Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Facebook etiquette?

I still find it weird that we have had to develop entirely new behavioural guidelines not only for the Internet, but for individual websites and applications. It's a lot to take in, and a lot to remember!

Don't even get me started on twitter etiquette. (twitterquette? GAWD!) I'm still trying to figure that out. However, having used Facebook for awhile now, you would think that I would have gotten it by now. But I do not. I still have questions.

For one thing, I have heard talk of purging friend lists. Am I supposed to do this? Of course there are people on there that I have never talked to since adding them. But that doesn't mean I never will... so I guess I just keep adding people? What do you do? Ack!

Then there is the matter of when it is acceptable to add new people as Facebook friends. On several occasions I have met people and after only having met them once, they want to be my Facebook friend. I think it's kind of nice. But is it also kind of weird? I don't normally add friends after meeting them once. Mostly because I've met them once! There was one time where I did that and my friend request was accepted, but then I felt SO WEIRD about it after. Should I ever run into this person again, will they think I am a crazy stalker because I don't even know them, but I'm all "BE MY FACEBOOK FRIEND!"? It's kind of weird, isn't it?

Facebook has created this whole new level of social anxiety for me. When people don't write on my wall I wonder why. When people DO write on my wall I wonder why. Sometimes people have inside jokes that I do not understand and I feel dumb. I often wonder if I might be better off not knowing this much information about the people in my life. But then I think about how lame I would feel if I didn't know all this stuff because I DIDN'T have Facebook.

So basically what I am saying is that it's a catch-22. You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't. How fun!

God, I hate the internet.

PS: Sorry baby, you know I didn't mean that! Don't you ever leave me! EVER!!!!!! I love youuuuuuuu, internet!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

ah, i understand.
here's my solution...
i took all the people that i don't really know, the ones that are "proffessional contacts" and those creepy folks from elementary school and put the on my "limited profile list"
and then i made it so they can't see my wall, my status, my pictures... basically they can't see much.
so they think we're facebook friends... but i don't have them knowing the intimate details of my life.
i think defriending people is risky business... they might get offended and then you have an internet fight on your hands
:P

Anonymous said...

lol @ the above commenter and "internet fight."

-Lately I oddly went through the purging phase. My numbers just seemed too high & I felt cluttered. But then I was afraid to delete the peeps that live in the same city, should I run into them! And then there's the nosy part of me that doesn't want to delete certain whack people b/c I want to look at their pages for comic relief (mean, I know.)

And is it mean to not want people with ugly profile pics to write on your wall? *ashamed of myself* Or people from high school that you really care not to keep in touch with.

Lastly....that damn "people you may know" application is.........disastrous!

brie said...

I hate the "you might know" alerts!!! Hate them!