facebook irony

When facebook was in its infancy, a neighbour sent me a link asking me to join her in the new world of social media. I looked into it and turned her down in fear of too much time and too much information.

Today, I have a facebook account but it's more about being able to access it for work's purposes rather then letting everyone know my water broke and I was going to the hospital to have a baby. I am not. It's just an example.

Truthfully, facebook scares me. Their privacy settings are terrible and each time they make a change, it's the user who has to do the legwork to ensure those pictures you post of your child isn't available for all to see. See here on how to update for their latest change:lhttp://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/how-to-prepare-your-facebook-profile-for-graph-search-143714891.html

facebook users also scare me. I suppose I have done too many stories about cyber crime, but the information kids post makes me feel rather sick.

As it's my blog, please allow me a moment to get off topic. People, please, remove all personal information from your child's facebook site – school, hometown (particularly if you live in a community smaller than Toronto for example) and contact information. I would also encourage people not to post most photos, too, but the information is a good start. And the police suggest you go further then that.

The social media site also bugs me. It feels like public and high school all over again. If I haven't talked to you in 10 years, why would I be interested in having your updates coming to my site every few minutes? There is also a lot of pressure. You get a friend request from someone you know, but aren't that interested in. He is a nice person, you like him, but do you want to be friends with him? What if you say yes to one in the group, but not to the other? Wouldn't that hurt the non-friend's feelings? Is it wrong to unfriend people?

As another aside, I once read a blog post from a collegue who said it feels good to unfollow people on twitter, to cull you follow list. And I did it. And she was right.

I also feel a lot of pressure in facebook to be funny or witty.

So a funny story: at work, I am now in charge of a community newspaper facebook page.

Before I could start this new task, I sat down with a managing editor and received facebook lessons – what to post, how often, how to generate likes and so on.

And here is the irony – I am the most popular. I have the most likes. I have the most people looking at my posts. I have people who comment and I comment back. I have people who 'like' what I write. And I love doing it. I love looking through the paper's website and writing up something fun that will catch reader's eye. I enjoy discovering what works and what doesn't work for my readers. I love getting the notifications through my inbox. And like high school, we compare our results and I giggle that I have the most 'friends'.

 

Damn you, facebook.