Facebook has been getting a bad rap lately. Criticisms include that it makes us feel bad about ourselves, that it causes people to have less real connection with each other, and that it causes people to waste too much time. I'm not suggesting that you should completely ditch your real life friends and family in order to spend all day on Facebook, but I think there are some really great things you can do with Facebook (as well as things that I sometimes love and sometimes hate, listed at the bottom). Without further ado...
Things I love about Facebook:
1. Sharing important information -- When I have a big announcement to make, Facebook is a very convenient one stop place to announce to everyone, all at once. You don't have to compile a big email list or make phone calls one by one - you can just post your news and everyone will see it. For us, this was especially convenient when Joshua was having lots of surgeries and we wanted to get news out about it right away, but didn't have time to make contact beyond a Facebook post.
2. Allowing you to be social even when you're isolated -- Right now, I spend most of my day at home with J and Z. I love them very much, but it gets lonely to spend the day with kids who aren't able to have a conversation with you. Facebook allows you to interact with others. It may be more shallow than a real life interaction, but it's way better than nothing, which is what the alternative often is if you're caring for young kids around the clock.
3. Hearing other people's important information -- I love hearing when people got engaged, had a baby, took a new job, etc. I know that for some of my Facebook friends, I wouldn't be hearing about these things (at least not in a timely way) if it wasn't for Facebook. It's like all the stuff you would hear at a class reunion, only you get to see it happening in real time.
4. Crowdsourcing information -- You can post a question and very quickly get recommendations for a good HVAC repairman, how to administer medicine to a baby, what's a good book to read, etc.
5. Connecting with long lost friends and staying in touch with friends who are far away -- I've moved around a lot in the last 10 years: I've lived in 6 states for at least a year, and 3 more for at least a month. I've made friendships that were fiercely close in that time and place, but that have been hard to maintain once we move into different time zones and life stages. Facebook allows you to stay in casual contact with people who were at one time your BFFs and who you still care about.
6. Celebrating people's occasions -- It's helpful to have a website remind you when it's someone's birthday, or wedding day, or graduation day. And it's fun to get a flood of well wishers when it's your special day.
7. Connecting with a support group -- This has been the biggest one for me. Facebook has allowed me to connect with other parents of kids who have Pierre Robin Sequence and other parents of kids who have feeding tubes. I don't know other parents in real life whose kids have these things, and it has been enormously helpful to get practical and emotional support from other parents who are going through the same thing. It's also gratifying to be able to give other parents support.
Things I love / hate about Facebook:
8. Hearing other people's info, small - I might be in the minority here, but I like hearing what people ate for lunch. It is my Input (from the Gallup Strengths profile) - the more information, the better, and it doesn't have to be particularly consequential to be interesting to me. BUT, there is definitely a "TMI" line where things get a little too mundane, too personal, or too gross to belong on Facebook. It's hard to define, but it's like the obscenity standard - you know it when you see it.
9. Getting in debates / sharing political ideas - It used to be the case that it wasn't polite to talk about religion or politics, but this is not the case on Facebook. For the most part, I love to see where people stand on politics, even when I disagree with them. But sometimes, either the original post or the ensuing debate becomes nasty, and this is what I hate. Also, I've found that I usually regret it when I get into a political debate on Facebook because it's just not the right format to discuss complicated ideas and it doesn't allow you to convey non-verbals like tone to the other person, which in real life might keep the conversation more civil.
10. Seeing people's travel pictures -- I love this because I get to live vicariously through you fabulous world travelers. I hate it because it makes me jealous :).
What would you add?
Love: seeing nice pictures of my wife and kids.
ReplyDeleteHate: reading announcements that someone is thinking about maybe taking some time off from FB (maybe permanently) because they're having a lot of unspecified problems related thereto (you know who you are) and b/c people aren't paying enough attention to them withoutwhichnot.
You have been out of law school too long my friend. The first amendment standard for obscenity is for sure not "you know it when you see it."
ReplyDelete