So, apparently, it's the craze that's swept the globe (assuming, of course, that the globe consists almost exclusively of people in higher education or those that wish they (still) were).
I recently dipped my toes into these waters and found, well not a lot really - to my mind, it's like an aggregate of your own email platform (except not all your contacts are on there) and Friends Reunited (except not many of your long lost friends are on there). I mean, it's hard to see past these two salient facts...
Firstly, if I want to get in contact with someone I know, I'm probably more than capable of just emailing them. That's how we did it back in the good ol' 20th Century, y'know.
Secondly, if I don't have the contact details of someone, that is a warning in itself regarding whether I really want to re-establish communication links with them. As I've said in the past to the friends who will suffer my bleating, the people I knew at school who I'm no longer in contact were, generally, people I couldn't wait to lose contact with - long may they rot in the fetid dungeon that is my memory of them. More often than not, there is absolutely no reason to seek out your past; you left it back there for a very good reason.
Of course, there are exceptions - there are a handful of people who I wish I'd kept in contact with from the past. However, 1) none of them are on Facebook; 2) if I wanted to get in contact with them I could always track them down on Friends Reunited and, 3) who's to say they want to be in contact with me - to re-animate the unpleasant metaphor of the previous paragraph, I may well be an unwelcome resident in their fetid dungeon.
Anyway, getting back to Facebook itself, it's pleasing in a "I'm desperate to find a brand new way of wasting whole swathes of my day, fruitlessly trying to prove to the world at large (and more to the point, myself) that I'm more popular and gregarious than I really am" kind of way. It may well turn out to be (or, indeed, already be) the new SMS - that is, something we don't need but embrace nevertheless. At present, however, I just don't really get what it's offering that isn't already available. As with most of the Web 2.0 world, its main selling point is bringing several tools together in one place; however I'm not yet experiencing any discernable improvement to any of the consituent parts by virtue of the coalescence.
Of course, my opinion may soften somewhat if larger proportions of my gmail contact list start to appear therein. Then, I can chat aimlessly about nothing whatsoever with the two or three people in the world I still retain contact with who aren't living in my house. Now I've typed it out, it seems irresistable doesnt it?
Come on, you frigging Luddites - get with the hep groove...
I recently dipped my toes into these waters and found, well not a lot really - to my mind, it's like an aggregate of your own email platform (except not all your contacts are on there) and Friends Reunited (except not many of your long lost friends are on there). I mean, it's hard to see past these two salient facts...
Firstly, if I want to get in contact with someone I know, I'm probably more than capable of just emailing them. That's how we did it back in the good ol' 20th Century, y'know.
Secondly, if I don't have the contact details of someone, that is a warning in itself regarding whether I really want to re-establish communication links with them. As I've said in the past to the friends who will suffer my bleating, the people I knew at school who I'm no longer in contact were, generally, people I couldn't wait to lose contact with - long may they rot in the fetid dungeon that is my memory of them. More often than not, there is absolutely no reason to seek out your past; you left it back there for a very good reason.
Of course, there are exceptions - there are a handful of people who I wish I'd kept in contact with from the past. However, 1) none of them are on Facebook; 2) if I wanted to get in contact with them I could always track them down on Friends Reunited and, 3) who's to say they want to be in contact with me - to re-animate the unpleasant metaphor of the previous paragraph, I may well be an unwelcome resident in their fetid dungeon.
Anyway, getting back to Facebook itself, it's pleasing in a "I'm desperate to find a brand new way of wasting whole swathes of my day, fruitlessly trying to prove to the world at large (and more to the point, myself) that I'm more popular and gregarious than I really am" kind of way. It may well turn out to be (or, indeed, already be) the new SMS - that is, something we don't need but embrace nevertheless. At present, however, I just don't really get what it's offering that isn't already available. As with most of the Web 2.0 world, its main selling point is bringing several tools together in one place; however I'm not yet experiencing any discernable improvement to any of the consituent parts by virtue of the coalescence.
Of course, my opinion may soften somewhat if larger proportions of my gmail contact list start to appear therein. Then, I can chat aimlessly about nothing whatsoever with the two or three people in the world I still retain contact with who aren't living in my house. Now I've typed it out, it seems irresistable doesnt it?
Come on, you frigging Luddites - get with the hep groove...
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