Thursday, July 19, 2007
FACEBOOK
Robert Scoble is a technology geek (self-proclaimed, I believe) whose blog I follow in order to stay up with technological stuff as much as a 43-year-old non-techie guy can these days. The last couple of weeks, Scoble has been on a big FaceBook kick, touting FaceBook left and right.
I have been on MySpace a tiny bit in recent months and sort of assumed that FaceBook was just like MySpace ... but Scoble has been challenging my thoughts on that.
MySpace bothers me because of its very open structure. Anyone whose kid has a MySpace account needs to be monitoring things closely which could almost be a 24-hour-a-day proposition. If you think you don't need to monitor your kid's MySpace, you're kidding yourself.
That said, I am not anti-MySpace. I realize it's not going away so we just need to learn how to deal with it and even use it for good. I had the opportunity this week to meet a young couple in Christian ministry who told me that MySpace is a huge tool for their ministry. That's great.
Anyway, Scoble's raves of FaceBook being the greatest thing out there and the way of the future made me check it out a bit.
To do anything at all on FaceBook, you pretty much have to register. I am proud (I think) to say that I may be the oldest person registered on FaceBook at this point. As I was entering my year of birth, it paused and a message popped up saying "Please wait patiently while new years are added to our database."
One of the first questions you have to answer when you register is whether you are "interested" in men or women. I found this to be incredibly peculiar. Had it asked me if I was straight or gay, I could have easily answered. But this question about which sex I am "interested" in really threw me. I wanted to answer "I'm married, for Pete's sake ... I'm not allowed to be "interested" in anyone except my wife!" but that wasn't an option. So I left the question blank. It was like a Catch 22.
Of course, had I said that I was interested in women, I really doubt there would have been thousands of 20-something women poring through FaceBook and stumbling upon my picture and contacting me telling me what a hottie I am. Probably would not have been a problem.
After this, you have to register what schools you attended. After you do that, you can check to see if anyone you graduated with is also registered on FaceBook. I found that, out of the 600 or so people I have graduated with, I am the only one on FaceBook, confirming my conclusion that I am the oldest person on FaceBook.
After all of this registration, I found that you still can't see much on FaceBook. People have to accept you as their "friend" before you can see their full profile.
I like that in comparison to MySpace. Much better.
So, here I am, the oldest person on FaceBook, afraid to answer the question of who I am "interested" in ... sitting their friendless.
Oh well. It's the way of the future I suppose.
I have been on MySpace a tiny bit in recent months and sort of assumed that FaceBook was just like MySpace ... but Scoble has been challenging my thoughts on that.
MySpace bothers me because of its very open structure. Anyone whose kid has a MySpace account needs to be monitoring things closely which could almost be a 24-hour-a-day proposition. If you think you don't need to monitor your kid's MySpace, you're kidding yourself.
That said, I am not anti-MySpace. I realize it's not going away so we just need to learn how to deal with it and even use it for good. I had the opportunity this week to meet a young couple in Christian ministry who told me that MySpace is a huge tool for their ministry. That's great.
Anyway, Scoble's raves of FaceBook being the greatest thing out there and the way of the future made me check it out a bit.
To do anything at all on FaceBook, you pretty much have to register. I am proud (I think) to say that I may be the oldest person registered on FaceBook at this point. As I was entering my year of birth, it paused and a message popped up saying "Please wait patiently while new years are added to our database."
One of the first questions you have to answer when you register is whether you are "interested" in men or women. I found this to be incredibly peculiar. Had it asked me if I was straight or gay, I could have easily answered. But this question about which sex I am "interested" in really threw me. I wanted to answer "I'm married, for Pete's sake ... I'm not allowed to be "interested" in anyone except my wife!" but that wasn't an option. So I left the question blank. It was like a Catch 22.
Of course, had I said that I was interested in women, I really doubt there would have been thousands of 20-something women poring through FaceBook and stumbling upon my picture and contacting me telling me what a hottie I am. Probably would not have been a problem.
After this, you have to register what schools you attended. After you do that, you can check to see if anyone you graduated with is also registered on FaceBook. I found that, out of the 600 or so people I have graduated with, I am the only one on FaceBook, confirming my conclusion that I am the oldest person on FaceBook.
After all of this registration, I found that you still can't see much on FaceBook. People have to accept you as their "friend" before you can see their full profile.
I like that in comparison to MySpace. Much better.
So, here I am, the oldest person on FaceBook, afraid to answer the question of who I am "interested" in ... sitting their friendless.
Oh well. It's the way of the future I suppose.
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