Facebook & Facebook Applications

By Daryl Elliott (May, 2007)

I truly believe that all of these new "applications" are doing more to hurt friendships than actually help them.

Facebook is a social utility that allows people to stay in contact. This is great. They have a mini feed so you can see what your friends are up to... oh, and convenient status updates.

Facebook has now added "applications" so that you can put even more information out there.

What I'm afraid of is putting too much information on my Facebook or through my applications. Let me explain!

It almost feels like if I see someone in real life that I haven't talked to in months, but are friends with on Facebook, it may be difficult to have a conversation.

Daryl: So I went to the beach last month! (In April???)
Person: Yeah... I saw it on your Facebook.
Daryl: Heh, oh. Right. Well it was pretty funny when this shark grabbed my foot and wouldn't let go and I had to use a crowbar to knock off his fin.
Person: I already saw pics, and yeah, crazy.
Daryl: Ahh. Right.

Or THIS situation

Daryl: AH!! Did you hear about people not buying gas on May 15th?? How retarded is that?
Person: Yeah, uh, already read your note about that one.

So, I love Facebook. I love it like my own child. I just think maybe it's getting too big.

For example, the "Flixster" application or whatever it's called let's you post which movies you want to see. Sounds like a great idea. It ALSO let's you see which of your friends want to also see that movie.

Tell me, what exactly do you do when there's only one other person on your friend's list that wants to see that movie? And what if they notice and say, "Heyy we should go to Evan Almighty!" ... What if they smell weird? Or you just, for whatever reason, don't want to go to a movie with this person?

I'll admit, I'm not sure if I'd be cool with going to a movie with each of my Facebook friends alone. You KNOW WHO YOU ARE! (Okay maybe not)

"But Daryl.. THEY'RE YOUR FRIENDS!"

Well yeah, but I have different degrees of friendship. I'm starting to think that perhaps I should only have my "real" friends that I hang out with and are close to be my friends on Facebook. I don't know. I'll still have the problem of them already knowing everything I'm about to say before I say it, though. Or maybe I just need to be more careful about what I write on here and how much information I put out to the "world." I'm not sure what to do.

I just like seeing people's reactions in person and it's kinda creepy for them to already know what I'm about to say just because I mentioned something about it on Facebook.

This blog post may have been a mistake.

Daryl: So, I think maybe Facebook has gone too far with everything...
Person: Oh, yeah, I read your note.
Daryl: Oh. Right.