So, recently I welcomed myself back into the world of facebook. I had an account, once upon a time, and was not overly in love with it. I was getting bombarded with friend requests from people I barely knew, I was getting my "wall" (I didn't even know what the hell a "wall" was) absolutely filled with useless junk I didn't care about, I was getting my e-mail inbox flooded with updates, and I was gonna punch anyone I saw in person who kept inviting me to various groups or to answer a quiz about them. To avoid this event from occurring, I simply walked away from facebook.
My introduction back into facebook has been interesting thus far. I see what is meant by facebook keeping everything! I fired up my account in February of 2011, and as soon as I logged back in, it was as if I never left. Every last post, picture and profile moment was sitting there as if I never left (my last post being some time in 2008). Yup, facebook is just like herpes... that s**t stays with you forever. Now I can definitely see why you've got to use extreme care and caution while using it.
In the time since, I've had a chance to reconnect with 3 or 4 friends who I haven't talked to in a while. Most notably a friend in Alberta and another in Korea. As it stands yet, I'm not getting overly harassed with any games, groups, or other various invites. I am still being cautious though. It'll be interesting to explore the software and trying to find the various uses I can bring into my classroom. It's only been a week and a half so far, but I'll try to keep all who follow my blog updated on my facebook adventures!!
Tim,
ReplyDeleteInteresting and well, graphic analogy of facebook to a certain STD. True though. I had a friend who deleted her account and then came back and was astounded by everything being the exact same. It is a little scary, and is a GREAT reminder of what we are learning in this class about creating a positive online presence. Myself, I deleted my wall in the summer, (to the great depression of my many guy friends who thought it was funny to post absolute rubbish on my wall) and I am very glad I did. I also filter through my friends every once in a while and give a lot of people the snip. It is interesting that I should stumble onto your blog today after reading an article online that George Couros tweeted about. You should check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2OfPwkCruE&feature=related
hahah!! So unless you enjoy Glee, I'm guessing you won't enjoy the link I accidentally posted there! Here is the link to, "Just how offensive is your facebook profile"
ReplyDeletehttp://mashable.com/2011/02/18/socioclean/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Mashable+(Mashable)&utm_content=Google+Reader
Thanks ictiffany, both for the link to the article and to glee. : )
ReplyDeletethe funny thing about that is it was probaly just over an hour ago I watched the office on tv. It was Jim & Pam's wedding, and they did the whole glee thing there too
Anyways, yourself and the article you cited brought up another point I was gonna mention, but forgot to. I just wanted to say that I am in fact guilty of creating a garbage facebook account, which I use strictly to see how much info. about me is seen by other unknown users. I think these ICT classes are making me paranoid!
Facebook is a very good site in order to connect to people that are from a bygone era in life, but in all honesty as much as I understand what it can do, I just don't need something else to pull or take up time. I don't need another site that I feel compelled to check everytime I'm around a computer. I don't doubt it's attractiveness to people, but as for right now I am happy to be a non.member of the facebook nation. It may change, but I'm not in a big hurry at this time. Sometimes I get to wondering if people are that delusional to think that all their updates actually impact the lives of others. Maybe it is just a practice in self importance. Ahh well we'll see what the psychological fallout is from all of this a few years down the road.
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