Title says it all, except for me having to point it out here.

Discuss.

Facebooked?

Facepalm?

Facewhahhh?

I got on Facebook because there are a lot of less-tech-savvy folks in my life who I care about keeping in touch with.  I’m talking about people who really don’t “get” blogs, twitter, utterli, or instant messaging.  Or maybe they “get” them but they really don’t care to dive that deep into someone’s online persona, or that it’s too much work.

For many people, Facebook leaves most of that other stuff behind because it’s just plain easier.

The average Facebook user doesn’t need to know about RSS feeds, tweet streams, instant messaging clients or anything technical.  They just use a web browser and they’re in. They’re connected.  They have friends. Then they get an invitation to be in the Mafia.   Who could want more?

The only thing I use Facebook for at this time is to re-broadcast my tweets.   My tweets rebroadcast my thoughts, my blog entries and my utterz, the latter two being also thought rebroadcasts themselves.

In one big huge way, Facebook is better than twitter because of the concept I like to call threading.

Twitter can do quite a number on a conversation (in a bad way), and while there are tools to help figure out a thread, it’s not intuitive. Facebook, on the other hand, makes the conversation very intuitive, and very public.  So public that people who don’t even know each other can meet, in a way.

Oh yeah.  The OTHER main benefit Facebook has over twitter is the email notification of replies.  Twitter can email you for direct messages, but not replies.  That’s a biggie.

Facebook is also apparently very addictive.  I’d like to share with you a glimpse of all the things I DON’T do on Facebook (for those of you who have invited me or tagged me with things and don’t understand why I haven’t responded, this may explain it).  These are the outstanding requests I have on my Facebook page, sitting there waiting for me to act.

Look at that.

It’s no wonder Facebook is so addicting.  It makes everyone feel so… so… wanted.  So requested.  So invited.  So exclusive.  So rockstarish.

I still have 6 friend requests from people who I have no idea who they are.  And it’s not like they’re strangers – oh no.  I’m sure I know them, online.  But I don’t know their REAL name.

There are people out there that have their online names and lives (poohbearextremeLOL) completely lived separate from their real names (John Quincy Doe III).  Facebook doesn’t allow for pseudonyms, so someone I probably have known online for 3+ years can send me a friend request and I have no idea who they are.

Or (this is the kicker) – I know of them online, but I don’t actually know them.  What do I do about those?  I still haven’t figured it out.

Maybe you can now see why I blurred out names from that thread snapshot above.  Those people?  I don’t know if they want their real names displayed.  Some I know don’t mind.  Some I know DO mind.

I’m sure if I let myself, I could spend as much time on Facebook as I do eating, walking the dogs, playing with the kids, hygiene, and commuting combined.  I think a lot of people already do.

Someone hit me if I get that bad, k?

As a trial, I added a “recent comments” plugin on the right side so you can see what everyone’s talking about on my blog.

The positive aspect of this is natural – you can see the hot topics, or stay tuned to what people respond to.

The negative aspect is that you find out pretty quickly that I’m the primary poster of comments… which is pretty sad if you think about it.  I mean, the blog is about me, the posts are written *by* me, and usually the posts themselves are about me.  And then I’m the one writing comments on my posts.  I’m either very self-centered, or pitifully lonely in this online world.

I think I’d rather be self-centered