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July 6th, 2007

Facebook cartoon

cartoon from www.weblogcartoons.com
This cartoon is available to re-use on your blog. You can find the code at We Blog Cartoons.

Facebook. Don’t we all just love it. I was first sent an invitation and joined up back in November when it was still more of a student thing. I found it a really marvellous way to catch up with people who had been in my youth group when I was a youth worker, and it still is. Of course now it has mushroomed, overtaking other social networking websites by a long way in the circles I move in.

There are downsides of course. I have heard people talking about Facebook as being a sort of an online ‘gated community’ or ‘walled garden’, as discussed by this popular web blogger. I can’t remember why this is a bad thing, but I seem to recall that it is. Something to do with the fact that if you are in inside it is all very well, but outside there is wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Then there are the security and privacy aspects, which do concern me. Richard has some things to say about this. I’m wondering whether there are implications that we haven’t quite realised yet. I know you can set your privacy levels and everything, but I think there are some security issues that will become apparent before too long. Some of us might just realise that we’ve shared just a little too much with just a few too many people. There are people I know who have chosen not to be a part of Facebook -perhaps one day we will realise how wise they were.

One of the good things about Facebook is that for most people it isn’t a mad rush to get numbers of friends, as Myspace often seems to be. There are people who have 700 friends or 1286 friends or something like that. These are, one supposes, people who will be friends with anything that moves. Personally I tend to prefer to only add people as friends if I know them… more or less. I’m not sure what the social implications of not adding someone as a friend are if they request it. I suppose they’ll just hate you for ever.

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This is a single post on the Cartoon Blog by Dave posted on Friday, July 6th, 2007 at 12:07 am. Click here to read all of the latest posts. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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14 Responses to “Facebook cartoon”


  1. Neil says:

    I am one of those that have chosen not to be part of it. Like ready grated cheese and lager with lime already added I just don’t see the point, and why it would make my life better in anyway. I feel guilty enough not meeting the friends I have regulary enough, I don’t want more.

    July 6th, 2007 at 12:38 am
  2. ash says:

    I avoided Myspace, Bebo, WAYN and about 500 other things I was asked to join in the past. Or I joined them so they’d stop emailing me, but I didn’t ever input anything.

    I did join facebook because it was limited to students and I could share photos with people easier that way: just as I use MSN because all my friends do, even though I prefer Skype, and so on.

    but now facebook has indeed mushroomed, and thaat sucks a bit. Everyone I’ve ever met, even once, wants to be my friend and see all my drunken uni photos. ooh err.

    July 6th, 2007 at 1:20 am
  3. Jared Cramer says:

    This is funny because when I read you mention Facebook earlier I searched for you to add you as a friend. The social nature of the enterprise definitely is intriguing.

    http://www.facebook.com/p/Jared_Cramer/54600653

    July 6th, 2007 at 1:38 am
  4. bimble says:

    I’m on Facebook and have made the decision only to have people I know as friends. It’s allowed me to catch up with serval friends whom I’d lost touch with after they’d left.

    I’m not quite sure how people seem to be able to spend vast amounts of time joining and then unjoining (leaving, that’d be the word!!) various groups and the like.

    July 6th, 2007 at 10:20 am
  5. Chris Clark says:

    I guess it’s hurting the fee based Friends Reunited.

    Your comments on confidentiality remind me of your wise words on blogging and anonimity. I suspect the best rule is to only put things on there which you wouldn’t mind everybody knowing.

    July 6th, 2007 at 10:24 am
  6. joe says:

    I re-connected the other day with someone I knew at school, 15+ years ago. It is momentarily interesting to catch up and see what has been happening in their lives.

    Then you realise what a monumental waste of time your life has been in comparison. Sometimes it is better just not knowing.

    July 6th, 2007 at 11:14 am
  7. jody says:

    so, crunch time, how do you define friend?

    I have ‘cyberfriends’ who I would be really happy to meet up with and make them ‘realityfriends’, so are they ‘friends’ now or when I’ve seen them in real life?

    I think the fluidity of this definition for different people is why stuff like facebook takes off.

    I’m probably a ‘friends with most people, but not you weirdo in the corner’ type person.

    do weirdos inhabit corners?

    is weirdo a PC word?

    ‘weirdo’ does happen to be the tag that I’ve given myself on my blog, so this is all a bit tongue in cheek – don’t hate me for being weirdist.

    July 6th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
  8. Anna says:

    I’ve found facebook invaluable. As someone who has moved from the UK to the US, and who isn’t very good at keeping in touch with people via phones, letters or even email, really, facebook means I can connect with good friends from home – we can still share our lives with each other.

    I’ve not been playing with facebook long enough to think about adding someone who isn’t an old friend. I’m not sure I’d bother, actually. Why have someone on your friends list who you don’t really connect with?

    July 6th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
  9. yay says:

    I choose not to go on facebook/myspace etc. I don’t need any additional procrastination tools :D

    July 6th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
  10. Canadian says:

    I’ve never been on either Facebook or Myspace. If that makes me really weird, so be it. I also don’t have a cellphone.

    July 6th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
  11. Michelle says:

    I took up an invitation to join Facebook not so long ago but decided to keep my friends to people I actually knew – so I only have a measly 20-something friends on there – but that’s fine with me. There’s only one who I haven’t actually met in person yet – but will have soon! :D

    July 6th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
  12. Yellow says:

    Well I’m on facebook because a student recommended it to me.

    I only use it for work (Uni chaplain) so I actually add as many students as I can (most of whom I’ve met!)

    I don’t generally have any friends on there. I can’t see why they can’t just pick up the phone!

    July 7th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
  13. birdie says:

    I was thinking about blogging about this too, Dave. After the intitial spurt of enthusiasm, there are a few things about facebook which make me a bit uncomfortable, although at the moment its usefulness is outweighing that.

    It does open up whole new realms of etiquette-related anxiety though – how to respond to friend requests from people you met once, briefly, two years ago. I really don’t see the point in adding them as friends but I’m also not sure if it’s really rude to decline… and that’s just the beginning.

    July 8th, 2007 at 9:47 am
  14. Miss Dagurreotype who has been to Utah says:

    Will a MySpace version be available in the future?

    July 17th, 2007 at 2:31 am