Have a Facebook Fan Page?

[Grog]

I wonder how people have the time to start so many threads on online forums. just kidding. I think it just depends what kind of online time one spends and what priorities are.

I did use Twitter for professional reasons for a while but I found that it overwhelmed me with information. The information was good (it was mostly a professional/journalistic network of folks) but I just couldn't keep up and still do my work. I wish I had someone working for me full time keeping track of stuff there and reporting back to me on certain pieces.

I do have lots of Facebook friends, mostly weak links, people I used to hang out with in or former colleagues from other parts of my life. Many, many of my acquaintances are in other parts of the world and it makes me feel good to know that somehow we're keeping in touch. Who is it that wrote "The Strength of Weak Links"?

This being said, I seldom update my status but I do exchange small talk with "friends."

[Crankin]

Oddly, one of the most enjoyable parts of FB for me is seeing who comes up in my list of possible friends. Because I am friends with the kids of a friend in AZ, I keep seeing the names of some of my oldest son's friends from when he was in kindergarten and first grade, before we moved. Today I saw the names of two women who were in my play group, 25 years ago. One had moved away from AZ and came back after I left, and the other now lives in Columbus, Ohio. I didn't "friend" them, but I did look at their pictures. I was not really close with either of them.
I did find a woman on my list of possible friends who I had been close to in college. We communicate on FB once in awhile. I had not heard from her in 30 years!

[OakLeaf]

Getting on FB was one of the things I promised myself before I turned 50. I started to become concerned about the world passing me by and becoming one of those people who's completely disconnected from contemporary life.

I use it more to keep up with organizations I support, find out what the night's specials are at my favorite restaurant, what the bike club's doing, etc., but I do post a status update or at least a link I want to share every couple of days, sometimes more. I'm rather new to it and only have a handful of friends so far. Only three of them are people I've never met F2F, and none of those three are people I have no other connection with.

I just this week heard from someone on FB that I hadn't been in contact with for 15 years, and that was cool.

I only "friended" one person from high school, and that's mainly because she was wearing a bicycle helmet in her profile picture. She wasn't a cyclist when we were in school, so it was cool to see that. But she's very inactive on FB.