Social networking

[Rick Potter]

Facebook? Nah, I don't need 'friends' to know my every move.

Twitter? 140 characters is NOT a conversation.

MySpace? I'm not a teenage girl.

Lets face it, I am never going to get involved in meaningless twadle about nothing. Why bother? If I need to know something I just ask the Sawmill Creek panel. So far there is nothing so esoteric that they don't have an answer for me. I can even gloat about a new purchase, and no one complains. I am sure you are all laughing WITH me.

I guess what I am trying to say, using more than 140 characters, is that you Creekers ARE my social network.

Thanks,

Rick Potter

[Dave Anderson NH]

For those who don't know, Rick used to bill himself as "Grumpy" back in the days of Badger Pond. It's not an insult, 'ceptin' maybe a friendly one.

I happen to agree with you Rick. When I am in my office and tied to the computer most of the day that is enough. I have an old fashioned regular cell phone and no interest in getting a Blackbery, an enhanced phone, or any of the other more modern devices. I don't text, use email on my phone, and don't belong to any of the "normal" social networks. My phone stays in my car, doesn't go into restaurants, stores, or other public places to rudely ring and disturb other people. At night, my cell phone is off unless I choose to use extra minutes to make a toll free call. I see no need and I have no desire to be connected to the world all of the time. Our society survived very nicely for millenia without instant communications 24/7. There is peace and serenity in not being connected all of the time.

[David Weaver]

I'm in the same boat. The only time i ever log into facebook is if there is a news event and one of my friends is an expert - I know they'll be putting some sort of calibrating comments out there regarding something in the news.

I'm not even good with the phone, sometimes I miss calls on it for two days, because I don't remember to turn the ringer on loud enough, or I can't remember the settings.

My first cell phone would beep until you picked it up - sort of like the old microwaves that would beep once every 2 minutes or so until you remembered you left something in them. My phone now, there's probably something in the settings to make it like my old one, but I don't know how, and I always see missed calls in the morning.

Phones come and go so fast it's not like the old landline setup where there is a voice mail and a phone that rings loudly. I generally default to leaving mine fairly quiet so I don't forget it when i'm in a meeting.

But the social networks, I can just never remember to look at them in the first place, and in the second place, I usually come away thinking less of people after I read their posts, and I don't like that feeling. I'd rather just avoid it.

[Jim Koepke]

+1 on what Rick said.

Enough of my time is spent on the computer reading SMC or the news outlets that I do not need something following me around and beeping every time someone decides to buy a milkshake or go to the bathroom.

Our cell service doesn't work until we get about a mile away from home.

The only reason we continue the service is because I can't figure out how to find my wife at Costco if we didn't have cell phones.

jtk

[Belinda Barfield]

I'm pretty much in agreement with you guys. I did finally join Facebook because my family was about to disown me if I didn't. I see a whole different side some people on Facebook that has definitely changed how I think of them. It is nice to see photos of my little cousins that I probably wouldn't see otherwise. I just don't get the person I met Friday night wanting to be Facebook friends Saturday morning. I'm only "friends" with my friends.

Cell phone stays on vibrate. It stays on my side all day at work and I take it off when I walk in the door of my house unless I'm waiting for a work related call (which is rare). I go entire weekends that I don't pick it up off the nightstand. There are maybe 10 people who have the number.

I managed to get by just fine for a lot of years not being connected 24/7. Then again, I've been called a hermudgeon - a combination of a hermit and a curmudgeon.

[Joe Leigh]

Facebook, spawned by the "Look at me"!! generation.
Never got the whole "blog" thing either. Who told all these people that what they had to say was so important? And when did they get the impression that anyone cared?
Don't get me started....

[Bruce Page]

I am one of the last holdouts – we don’t even have a cell phone. I did buy a disposable wallyworld cell phone to use when I was working in Alaska. We may get one in the future when we start doing some traveling but I don’t see the need right now.
I did join facebook but I still don’t understande what it is all about. I get all these people that want to be friends that I don't know from Adam...

[Rick Potter]

I do have a semi-admission to make. I am apparantly a member of facebook, even though I have never seen it. My wife and daughter like to play farmville, and used my name so they could get more 'farmland'. This has caused an increase in my junk mail from women calling me 'beloved' and wanting to be my 'friend'. I dump all 'friends' requests, even from real friends, because I would never read it anyway.

I AM grumpy Rick, since 1994 or so, that has been my e-mail address. Could be, there is a reason for that.

RP

[Damon Stathatos]

I had been able to keep up fairly well with the technology highway until Myspace, which was, if I'm not mistaken, the first social network to be widely adopted.

At that time, I was struggling with texting, the kids would laugh at me for how long it took me to type even the shortest messages, but I was confident that in time I'd be able to actually adopt numbers for letters and semicolons parentheses combinations. Then Myspace was 'the thing' and it was at that time I decided to jump off the bus. What the heck, approaching 50, I'd stayed on the highway long enough, and now it was time to just use the resources I had available already and forget the rest.

Now when people text me, I call them back. It takes me less time and the communication is normally both methodic and logical (as opposed to disjointed) and most of the time, enjoyable. As far as I'm concerned, if my old friends want to find out what I've been up to, they're welcome to call.

In retrospect however, it may be too bad that I didn't adopt Myspace...who knows, it could have been me who invented Facebook, which would have been called 'Statsbook' (my nickname) had that been the case.

[David G Baker]

I am a Facebook faithful. I don't use it to air my laundry, I use it to get back in touch and stay in touch with old friends and family that I had lost touch with years ago. I tried Myspace and found that it was not for me. I don't use Twitter and only use my cell phone when traveling as an insurance in case of an accident during the Winter months. Having worked in and around the news business for over 30 years I use Facebook to get quick updates on what is going on in the world from folks I once worked with. I visit Facebook several times throughout the day but rarely spend more than a few minutes at a time on it.
In my opinion social networks can work depending on a person's interests.

[Frank Guerin]

I like the phone text thing even if it takes me awhile to do it. I don't want to answer the phone and listen to a 20 minute conversation that eventually boils down to someones poor me.


"Change begins when the pain of living your current life exceeds the fear of change"

[Pat Germain]

I just don't get the person I met Friday night wanting to be Facebook friends Saturday morning.

Whoa, that was you?

[Curt Fuller]

Facebook, spawned by the "Look at me"!! generation.
Never got the whole "blog" thing either. Who told all these people that what they had to say was so important? And when did they get the impression that anyone cared?
Don't get me started....

Applied then, applies now....

Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.
Edward R. Murrow (1908 - 1965)

[Ron Bontz]

Well I joined Face book and then deactivated it. Too many people wanted to be my friend. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THEM. I am old, bald, ugly and broke (a sickness of the worse kind), so I somehow doubt it was my internet charm or fancy 2002 Dodge pick up, that attracted them. And no I don't "want to be naughty" Ya just gotta love this new world we live in.

[Eric DeSilva]

You all sound like you are trying to be part of the grumpy old men club. So you don't like FB. Don't join. So you don't want a cell phone. Don't buy one. So you don't want to blog. No one is forcing you too.

I have a cell phone. It helps me professionally to have my clients able to contact me wherever I am. They are responsible about that and don't use it frivolously. In exchange, it occasionally allows me to go places I wouldn't have been able to for fear of being out of touch.

I text. I didn't use too, but there are times when all I want to send is one sentence. The people I text are friends, and they know what it does or doesn't mean. Sometimes, for example, I'm stuck in a meeting and want to let my wife know I'm going to be late. I can text her discreetly with one hand, whereas pulling out a phone is a bit conspicuous. Sometimes I just need to let her know something, and don't have time for a call -- "I'm running late!" It is handy for things like that.

FB is FB. Just because they call the relationship "friending" someone doesn't mean that you have to adopt that definition. It is a connection. You can keep them tight and close and reveal lots of personal stuff because your relationships are all tight and close. You can open it up wide, and share only things you would post on a bulletin board on Times Square. For me, it is handy to keep up with certain friends, and it gives me a window into their lives to see what they are doing, pictures of their kids, etc.

So what is the big deal? A whole lot of people find these tools useful. That doesn't make them good or bad. They are just tools.