toast and more toast

[keturn]

Okay, I must be getting old, because I need to ask you to explain an online communication thing to me: What is the deal with the Facebook wall? Why do people try to start conversations there instead of sending me a message? Wall posts are not threaded and the audience doesn't seem to match and I don't get it.

I guess I sort of understand the wall

Comments

[dominanefret]

I'm going to assume that some people don't know the chat option exists. I wasn't aware of it for a looong time, and would just send people messages on their walls. That could be it.

On the other hand, some people are just awkward at communication and writing on the wall feels less personal than chatting. It adds some fake distance.

P.S. -----> Facebook. Me. http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=15200756#/profile.php?id=68128209&ref=profile

[goteam]

You're totally old, and so am I. The kids these days, they are all about using public webspaces for stuff that makes me squirm to think about.

[clipdude]

At one point, it was not possible to make a comment directly to someone's status update or some of the other types of Facebook feed items, and so the Wall made a convenient place to start a community conversation about those. Now that you can comment to basically anything on Facebook, I think the Wall is much less useful. Still, like you said, it can be a good place for light banter. I agree, though, that for some topics, more private channels such as messages or email (or maybe our old friend, the telephone) are better.

[tiktok]

i agree with mr turner entirely and think the wall is useless and i hate to see people's personal conversations on there, especially since you only see one side of the conversation unless you go out of your way to snoop on someone else's tedious conversation. please, private message or chat!

[empty_fork]

I not-very-secretly wish more people would spy on my awful convoluted email.
facebook wall provides recourse!