I remember the day when I first found out about Facebook and where I was. I was at my dad’s house on the day we were celebrating my high school graduation. One of my friends from school told me that I should get a Facebook. “I should get a what?”
Her and a couple others had a fun time setting me up with this Facebook thing. I had no idea that I was getting into this addicting social network.
So now, of course I’m on Facebook and I can’t help it. It’s such an easy way to stay in touch with people that I don’t see very often. I’ve found friends old friends from my elementary school in Pennsylvania that I went to school with when I was a kid.
The “stalker feed”, as I like to call it, is something everyone secretly likes. It’s nice to know what your “friends” are up to.
Facebook has changed many times since I activated my account six years ago. I still like having an account, but it has died down over the past year or so for me. I find myself not using it as often as I once did.
I usually use if more for promotional and business purposes than anything. I have a facebook page for my website, and everything I write is linked through there. I started my site in January 2010, and since then, a total of 13,840 visitors have come from the Facebook links I’ve posted. That makes up for about 15 percent of the total views I’ve had, so it’s a good tool for promotion...and it’s free.
As for my personal profile, I usually fill up other people’s feeds with Sabres and hockey statuses when there are games going on. I use it to keep an eye on others in my family and friends as well.
That’s mainly what I use Facebook for, but other people utilize it for many different ways. Hosting events, playing games, chatting and promoting their business seem to be the most common.
There’s a ton of information about me on Facebook, and probably more that I don’t know of. I don’t feel that it is private, but it doesn’t bother me that much. It may not be the safest to have that kind of attitude, but it really doesn’t phase me.
If someone wants to find out information on me, they can type my name into Google. I’ve written so many articles and for so many websites, that when you look me up, that’s all you’re going to see. There will be pages of articles I’ve wrote for websites, newspapers and magazines.
There’s plenty of information about me on the internet. Whether or not I put it on Facebook doesn’t really matter to me.
Being a Facebook user for so long has made me realize that there are rules for it. There are many unwritten rules that users have created over the past few years.
Making something “Facebook official” seems to have become THE most important step for some people when it comes to relationships. Once it’s confirmed on Facebook, everyone else can see that, which is why it has become so important.
Posting “happy birthday” on someone’s wall has seemed to carry some important matter as well. Many people view this as the final step to un-friending someone they no longer talk to. If you don’t talk to them and wouldn’t write “happy birthday” on their wall, they probably aren’t your friend.
A big thing I’ve noticed is that you need to think about what you’re posting. I’ve posted a couple of political things that really offended some of my close friends and others. It started some online fights and is something to stay away from in the future. Posting your views on your profile is fine, but don’t put them to put down others’ views.
I’ve had some awkward situations because of Facebook, but not because I posted something. I’m sure others do this, but sometimes I like to have a friend deleting party and I just go through my list and un-friend people I never talk to.
I did that once and saw one of those people the next day. I didn’t say anything to them and eye contact occurred, but we both ignored each other. I’ve also played the “Oh, I thought we were friends on Facebook” game. We know how that works. You dig yourself out of the hole, even though you both know you deleted the other person.
One of my favorite quotes I saw (I can’t remember where) about Facebook was this one:
“Facebook is a place where you can hate your friends. Twitter is a place where you can love complete strangers.”
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