Facebook?

It has come to my attention that someone has started a Facebook group for fans of this blog. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that, just as I'm not sure how I feel about Facebook in general. It's flattering in a sense, but I have no idea how anyone is supposed to use it or enjoy it.

A few months ago, I got on Facebook, mainly to see what it was about (I've criticized it a few times for being relatively content-free, and I really can't do that unless I have some experience with it; my experience has not changed that opinion). I don't really feel like doing a detailed critique of social networking sites right now, but it strikes me that Facebook and MySpace tend to be relatively passive ways of maintaining what they have brilliantly called "friendships." There is an illusion of intimacy that comes from being enmeshed in the minutiae of someone's day-to-day life, but that's a far cry from being an actual friend.

I'm sure there are those who could find ways in which Facebook has actually enhanced life; I know it's been used as a platform for fund-raising (though I'm not certain that Facebook is required for that), but I wonder about costs vs. benefits. A lot of people spend a whole lot of time on what strikes me essentially as filling in a form (for those people who think that engaging in social networking is somehow high-tech, let me tell you - it's not). Are the benefits that these sites provide really worth the time and energy people spend on them? I guess that's a personal decision, but I didn't find it especially compelling.

Twitter is similar, something that I've been on and not been grabbed by, but I know quite a few people who find it useful (though they may actually mean "interesting," which is something quite different). Of course, I spend rather too much time on this blog, and I would guess many would find that a waste of time. Each to their own, I suppose.