Facebook?!?!?!

[Bike Writer]

I remember those days. I was also a non-traditional student when I went back, and I killed a TON of time on the Knot back in those days (I was also planning my wedding). I totally get that!

I know that you can 'hide' updates from certain people and certain applications (like Mafia wars or something), but I'm not sure what other filters are availble.

GLC1968, peeked in at your blog and loved it, cute goats! I'm looking forward to some time to really peruse through it.

Sorry, thread interruption...

windingroad, if it is causing real issues for you then go ahead and impose some self limitation, if's it's just a little guilt and you are spending less than an hour a day I wouldn't worry about it.

[DarcyInOregon]

Everybody uses FB differently. For some people, they post constantly throughout the day from their cell phones about mundane trivia. Others feel the need to be linked to hundreds or thousands of people. Other people are linked to just a few people and informational pages. There is a lot of variation in how people use FB.

I like it best when my friends focus on what is important to them, and post at the times something significant happens, like fitness, health and weight loss achievements, or a job search, or meeting cycling goals.

I like to be linked to pages, particularly the health organizations like the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the cycling organizations, etc., and I am able to learn a lot that helps me on my quest to achieve and maintain optimal health for my age. I only post when I do something significant, so maybe a few posts a week, or perhaps none at all. Like yesterday I posted that I was invited to join a local all-female cycling group that was just formed, that we had our first ride, that it was a great paceline ride, fast, and a great workout. This is a biggie in my life since I live rurally and there are no cycling clubs in my rural county. At the same time I have no desire to be linked to everybody I went to high school and college with, or who used to be co-workers, or all of my neighbors, etc., yet I do like reading what my friends have to say, what is truly important in their lives at the moment. And I never use Chat because that is a big waste of time.

My recommendation is not to delete FB, but adjust how you use it. Delete links to people, pages and groups that you haven't interacted with in six months and it will lessen the information flow on your page. Filter out all of the Farmville, Mafia War type of stuff. Use FB for fun, not as a substitute for having face-to-face friends. If you are lonely get involved in the real world. FB isn't a numbers game, to try to get linked to more people than your friends and relatives, so stay focused, and link only to the people, pages and groups that are truly important to you.

I will be practicing what I preach by the end of the year and deleting a lot of my links. I am sure everyone understands what I am saying, but I am linked to some friends who only log into FB to add more friends, then log off, and they don't post or comment, so they are linked to hundreds of people they know periphally, like people they have interacted with in the business world briefly 10 years ago, and that is it for them, just linked but never use FB to read or post or comment so it would be better for me to just delete them and I can communicate with them via email or phone to arrange for face-to-face socializing. And I will probably delete the links to the people who publish the trivia of their day, the ones who go on political rampages, etc.