Can Someone Explain Facebook/Twitter?

[jobob]

I use it to keep in touch with my friends (as in, people I know and care about), and I enjoy it. It gives me the ability to pick and choose who sees my posts. I'm very selective about whom I "friend", so I don't have hundreds of them like some do. I communicate more with my TE friends there than I do here.

[Tuckervill]

Ok, then I had the right impression...it's an egocentric crowd that is using it. That's what I thought. What is this generation coming to...

Lisa

That's kind of an unfair and ignorant assessment.

Most of my friends are over 40, many over 50. My father was 71 when HE invited me to Facebook, in 2007. My generation is making very very good use of Facebook.

I find it an extremely useful tool for keeping up with my friends and family who are far away. I wouldn't know near as much about my grandchildren if not for Facebook. I wouldn't see the most recent pictures instantaneously if not for Facebook.

I recently found a good friend whom I'd lost touch with since we both moved away. It was awesome and lovely. I had searched for her on Google for a long long time, and it wasn't until Facebook that we actually connected. I'm thrilled and so is she!

I dare you to get on Facebook, and just connect with the people you know who are already there, and just sit back and watch. You'll change your mind.

Karen

[jobob]

So I'm egocentric because I use facebook? *Shrug* whatever.

[Kalidurga]

Like anything else, it is what you make of it depending on how you choose to use it. If you choose to categorize and then dismiss it as a platform for the egocentric, realize that you do so without fully understanding it.

[papaver]

Et voilÃ*, just made a TE'er friend on FB.

[krisl6]

Et voilÃ*, just made a TE'er friend on FB.

Wow, me too!

[Veronica]

I know I had some folks following Thom's Twitter posts as we crewed for RAAM and while I was doing my HIM.

Right now I can't run and can barely ride (a whooping 7 miles on the tandem yesterday!), so posting on Twitter about what I can do, makes me feel better. Egocentric... too bad. It's all about me anyway.

Veronica

[Flybye]

If you think that Team Estrogen is helpful and a wonderful community, would you call that egocentric as well????
Somewhere along the line, someone has said that "people who use Facebook are egocentric" and BAM, the stereotype stuck. I find that extremely unfortunate because it may have prevented people from connecting with old friends. How sad to miss out on the lives of others because of an opinion that someone voiced.
On a side note, we are all egocentric from a theoretical standpoint. When you get your family pictures back, who do you look at first? When you walk by a mirror, who do you look at first? Egocentrism is NORMAL. The problem with egocentrism is when vanity and pride and extremes slip in to the normalcy.
Facebook has been one of the most fantastic things that I have ever opened an online account for. I have found friends from elementary school. I am supporting an old friend as she undergoes chemotherapy and radiation. I have got good solid advice about how to proceed with a surgical procedure that my daughter was facing as well as follow up advice. I have been invited to social gatherings. I have seen pictures of my friends and their families that live in other states. I have learned of births and shared in grief over death. Facebook is no more egocentric than a phone call or an email to update others and receive support.
Bottom line, if people are egocentric to the extreme that it is an issue in everyday life, they will be that way on Twitter, Team Estrogen, Facebook, the telephone, etc. Everyone else who knows them expects that behavior and moves on. Drop the egocentric stereotype.
I double dare you to enjoy learning about your friends and family on Facebook.

[sfa]

I love Facebook, although I only very rarely post my own updates on it. I signed on first to get updates from a friend of mine who moved halfway across the country, got married, started a business, and had a baby. We talk every month or so, but FB lets me keep up with her like we did when she lived nearby and we weren't both so busy.

But since that initial reason for signing up, I've absolutely loved getting in regular touch with friends from high school who I had lost contact with and with my cousins all over the country who I never saw except at family reunions.

Contrary to popular belief, Facebook and Twitter are not primarily hangouts for teenagers--the largest demographic on Facebook is the 35 to 44 year old crowd. Twitter users are even older (that was a technology that was first picked up by older adults and is now trickling down to younger people). These are people who are pretty much like me--wanting to stay in touch with a large number of people I've known in the last 40-odd years in an easy and quick way. Is it quality time? Not really. But I didn't even know Mary Lee lived in Florida and that Sonja was back in Maryland and that Cynthia had a child two years ago--even getting little snippets from everyone's life is better than the nothing I was getting before!

Sarah

[ny biker]

Oh good. It's Monday, I have a headache, and now I find out I'm egocentric because I've found a good way to keep in touch with people that I don't get to see face-to-face on a regular basis.

[papaver]

I love it when you see your little nephew changing his status from 'single' to 'in a relationship'

Or when a friend finally found a new dog, or when they had a really cool holiday.

[ASammy1]

Oh good. It's Monday, I have a headache, and now I find out I'm egocentric because I've found a good way to keep in touch with people that I don't get to see face-to-face on a regular basis.

Me too!

Anyway, facebook allows me to stay in as much contact with my friends and family on my own time and terms... Egocentric? Maybe... but, it's not like a majority of us have the time to have personal phone conversations all day M-F. If someone posts something on my wall, I have the choice of when or if I respond to it.

I have friends all over the U.S. and world and let's face it... When it's convenient for me to call them, it may not be convenient for them to talk to me (time differences). With FB everyone can keep in contact when it's convenient for them! It's also nice because with all the different privacy settings, you can be as public or private as you want.

[shootingstar]

Um...think we need to ease off from hammering away on the point that it's not egocentric, etc. Point has been made before things spiral outta control.

For me, it's a pleasure to even get the occasional email from family and close friends --occasionally. Being on Facebook or Twitter as a tool to bond closer with these valued folks in my life, is not going to work for me.

And I have good relationships with my loved ones. It's just a style of communication varies.

As for keeping up with high school friends, except for 1 person with whom I email/see, I have had no interest in past few decades. This was reconfirmed after I got a verbal update last year on all the latest developments via a same high school friend who went to mega high school reunion ..thousands of kms. away. It satisfied my curiosity.

[ASammy1]

Forgot to add one thing...

I love finding that I have friends from 2 different social/professional circles who are also friends with each other! It puts a huge smile on my face and reconfirms that whole 6 degrees of separation thing!

[Pax]

I lasted two weeks on Facebook before deactivating my account. I'm in regular contact with anyone I'd like to have contact with, all the others...not so much.

For me it was just really boring, I didn't care that my cousin (who I haven't seen in 20 years) just put a cake in the oven. My stay-at-home-mom cousins posted every detail of their day, all day, and seemed to be offended if I didn't respond often enough.

So, for me, it just wasn't worth my time. Others feel differently and they stay on FB, different strokes.