Being a lemming and joining Facebook and Twitter (although not completely)

[beardoc]

So I signed up to Facebook and Twitter.

As I got in a message from roybear, "Hell has frozen over, it seems. :-)".

No, I am not on it yet and I am not yet using it, and I have no intention of using it at the moment, but when the thing about the facebook usernames came up, I went to stop either Jerry from Indiana or those guys from Italy getting my

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[dcmisner]

Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.

[beardoc]

Well, it can after I get my exams done - until then, it has to wait.

I'm considering it my reward for getting through the exams. That, and a Palm Pre. And Guitar Hero III: World Tour. And a round the world trip.

[dcmisner]

You always have to be wary when hitting the [OK] button on some EULA sucks out a drop of your blood.

I'm still holding out. One of my friends who also hates Facebook recently signed up, and it got her laid. She still hates it, but acknowledges that it did at least get her some.

I'm having friends of my MOM ask me if I'm on Facebook. My mom, who just two months ago got her first cellphone. Her friend asked me if she could check her e-mail/Facebook, and I told her the house only had dialup. I got back a blank stare.

[simbobloke]

I gotta say, I'm a facebooker but not a twitter-er. Partially because Facebook takes care of all my micro-blogging needs... If I want to say something fast and furious, I facebook, if I want in depth and to think things over, it's livejournal.

[beardoc]

Again, I'm not really sure if I'm going to use either - I joined up each because I wanted to reserve my username. I'm amused that you have "micro-blogging needs", though. I often wonder what we did before the internet. Certainly my first trip to San Francisco wouldn't have involved turning up to Starbucks on 18th Street and knowing >50% of the people there already...

If I do either or both of the sites, it will be interesting to see how I integrate them with LiveJournal.

[simbobloke]

The other thing to note is that Facebook is pretty darn good with photos - allowing other people to tag your photos means you get a lot more names filled in than you would normally... should you ever decide to post photos.

And, yeah, I'm swapping the word "needs" for "wants" in "microblogging needs"... very little in life is really a need...

[ricksf]

I never thought you'd succumb to Facebook/Twitter siren song. Never. Color me surprised!

I joined FB reluctantly and while I see the attraction some have for it, It feels very cotton candy to me. All fluff and sweetness but no substance. The layout of the FB web page, even after a very controversial 'upgrade' is abysmal. While I too am impressed with the algorithm that suggests friends, searching out a specific individual is, for me, tedious and painful, particularly when that individual has a common "Joe Smith" name.

As to Twitter, I'd make derogatory comments... if I could compress them into 140 characters. 'Nuf said.

You better not leave LJ or I'll hurt you. Just saying...

[beardoc]

I know there has been an exodus from LiveJournal to Facebook, but I think they were people that had a different focus to what I do on LiveJournal. I'm here for the introspection with my friends, and I get that here, so I'll stay. Those that joined LiveJournal because it was a hot place to meet handsome men and post silly memes all day long moved to Facebook, because it has less of those boring people like me that are navel gazing all the time.

Does that make sense?

[dcmisner]

Yes. the mass exodus is 99.9% teenage/tweenage girls with usernames like ocean_storm_cloud.

[fogbear]

OK, here's the first thing you do: Go to Twitter and "Protect Your Updates." That means that you have to explicitly give someone permission to read your micro-posts. Second, you can send a Direct Message (put a "d" in front of their username) to these folks and tell them you're not who they think you are. That should stop it.

Twitter is a definite Real Time thing. Anything that's more than an hour old is usually not worth responding to. It's fine for when you're out and about or when you want to see what your friends are up to at a particular moment in time.

Facebook finds your likely friends by tracking who your friends are friends with. The higher number of mutual friends means that someone is likely to be your friend too. Add to that geography, school/work info, and interests, and they can make some pretty good guesses. Mostly it's just whether you know a person, not whether you like a person

[beardoc]

I get the feeling that Twitter is just like an instant messaging program built into a website. I've already got plans for how I'm going to structure my privacy settings down to which blocks of friends I will have (Work, Friends, Family, etc. and even more specific subsets).

As for Twitter, I'm trying to decide if I mind people reading them. It's not as though I'm thinking that anything particularly incriminating is going to be written on Twitter, although I'm not certain that there may be something unforseen. I like the idea of it being an open thing, personally. I have had stalkers that could quote to me chapter and verse details from my previous incarnations of my websites, and I could be providing more fodder for them, but I don't really like living my life in the shade - even on LiveJournal, I try to make everything as public as possible.

I think that the most useful things about Facebook will be:

The always-up-to-date phone/address book service

The status updates - particularly when travelling

[stoicbear]

I agree with Fogbear. I should add that I haven't even looked at Twitter, though.

I put "generic" stuff on FB, stuff that's for "general consumption" by friends and family. The longer, more in-depth stuff, and things mostly for Bear friends goes in/onto LJ.

I mostly use FB because people I want to stay in touch with use it, or use it significantly more than LJ.

[beardoc]

And I might find myself doing the same thing - using them for different purposes. My LiveJournal links are predominantly overseas, whereas my Facebook profile might become uniquely local. If that's the aim, then it will be useful.