Meta: facebook and old acquaintances

[redbird]

I am not adding people just because I recognize their names, especially when all I can call up using the name is that they went to college with me. I am, for the moment, adding people I remember being friendly with in high school, even if I can recall no specifics.

I haven't decided what to do about the person who, on first glance, I had no context for, and on a closer look I think is my second cousin (who changed her first name some years ago, and appears to be using her husband's surname, and I don't think I'd known she was married, so my immediate thought was "who on earth is Sarah Charles?"). There are cousins I would add if they turned up, because I like them, even if we're not close these days. She's, well, more distant than that.

I could have a lot of "friends" on facebook, but all it would prove is that I'm 45 and have an unusual enough name that a quick search on it is useful.

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I'm finding Facebook ... odd. 90 percent of my "friends" there are people from here, and I'd much rather interact with them here. So the only ones I exchange one-liners with are a couple of locals and the tiny handful of old friends from college who are the main reason I'm there in the first place - oddly, it's the first online venue I've encountered where I actually run into people I want to get back in touch with, and that's been pretty cool. Some of us are even making plans to visit each other.

But virtually everything else about it kind of irritates me.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

For me there's a huge number of local friends who are on Facebook but who don't do LiveJournal, Usenet, etc.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have a lot of those, too; I just don't feel compelled to communicate with them on the Internet. I mean, I see them face-to-face often enough...

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

For me it's been pretty interesting to see different sides of them on Facebook as well, or at least more sides of them and cute stuff (meaning pictures and silly status updates).

[redbird]

I've gotten occasional information there; not sure how much use I'll get of the opportunity to reconnect with people from high school. But that's partly to do with my own lack of energy for seeing people, even ones I like and hadn't lost touch with (for example, I recently had dinner at an out-of-town convention with two local friends I don't think I'd seen in at least two years).

[shikzoid.livejournal.com]

I like Facebook for saying to other Seattleites: "This is what I want to do on Saturday; anybody want to join me?"

[redbird]

That makes sense, and I think it's one of the main things it's meant for (as distinct from, say, playing "who is $name and do I care?" I occasionally use LJ for variations like "would anyone like to get dim sum this Sunday," or did when I had more social energy.