Facing "Fear of Facebook"

As an old goat who spends a good deal of time at home, social sites are attractive in that you might get to meet some new nice folks.

The first one I tried was nice. Many members had music on there sites. In fact there was music everywhere. It was easy to be friends with niche bands you have just learned of. Made some friends to write forth and back to as well.

But that first site soon began to morph. There were home pages six feet long. Giant winged angels appeared everywhere. I felt I should put on some lingerie before posting.

Then a second try with a social site that let you accumulate points for commenting on the posts and photos of others. This created a community of lemmings rushing around, leaving insipid posts in hope of copping a point. I had hoped this one would be fertile ground for civil conversations about matters of the day. It was not. Instead, a pit of name calling and stupidity. At the end I did not even want to hear from those who agreed with me.

The enter FACEBOOK. I liked it. Still do. Have reconnected with childhood pals and former students. They have a good way to share photos too. Not much arguing ... at least the way I do it.

Some friends and family think that FB is too nosy and they avoid the site and putting any info there. I don't have anything on FB that you could not find out about me with minimal search skills. But if you are not comfortable with being on FB, by no means be there.

My only complaint at present is that I wish part of FB could be a forum for civil discussion of interesting topics. By this I mean talk shared by people with common interest or experience. For example, I think that single moms might have things to share and write about. They would not agree about everything. Nobody does. But they would have a place to start.

I find conversations painful that just rehash what your favorite talking head said on the tube last night to someone who favors another head. I quit watching heads.

Another widespread format on FB is the premature erudition thread. This form may be the backbone of FB. I take a quick look at FB two or three times a day for 5 - 10 miutes. I see the PE thread often. But don't think I protest this presentation too much. It is not a threat to our nation or the children among us. It is just something that could be much better. Here is how the premature erudition thread works. It starts out slow and uninteresting and then rapidly grinds to a halt.

An example:

Chad - woooooaaaaa, just got up and scratched my butt... got to get me some coffee

Buffy - i heard that

Chad - i love me some coffee

Sid - me too - wish I had some RAT now

Buffy - lol

Chad -tripped over cat!

Sid - did you get coffee on the cat

Buffy - lmao

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

About this time, thread will stop

FBers - we can do better.