Saying "I Do" to Facebook

Before I even begin ... can I just COMPS ARE TOMORROW?!?! Why do I feel like no one made a big deal out of them coming up, and yet our graduation status relies on them? And why am I not too worried? I know it's something we cannot really study for, but I feel like I should be more nervous or something. I'm more worried about getting all my work and projects done on time. Sigh. We shall see what happens tomorrow. Meanwhile, these caramel Cadbury eggs seem to be helping.

So, I went through all the articles we were supposed to read this week, today. I have actually done quite a bit with social media in libraries (mostly public) throughout my two years in the program, so I felt comfortable with most of the stuff on Facebook. The Terrible Two's article was enlightening because while I'm a Facebook aficionado, I had no idea what those terms meant (besides anyone's vague understanding of Web/Library 2.0), though I did recognize them from other discussions and classes. But gosh darn it, I could not remember what any of them meant. AJAX and API's threw me for a loop, but there examples were helpful, and while I understand what a Long Tail is, I don't know if I can articulate it clearly for someone else.

The article on Facebook in Health Libraries was the same information I had read about before (what it is being used for, etc.), but I was surprised that they found 54% of librarians said that FB was not a useful academic tool. That was new, and I tend to disagree. Just getting the word out and being involved in campus life through FB is a useful marketing tool!

The two most surprising things I saw (from the Facebook Friends article/study)

1. That people with more friends on FB have a greater trust for people in general. REALLY? That makes me think people aren't too bright. I have a lot of friends on FB, but that doesn't make me more trusting. Is it our nature? Or does it make them feel closer to those people because they see the ins and outs of their every day lives even if they haven't talked in 20 years? I almost trust people LESS because I see the ridiculousness of some of their every day lives on FB and wouldn't want to have to run into them in real life. Ugh. (Granted, I have defriended a lot of those, and if I don't know you personally (lovely people in this class excluded!), I don't accept friend requests from you. If I didn't talk to you 15 years ago in high school, I don't really care what you are doing now.

Phew. Sorry about that little rant. Sometimes it just comes out :o)

2. The average person on FB has 229 friends. Which, turns out, is pretty accurate in my case. I have a few more now that we have this class, but it seems that's a pretty close figure to where I was. Which makes me think - are there 229 people out there that I want looking at my pictures and my information? Is it people I love to death and I don't get to see all the time? I think it's time to go through my list and evaluate ... I'm curious who is on there!

Which brings us to the topic of privacy ...I think I would rather censor who I am friends with on FB than worry about all the different privacy settings. That also makes me censor what I put ON facebook to begin with. If I'm friends with my boss on Facebook, then no, there will be no drunken pictures posted (I'm not a big drinker, so I don't have any of those, but if I did ... well, you know). I also cannot be bothered with blocking friends from seeing a certain update, or only allowing a select list to see something I posted. If I had to block someone from seeing something then it probably means it would hurt them in some way, or make them angry, or ruin a surprise. So why would I even put it up there to begin with?

Your thoughts? Am I too cynical? I feel like people judge more on FB than they do on Twitter. I'm not sure why, but that 140 characters makes me feel more free than unlimited space and pictures on FB...