By: D.O.U.G.

D.O.U.G. — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:43:13 +0000

I’d say that there are several distinct uses being made of Facebook, and that the advice to “update your status often” can be exactly wrong for some applications. For some people, their “friends” are really friends they know, who *might* care what a friend is doing at every moment of the day. For other people, their “friends” are based on things other than actual acquaintance. I call them “topical” groups. I have “friends” from all over the world connected through various economics, scientific, or political links established only through Facebook, but they clearly don’t care what I’m making for dinner. In fact, I have to “hide” “friends” who do a lot of that kind of gratuitous posting, because they just take up room in my news feed. As a result, my news feed is loaded with bits of information and links to things I’m interested in reading. Of course, I try to limit my postings and status updates to things that are actually interesting. Depending on who your “visible” friends are, your news feed can be very informative, bringing topical news to you quickly from around the globe. Rapid sharing of private knowledge with interested people of like mind.

Obviously not everybody uses Facebook this way, and it’s difficult to keep things segregated by topical group. The solid advice is to create and use lists/groups, especially if you connect with several distinct topical areas. You can then filter your news feed by group/topic. Start them now so you won’t have to go back and categorize your friends at a later date.

I wonder if there’s a group on electricity market/restructuring issues. I know there’s at least two of us interested in it.

Comments on: I still don’t know why I’d want to be on Facebook

By: D.O.U.G.