Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Managing Your Online Life part 2--Facebook

I probably don't have as much advice to give about Facebook as others might, but my general rule of thumb is to sign into Facebook every day for about 5 minutes. If I do this, I can quickly see what's new with everyone and update my status. I used to have my twitter updates feed straight into Facebook, but I realized that could get annoying quickly.

I use Facebook mostly to connect with people I know in real life who I no longer live close to. The problem with Facebook, as I see it, is that pretty soon that guy you talked to for like 5 minutes ten years ago will find you and want to be your friend. So while it was fun for me at first, I now see that I need to be just as careful on facebook as any other online forum in protecting my information. I friended a few blogging friends, but for the most part, I keep facebook pretty separate as a place for those I know in real life.

I used to love scrabulous but then they took that away. So now I'll occasionally play a game with friends, but mostly I just want to see what everyone is up to and connect quickly. So..skip the applications. Use Facebook as a way to keep up with your friends and don't worry about all the marketing crap that is becoming more and more a part of it. So here are my recommendations:

1) Limit who you friend on Facebook--quality is better than quantity.
2) Sign in briefly everyday so you don't have much to catch up on.
3) Ignore the extras and focus on the relationships.

Read part one here.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great advice!! I know what you mean about the 5 minute friends. It used to be hard to say no, now it's not lol

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tips. I just signed up for facebook because I was told it's much more professional a group than the mayhem of madness & teenie-bop pimple dating going on over at Myspace anymore. I made the mistake of "quantity over quality" over there and now it's just ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

I'm not on Facebook. My son signed up when it was just for college kids, so I kind of feel like that's his thing and I should stay away from it.

Beth Kephart said...

So many of us struggle with these questions of time. I'm appreciative of your thoughts, this post.

Sunny said...

I love Facebook and have connected with college and high school friends that used to be such a big part of my life but we all went our own ways.

I'm like you, though. I generally use it for people I know in real life and not mix it with my blogging friends. Generally. And I only get on it every few days for about 10-20 minutes to catch up and write on a few walls.

I also skip the applications. If I did those I'd never get off of it! I have over 100 application requests right now (I should probably click "ignore" but I dont even look at them).

Kathleen said...

That's pretty much what I do. I don't use many applications and only friend people I know in real life. I have over 350 requests for applications, I let them pile up and don't feel like going through them.

Deborah said...

i remember when facebook used to be just for college kids. honestly i'm not going to lie, i wish it had stayed that way. i really feel like the creators sold out when they opened it up to everyone. it was a good way to reconnect with other college students, and since you HAD to have a college email to sign up, you knew pretty much everyone on there was legit. now any Joe Schmo can sign up. therefore i have made my profile extremely limited and i don't sign up for any applications (b/c you're basically giving out your info when you do). i honestly feel weird seeing adults on the site, like my dad lol (my sisters and i refuse to friend him, not that we have anything to hide, it's just it was our thing first!)

i know it's a good way to connect and network with people, but i don't use it as much as i did before due my reasons stated above. but that's just me.

darbyscloset said...

Amy you continue to amaze me with all that you! And you seem to be able to read my mind for I have been wanting to ask you your advice on how best to juggle all the on-line book riches.....especially reviews when there are so many you want to read that are not review copies!!! Ugh....my to do list is driving me crazy!!
Darby
darbyscloset at yahoo dot com

Mimi N said...

Tosca Lee just blogged about something similar and it's hysterical. All the things she has to continually update online so that everyone can keep up with her, is crazy, and as she writes about it, you start to look at your own virtual life.

I like Facebook, and I'm able to keep up with my kids, their friends, my friends, and authors.

Yes, I do apps. The one I do the most is Flairs. They crack me up! When I first started I accepted tons of apps. Now I don't and I'm happy not to.

Thanks for your thoughts and advice Amy.

Wanna be friends? tee hee hee

Mimi B

Anonymous said...

I don't understand Facebook and the apps, but I do enjoy seeing what people are up to. It is true about the old-boyfriend thing. I'm dealing with a situation right now. I may elaborate later on my blog.

I received my package in the mail today. Thank you so much! It was such a fun surprise. I just blogged about it!

Anonymous said...

I agree with the advice to focus on relationships and disregard the rest. What a time-saver that is.
I have a back-log of requests (flowers, drinks, etc.) but I let them be while I reply to wall posts, status updates and private messages.

Anonymous said...

hey my name is sophie and am 15,, when i went on face book one time there was all these comments that had my name in them so i began to read and then realised i was a victum of cyber bullying by a girl known as caitlin rodaughan whi is cleary a stuck up slut!! i was soo devestated after reading them and never talked about my personal life again around people i didnt know and trust,, thankyou kindly for listening xx

Anonymous said...

hheeeeeeyyyy i'm sophie haratty and looovveee face book and am also a hippi

Anonymous said...

hey my name is sharmayne gill,, i'm from sale victoria
i was also a part of cyber bullying when a bunch of girls made up a poll about me and this was just one of the names it was called the "slut sharmayne haters club united" i feel your pain annonomus friend and hope to one day meet you and share our feelings on this subject i believe we both dred,, :) thanx guys x o

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