A while back I signed up on Facebook just to see what it was. According to their website, Facebook claims to be, “… a social utility that connects you with the people around you.” The key there is “social”. The short list of why they say you should join is to:
- Keep up with friends and family
- Share photos and videos
- Control privacy online
- Reconnect with old classmates
I’ve already got a blog to let everyone know what is going on and you can get one too if you want for free (Blogger). We share our photos and videos on Picasa Web Albums, which of course is free. So why would I want to use Facebook? No really, I’m asking so leave a comment and tell me why. I can do everything that you can do on Facebook without having to live in their little private sandbox where they control everything. And I like control.
Oh, the social thing you say? Well I’m not really all that social, but you may have a point. Social applications are all the rage in these days. I’ve decided to give Facebook a chance so I’ve committed to keeping up with it at least minimally for a while. It is good at finding people through your relationships such as your schools and work. In the end I think I’ll still prefer managing my presence on the web myself with my own sites and tools, but I might be able to be convinced to at least maintain a presence on Facebook. It does at least offer RSS feeds so that I can easily follow it. What’s that? You use Facebook but not an RSS reader? Well, if you want to me to give Facebook a go of it and you want to be my friend you better at least give an RSS reader a try. PS, I fully accept that most of you will only be my friend so that you can lobby me to get Jenny to join. 
J.R., c’mon man, the reason for using Facebook is simple:
Katie and I want to buy land at some point, so we need money.
I can write a game and put it on Facebook, where people will play it.
The more people play it, the more money I get.
So I want as many people on Facebook as possible!
Facebook Droz? Really? Really? I’m not even sure I know you anymore….
Devin, I knew someone was making money, I just didn’t know it was you!
I’m in your camp JR. I signed up recently just for grins and giggles. But as you, I find that I get the same service and then some by blogging. Seems like Facebook is just another thing to take up screen time. And I empathize with Jenny–who has time for it with small children? So the only thing so far that I have gleaned remotely useful…finding old friends I fell out of touch with.
Tim, your objection has been noted, but how do I know who to make fun of if I don’t know who is on it? I was surprised that I couldn’t find you or Dan on there.
Actually, I couldn’t really find any of the old crew. But don’t worry about me. You know you can’t take the Droz out of Drozmonkey; even though Jenny hasn’t quit trying.
Here’s something: I signed up so that I could look at the pages of people who don’t have blogs. Then I started finding people that I had lost touch with and that was kind of fun. Because I have a blog, I’ll keep it up minimally, but it’s worth the minimal effort, at least for now.