Logging on to the social networks has been rather strange of late. For the last two weeks, I've been following the news of national and state politics through FB links provided by friends. I appreciate seeing the depressing reports of attacks on women and unions framed by the wise words of my lefty friends. It has made it a bit easier to take by reminding me that while the world "out there" is scary, I am not alone in my disgust and outrage. The odd bit about having spent so much time on FB recently is that interspersed with posts on the violence in Libya, attempts to slash funding for Planned Parenthood, and drastic cuts to the state's already pitiful education budget are updates on the inane bits my and my friends' lives. The absurdity of this has actually been comforting and I've appreciated FB more in these weeks than perhaps ever before.
The 'magic moment' is probably coming to an end, however. I've had a good run with FB, but now more and more of my extended family are finding me there. I've also had close encounters will students who know people I know. I'd prefer to keep FB confined to people with whom I have to censor little in my life, but unless I go more deeply underground (a la Dickish McBastard), this can't last and the idea of managing everyone with lists and settings that seem to get changed periodically by the powers that be at FB holds no interest for me. Ah well, for now cousins will just have to languish unacknowledged in my "friend request" folder while I milk this for a bit longer. I'm just not ready to give it up.
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2 comments:
Well, one thing that is useful and not difficult to do (assuming you want to stick with FB a bit, at least) is to set up different groups and put people you DON'T want to see your posts into such a group. It's not perfect of course, but it's a little better.
There are two issues here...
First, I don't like the idea of accepting someone and then actively excluding them. Somehow just ignoring them seems less...active.
Second, knowing that my network contains a wider range of people means I will have to consider them, even a bit, when I'm posting. There will always be questions in the back of my mind of whether or not I have fully shielded them and whether or not they will stay that way while FB is updated and changed over time.
Really these are more psychological issues than technical ones...and therefore harder to overcome.
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