Facebook [Conf | M]usings

This weekend I signed up for Facebook. You heard right. My friend Marc (the other half of the half that blogs at Cardiff Central) sent me an invitation a couple of weeks ago. I'd been mulling it over and finally decided to take the leap. And boy was it a leap into uncharted territory.

Seeing as I'm a computer programmer by trade, I'm no dummy when it comes to computers (but that does not mean that I know nearly everything about computers or the world wide web that there is to know, as I was soundly reminded on Saturday, so I may not know how to fix whatever problem you are having with whatever application or peripheral you are trying to use). However, I found using Facebook very confusing. Signing up is easy, but there's no "Welcome" or "Beginners" tutorials. Sure there's the help pages but they just give brief definitions as to what things are - they don't begin to explain how you should do things or what the Facebook culture expects of you.

Networks, groups, requesting friendships, pokes and the "What are you doing now" status are just some of the things that all work together to provide a confusing experience for this novice. What's "The Wall" and what's "wall-to-wall" (before you leave comments explaining, I think I've figured it out now)? Applications, mini-feeds, gifts and various little pictures and graphics just add to the chaos. Oh, and there's the whole discontinuity thing with the wall posts - you usually only see part of the conversation that's going on between two individuals in their wall-to-wall posts. It feels like you've come in on a conversation at just the wrong moment.

All that being said, I think I'm beginning to make sense of some of it, after reading the help and looking at how my friends are using their "profiles". And I have connected with some friends whom I have not talked with in a looong time, which has been good.

There is one other down side of Facebook that I forgot to mention - the strong competitive urge it raises in me to be the ONE with the most "friends", regardless of whether or not you really know them or just recognize the name. So far, I've resisted the urge and have only requested friendships from those people whom I actually know.

The social networking is an interesting aspect of Facebook. I signed up because Marc invited me. So he was my only friend for a few minutes. So I looked at his friends and found ones whom I knew, so I added them. Then I searched for other people whom I knew had Facebook profiles. These led to other people. And then there's the people whom I had not found yet but who found me and requested friendship of me. And so the list of friends grows.

What remains to be seen in the long term is will I have time to keep posting to this blog, read other blogs, check my Facebook account and interact with all the friends there and do all the things I need to do after the kids go to bed? I'll give a whirl and try not to burn myself out.