On the Oprah Winfrey Show Facebook a few months ago there was this post asking viewers to put in their thoughts about how facebook has changed their life. The following are some of the questions:
1 How has Facebook changed your life?
2 Have you reconnected with long lost friends and family members through facebook?
3 Did you find someone very special to you that you thought was lost forever? Did you find love on facebook and eventually get married?
4 How has Facebook changed your life?
5 Do you spend hours and hours on Facebook? Are you constantly checking your friend's status updates? Do you write status updates every hour? Do you constantly poke people or send them "good karma" all the time?
6 Are you spending too much time on Facebook?
7 Do you regret posting something on Facebook?
8 Did you post a status update that you thought was silly but now you regret it? Did someone see an embarrassing photo that you can't live down? Did you find out a secret when someone posted information on your wall? Did you write on someone's wall and now you're thinking "why did I do that!"
9 Did you reveal an embarrassing secret you wished you hadn't on Facebook?
The thing is none of these questions appear significant to me and I began to wonder if perhaps I have been using the tool wrongly.
I did not get on facebook to get reconnected with long lost friends. I didn’t get on facebook to inform others of my private life, quite happy keeping it private really. Neither did I get on facebook to network with new people. So why did I get on facebook, I ask myself bemusedly?
I got on facebook for purely personal reasons – to be updated on the latest event/thought happening in the lives of some public figures I admired and wanted to keep abreast with. I also wanted a site where I can send some of my favourite songs, interviews, movie clips, lecture series that I got off youtube for ‘safe keeping’. It’s my electronic journal or as I call it on my facebook profile, they are a collage of my interests. I don’t do it to inform others but I choose to create a collage for my personal viewing. Albeit there are a meagre amount of people I consider my social contacts, in general I ‘hang out’ with the people I don’t otherwise meet or are in contact with. I wonder if that means I am abusing the facebook service just a little?!
