Giving In
So I finally broke down and created a “Facebook” page. I’m in my mid-thirties and felt like a heel/wannabe/teenager/idiot for doing so, but I think I have a good excuse. The class of ‘89 (yeah baby) is beginning to prepare and network for the upcoming twentieth high school reunion that will be taking place next summer. There has been some preliminary attempts at contacts on classmates.com but the reunion coordinator has asked us to all head on over to facebook to more easily interact with each other (and it’s is free to boot). Being a sport I cooperated and created my first “social networking” site. I’ve blogged for years and I have my own column archive site, but I’ve never participated in the whole myspace/facebook scene.
What I quickly discovered was:
a) I didn’t want mine to suck so I ended up spending several hours on multiple days making it presentable.
b) It is amazing how many people use facebook.
c) How many old friends, classmates and girlfriends keep in contact with each other. You can click on someone else’s friends and I have contacted a host of people, some of whom I haven’t spoken with in twenty years or more.
d) How many people have been looking for me. I was contacted by an old bar acquaintance within 48 hours (he is also a teacher) of signing up and found some old College Republicans as well. I also had an extensive conversation with an old 7th grade girlfriend etc. etc.
e) How desperately I need to break out my old yearbooks. I have people writing me and I don’t have a clue who they are. The names sound faintly (maybe) familiar and they are telling me all about the last fifteen years of their life, relationships and kids and I am stuck in the nod and smile phase. Dang it, what box are they in?
f) That no less than three other bloggers on this site are “clandestine” facebook whores.
By the way, did I mention that it is not as bad as I figured it could be? It has also turned out to be an easy way to keep in more steady contact with both family and friends which I guess is a good thing. My assistant manager has 167 friends on her myspace page and she thought it was pretty funny that I have a facebook page up and running. I’m at 17 friends but I’m just getting started. One of my “friends” has 222 “friends” on her page. I think she needs to get out more or something.
Dave - the Infidel Sage
gurusteve
E the Wise
Andre the Defiant
pg - your humble messenger
hairybeast
thompaine
Admitted Facebook whore here. I was refusing to sign up to a “another online social community” experiment, but after several business contacts recommended it, I took the leap. It has proven to be a very valuable networking tool, as well as, for finding old friends.
I too, have reconnected with people from my past that I had lost touch with. In fact, one guy and I who were really close friends through grade school and college found each other immediately upon me signing up. We are getting together next month when he gets back in town. We even have the same favorite band, Govt Mule, who I do work for. Strange. Some things never change I guess.
Just for the record I have a myspace page and hate everything about the way it works and all the nonsense that gets posted to your page. It’s like preschool for ADD kids. I rarely even update it.
Facebook isn’t perfect but it has proven worth the effort.
Another good networking site geared towards business professionals is Linkedin.com.