This Facebooking, etc., can be even worse.  I had a (so-called) co-worker who updated her Facebook all day at work and worked very hard at not letting everyone know she wasn’t doing any work.  Everyone knew, of course.  We all had to do the work she didn’t do, in a time-sensitive arena.  It made it very hard on the rest of the staff.  She had a sense of entitlement because her family knew a member of upper management.  She never should have been there in the first place—I hate nepotism.

That was last year and now, no one in my department has a job.  My only sense of satisfaction in our layoff is that she no longer has a paycheck she never earned.  I have no sympathy for Facebook addicts.

Facebook and Twitter are signs of the new technology world. Used in moderation they both can be very rewarding in keeping in touch, and knowing whats going on.

Just like many things in life, they can be addictive, and unfortunately, cause problems for some. However, the world is growing and we have to grow with it or we will be lost.

I write in blog format at Blogger, and I have friends from online who were badgering me to get on Twitter…to the point a minor blog war broke out when I announced I saw no value in Twitter for myself; that I thought it was one more in a long line of "the latest thing," and of value to a younger group bored with straight texting, say middle school through college.  My point was, once you enter adulthood, your life should be a tad busier and it’s far nicer, to be in a more direct form of contact with your friends.  Also, that 140 character limit.  A real chokehold on expression and creativity. "To be, or not to be, that is the que…."

Well.  People slammed me.  I was an old fogey (not.)  I was an aging can’t keep up head in the sand….they went on and on.  Truth be told, I’m a tech junkie and love knowing what’s out there for use.  My point being: if it works for you, then certainly use it.  Just don’t pound the public that don’t.  Twitter has so much more greater social value than idle teen tweets.  It does.  See the media information leaking out of Iran.  My point was (and is,) that  I saw no sense in joining something, just for the sake of joining, when I wouldn’t be using it.  The arguments continued, then a writer and editor I know and respect talked about Twitter being a tool to get my written voice out there more, so I caved and joined, but I so rarely use it.  Tweet, tweet, twiddly deet.

As for Facebook. Again, I didn’t see the value for me.  After all, so many of these things like Friendstr, Linked In, etc. come and go.  The same people kept telling me I didn’t know what I was missing by not being on Facebook.  I repeat.  It has no value for me.  To shut up that group, I joined Facebook under a fake name, and it is still my intention to get my readers and friends to all get on my Facebook listing, under fake names, so that I become the Fake Facebook.  Now that nonsensical project of manipulating and altering intrigues me.

Creating purple cocktails also interests me.  I’m actually still researching to write a piece about that, among other things, but it involves a holy grail search for a lost liqueur, so I’m still out there poking around, but when I’m done I hope it includes that liqueur, purple cocktails, old cocktail books, prohibition, Suzanne Somers, blurred photographs and…oh yeah…backed by a team of experts the selling of self…and probably other kitchen sink items I throw in.

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~~"I tweet, therefore I a…"~~

How funny! i feel guilty about the 30 minutes to an hour a day that i spend on wow! and I have a hard enough time maintaining the relationships i have in real life…. or developing new ones that i want in real life. so developing all kinds of new cyber friends through a bunch of social networking sites just isn’t going to happen. I want friends i can go hiking or motorcycling with! now i did find a site called meetup.com that you can find people in your area who want to do the things you do. like hike or ride. that was cool. found some hiking partners and hiking spots through it. but that semi relationship you get online…not going to spend the majority of my time on it. some time yes… it’s fun. but not the majority. to narrow.

Oh Gigi I loved this article!  How funny! I too love Facebook.  It has been such a great way to reconnect to old friends and stay connected to new ones.  I have a sister-in-law that I only really got to know after becoming Facebook friends and learning we had so much more in common than we realized.  It has been a great way to say thank you to those that have impacted my life and an easy way to plan get togethers.  I am totally hooked! 

I have seen babies and weddings I would have missed because they posted pictures on Facebook.  I have started many conversations that have spilled over to the phone and over coffee.  I get to talk to my 13 year old niece that is having a trauma in a way comfortable to her through Facebook.

I love and need lots of people in my world and Facebook has help. It is just one peice, one tool, that I use to help me stay connected to all the wonderful, important people in my world. 

I just recently joined Facebook and so far I really enjoy it.  I’ve moved a lot in my life and via Facebook, I’ve managed to reconnect with several old friends from across the country. 

Though I know there are Facebook addicts who write every event of their day on their profile, I can’t see myself becoming one.  I procrastinated opening an account in the first place because I simply don’t want people to know that much about me and surely no one would really be interested in that much detail about my life anyway! 

And no… I don’t ever plan to Tweet. Maybe I just don’t get it, but Twitter seems like too much information, too time consuming, and a bit too banal for me. 

To each his own, but excess in anything is surely a bad thing.