Using Facebook Smartly

Posted on January 7, 2010 
Filed Under Media

I did it. I finally gave in and let my 15 year-old set up a Facebook account. And I’m glad to say she is using the site wisely – so far.

Of course, Facebook is one huge phenomena. The site dominates the social media world, with growing adoption by both businesses and individuals. In fact, I read recently Facebook is now the largest photo-sharing site, overtaking Flickr and other (previously) popular sites. And it isn’t just a site for young people – now seniors are flocking to Facebook (here’s some research on what older folks are doing online).

Still, far too many folks are lacking in common sense when it comes to their Facebook accounts. They over-share, don’t limit their “friends,” and often find themselves spending far too many hours clicking, reading and posting.

Here’s a look at ways that people can actually hurt their relationships by relying so heavily on Facebook for their communications. For some insight about how unrealistic people are when it comes to social networking, see the related comments section, in which many people take the author to task for having the audacity to criticize the way some Facebook users really abuse the tool.

If you’d like to make sure you are taking an appropriate approach to your Facebook use, here’s a general list of things you can do to protect your identity and privacy — and your time; and here’s another helpful article. And here’s a guide to making sure you have appropriately adjusted your Facebook privacy settings.

Readers, if you have a story about Facebook – experiences good or bad – leave a comment for us. We’d like to benefit from opinions and wisdom.

Comments

One Response to “Using Facebook Smartly”

  1. Janet on January 21st, 2010 1:23 pm

    I know that Facebook has become something of a controversial topic of our times. Person A decides to “get a Facebook” to keep in touch with friends, and Person B (friend to Person A) feels badly that they do not have a Facebook (name your reason parental rules, lack of technology, whatever). I do not want to demean or deny the truth of either of these arguments. However, as a post-Facebook-ie I do want to encourage anyone out there who is seriously considering closing their Facebook account. You really can just do it! I promise, the world will not end, your friends will not stop speaking to you (at least permanently), and you might even have a little more time for the important things in life, like spending time with your friends in person.

    My story: After finally giving into “facebook-pressure” as a freshman in college, I decided 3 years later to remove my profile. Mind you, I had been EXTREMELY careful with my profile to this point. No extremely personal information, very high privacy settings, etc. Yet what I found was that I was spending inordinate amounts of time doing nothing productive on Facebook. I would literally realize what I was doing and say to myself, “I can’t believe I just spent 30 minutes doing NOTHING on Facebook!” While I did keep in touch with a few friends through Facebook, the majority of my “friends” were people with whom I didn’t communicate (nor care to).

    I chose to close my account. The result? I have not missed it one day since. The few people who mattered to me have kept in touch through email, phone calls, and *gasp* snail mail. (Which by, the way, is MUCH more rewarding to get than an obligatory Happy Birthday, etc. from your Facebook “friends” who have been conveniently reminded of the momentous event by a little computure program).

    Whenever people ask me about my decision, I give many different (all true) reasons that I left, but I do not in any way try to get them to come to my opinion. Whether to keep your Facebook or not is a personal decision (except you should of course honor your parent’s rule on the subject), but I just wanted to share the story of someone who had found that life means a lot more than a Facebook status.

    PS If you haven’t yet joined Facebook, I do encourage you to think carefully about your decision. What I did not realize at the time of joining is that you can never truly erase all of your information from their system (this is a little scary to me). Just something to keep in mind.

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