Facebook. I just don't get it.

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I already turned down one friend who invited me to befriend her on Facebook, and now here comes another.

So why don't I sign up so I can see what they're up to?

Because, honestly, after years of web use, there are so many places I'm registered with and ditto number of passwords to remember. I have Yahoo, Google/Blogger, NaNoWriMo, Flickr and LiveJournal (that last only to avoid commenting anonymously). I had Frappr and Orkut.

I gave up Frappr because some men were trolling for women, and when I went to log in to turn the latest offer of friendship down, I couldn't remember what I'd signed up with. Took me two days to work that one out, so I closed the account. I obviously had no use for it. One attempt at joining something (Orkut?) stranded because I had to fill out all this stuff, like name and age and gender and sun sign and favorite quote (I don't have one) just to sign up, so I gave up.

I don't even bother with Web 2.0 stuff like Backpack. Everything requires a user name and a password and I'm tired of making those up and then remembering (what the heck did I sign up to iMDB with? I wanna read the discussions!). No, I'm not so stupid that I use the same username and password with every account.

Maybe it's time to give up Blogger and go Facebook all the way.

No, it's not. Facebook requires registration which makes it exclusive. I love the web (and Usenet) because it is open to everyone.

So why do other people sign up for stuff like Facebook? Do they really use it? Do they like that it requires registration? Do they want the community? My photos are published via my own home pages. Am I hopelessly old-fashioned? And yes, I would like to hear your opinion.

Comments

Paula said…
I signed up for Facebook when I got an invite, but I hardly ever go there. Periodically something pops into my email re someone wanting me to take a quiz or whatever, and most of the time I ignore it. I have a lot of time to goof off, but even so it's not infinite. I signed up with LiveDigital only to save my old posts from Blogsource, and a bunch of men have friended me and left odd messages. I just ignore that too. I've hardly even logged into MyBlogLog and that other thing lately, even though I have those visitor registers on my blog.

You're right. Too much! Bleh. No more!!
November 15, 2007 6:43 PM
SolSionnach said…
Well, I just signed up for Facebook under my real name - the first time on teh intertubes. I figured that it was time to do that. We'll see how it goes. thus far I have 1 friend. ;) ;)
November 16, 2007 2:11 AM
Anonymous said…
I signed up for facebook last year because they made me do it at work. I didn't think I'd use it much, but as it turns out, I check it just about every day -- it's a really handy networking and communication utility.

My latest project there is creating a user group for one side of my family (descendants of my paternal grandparents), to make it easier for us all to stay in touch. I also find out about a lot of local events on facebook, and as it turns out, it's a nice way to stay in contact with friends who don't live here in town.
November 16, 2007 4:32 AM
Anonymous said…
oh! ps: there's no way you could blog with facebook. It's just not the proper interface for that kind of communication. So, no giving up blogger for facebook!
November 16, 2007 5:45 AM
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