“Robert suggested we create Facebook accounts, I think in an effort to establish that we were “down” with whatever “new jives” the kids were flexing on the mean streets. I refused. Gabriel buckled, and the bullshit that ensued verified my initial assessment: that maintaining Facebook would quickly constitute another job. Of which I already have several."
— Tycho, Penny-Arcade
I never really bought into social networking (because I am of course antisocial) But lo and behold! I now have a Facebook account! And I discovered just now that I cannot link to it. You have to search for me there or something.
Social networking always felt so frivolous to me. And I was right, more or less. But as a friend told me, “At least it’s ala carte frivolous.” This whole facebook apps thing, if you’re not aware, means that any company can make apps that run inside Facebook. I don’t know if the competing networks like Friendster or MySpace have anything similar, but if they don’t they’re certainly not going to win. (Whatever it is these networks are supposed to win.) The facebook apps give the site a lot of random entertainment value, everything from internet memes to trivia questions to scrabble is available to waste your time. And as Tycho implied, it eats up a lot of time as well.
There was some brouhaha lately about Facebook and privacy, but it seems to affect only those people who purchase stuff from partner sites. I just wish I could disable all the emails it sends me and just let me subscribe to notifications through a feed.
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