Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Facebook Etiquette

I don't use Facebook, so it's hard for me to define whether what people do on there is considered normal and acceptable. For example: is it considered a normal part of Facebook etiquette to publish pictures of people (not celebrities, just regular people) without asking for their permission? I have discovered, for example, that there is a person who has declared in international search for me and is posting my pictures and asking people if they know where I  am. To me that seems to be in horribly bad taste. For one, I'm not on Facebook, so I don't have a way of knowing what has been posted and actually looking at those pictures. I also never gave any permission for my photos to be put up there. Or anywhere for that matter. And, of course, if I made myself hard for that particular person to find, it might be that I'm not interested in being found by them.

I'd never post photos of people on my blog without their explicit consent, and it seems weird to me that anybody would do such a thing on Facebook or elsewhere. Especially if it's a social medium that is closed to anybody who is not a member. But is it considered a normal practice on Facebook, though? If there are Facebook users among my readers, do you do this? Am I being an old-fashioned fuddy-duddy in my rejection of such practices?

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Facebook

Dear readers who are sending me invitations to join you on Facebook,

thank you for inviting me, but I don't do Facebook. I don't have a Facebook page and have no plans to get one. Maybe I'm too old, but I just don't get the Facebook format. The endless posting of pictures of every tiny event in my life is not for me. I don't even have that many pictures of myself, and I don't attend many parties any more (especially since I attended enough parties in grad school to last me three lifetimes). I also don't get the status updates and don't understand the purpose of writing things on anybody's wall. I'm kind of verbose (in case you haven't noticed) and cannot possibly limit myself to short statements about where I am and what I'm doing.

I am in no way critical of anybody's facebooking activities. I don't even object when my students update their pages during my lectures. I know that Facebook is central to many people's lives, and good for them. I am also aware that some of you are linking to my blog on your Facebook pages, for which I am extremely grateful. But it simply isn't my format. For now, I will stick to blogging and occasional tweeting. The blogging format is perfect for me because it's very organized and allows me to keep rambling for as long as I want.