Comments on Common|Sensible: Second Life More Social Than Facebook

When I first started using Facebook, it was to fin...

2009-11-07T11:06:20.553-08:00

When I first started using Facebook, it was to find old friends and see how much better I was doing than they were. That quickly became boring, and I abandoned it.

After about a year or so, I picked it up again and used it as Quaintly's students did, keeping in touch with much closer friends. Then I realized I really didn't have as much as talk about as I thought. Plus, they were close enough that I could just visit them in real life rather than put a blurb in FB. Real life work and school then superseded it and I abandoned it again.

I used to post the odd photo or two, and then I, in a fit of boredom, wrote mini-stories on FB's 'notes', mostly crafted around silly doodles I drew in class and also uploaded onto Facebook. It was pretty funny. It was even funnier when people took it rather seriously. But then I felt like I had to constantly do it, and it wasn't fun anymore, and people got pissy when I didn't do it every day, so I abandoned Facebook... again!

Pretty much, to make a long story short, I'd much rather just text everyone with my actual phone than bother with Facebook. And, I don't have to deal with waiting ten minutes for Facebook to respond because everyone is on it lagging it up like Second Life.

Would I make a Facebook account for Anna? Probably not. I hardly know anyone in Second Life as it is, and I certainly have no use for a SL Facebook when I barely use my RL one.

Yes, I should have clarified that I am really refe...

2009-11-07T10:00:38.242-08:00

Yes, I should have clarified that I am really referring to us... AHEM... older crowd. No wait, call that "more mature" crowd.

FaceBook demographic is really for the texting/sexting adolescents who live by digital interaction and DVD-ripping and music-sharing web sites and not much else.

As for everyone else "our age" (meaning the 30-year-old-plus) - I think it's really just a dusty-old cedar chest where we store things and that's about it.

Those active on FB aren't really active in places like SL. Word of Warcraft, sure... but that's the demographic difference.

Your post got cut off. Yes, I do read until the en...

2009-11-07T09:55:38.145-08:00

Your post got cut off. Yes, I do read until the end :p

I'm not on Fb as an avatar, but I am as a real person. I discovered pretty much the same thing - everybody adds each other, then we do nothing but poke each other and play games and take quizzes and post photos. I have former high school classmates as "Fb friends", people I haven't seen in -- *pauses to count* -- 14 years. We added each other, but have no direct interaction. So it's like high school all over again: I know who you are and where you're sitting, but I'm not ever talking to you unless I really have to (read: need something from you). I don't know what's the point.

I was really into Fb when I first joined, but these days I hardly ever log in. But my students interact a lot on Fb; they told me they're on Fb almost every minute of every day, whereas they only check email once a month!

So this semester I conducted an experiment: I added my students as Fb friends. To my shock, they APPROVED my friend request! And now they communicate with me via Fb -- one student just wrote on my wall, apologising for missing class yesterday!

I'd say it depends on the people and how they view Fb, how they approach it and what they choose to do with it. Certainly my students use Fb as a tool to engage, communicate and socialise. My former high school classmates and other friends & acquaintances, however, don't seem to use Fb in the same way, and neither do I.