) I thought they were the dumbest, most pointless things. Obviously, this was before I got talked into joining Twitter by my friend Donny.
8. I have no idea when anyone updates their blog anymore since I didn’t add feeds to Google Reader. I mean, why bother if you’re just going to see their feeds pushed to Twitter? Well, for situations like this, obviously.

Well, that’s it for now. Ask me stuff on my Formspring if you want!
http://www.formspring.me/justinermd

Oh, and I’m going to inaugurate album reviews sometime this week, starting with Cheryl Cole because I have a weak spot for electropop and English tabloid favo(u)rites. Stay tuned.

(Disclaimer: My blog posts are auto-tweeted to my Twitter and Facebook accounts; I’m not actively doing it.)

For Lent this year I’m giving up Facebook and Twitter. It’s not that I use those services all the time, obsessively, but like most people my age, I’ve gotten used to having Facebook as something to kill time with (read: procrastinate assignments with) on the internet. Twitter is just another distraction. (I’d give up Tumblr too but I kind of need to access it in order to post these blogs! I just don’t check my dashboard as much.)

What’s been really interesting about this little experiment so far, even though it’s only been the first day, is that I’ve already felt disconnected from things. I don’t mean just the people I’m friends with on both services, but also just the world in general. I hadn’t realized how much I rely on Twitter to keep up with what’s going on in the world. I follow a lot of news services on Twitter, like the Guardian, the New York Times, Huffington Post, and the Daily Beast, to name a few. I’d even taken those same services off of my Google Reader because I saw all of their updates on Twitter. I suppose I have to add that back to Reader before I fall behind on what’s going on.

I’ve been maintaining for a while that the majority of Facebook is totally unnecessary, anyway. I don’t really need to know all of these details about people’s lives, and if they really wanted me to know, then they’d probably just tell me. The people who I really keep in touch with can all get in contact with me in ways that aren’t Facebook and Twitter, anyway, so I suppose this’ll also be a really interesting experiment regarding my relationships.

Well, I suppose that’s the end of day one!