A Day Inside Facebook

Yesterday, I spent a large amount of time inside the website known as Facebook. Most of this time was spent browsing people’s profiles or managing how I was connected to people. I’ll likely do more of the same today, but I thought I’d report on what I did, and what the plans are.
Spring Cleaning
I started [...]

Yesterday, I spent a large amount of time inside the website known as Facebook. Most of this time was spent browsing people’s profiles or managing how I was connected to people. I’ll likely do more of the same today, but I thought I’d report on what I did, and what the plans are.

Spring Cleaning

I started the day by removing the nearly 40 applications I wasn’t using. This brought me down to 22. Half of those are official, Facebook-created apps such as groups, and events, and 3 more are applications that I play a role in as a Developer. So I’m left with 8, really. Not bad.

I next went through and tweaked my Facebook privacy and limited profile settings. This was going to play a bigger role in my plans later in the day. I also moved a few things around on my profile, and tidied things up there.

Lunchtime Reading

I ate my soup and garlic bread while browsing the immense application directory. After recently removing applications, this might seem like an odd choice, but I wasn’t adding anything - yet. Facebook’s application platform (which, I promise, will be a whole post unto itself shortly) offers a lot of widely varying applications for use. I was looking for those that would help make my time insdie facebook more productive.

I’ve got a list and will be expermenting soon.

Managing People And Connections

More and more, Facebook is becoming my Rolodex. While some people use LinkedIn for this, Facebook allows me to not only connect to people, but to get a small glimpse into their lives and what they’re doing. For me, it’s really an advance marriage of LinkedIn and Twitter.

I’ve been making a big use of the friend groups within facebook to keep track of my connections, and a large amount of time (A few hours, in fact) went to re-organizing those. In all, I now have 37 of these groups. Some of these, like my “Canadian”, “American” and “International” cast wide nets, while other groups only have 3 or 4 people in them.

Every event I’ve attended (Except for one) has it’s own group, and people I met, or visited with, at an event goes into that group. This means that I can quickly pull up a group and see who was around. As I friend more people, I can then add them to their correct groups, and keep them sorted. Something I couldn’t do with my physical Rolodex. Not easily, anyway - and I tried.

When Worlds Collide

Facebook is, with the exception of email, the only place where my “work” world and my “real” world come together. It sure makes for an interesting dynamic when I sign in, too. It’s because of this that I’ve always been a heavy user of the limited profile option. People in my limited profile group, for example (Don’t check, you likely are) can’t see my friends list. Nor can they see photo galleries I post (Unless I specify they can) or my mailing addressor my home phone number.

I use the privace settings more to manage the fact that this is a place where two - very different - worlds come together and it allows me to be a complete goofball with my former room-mates, my wedding party, and my high school buddies, while being a complete goofball with new friends I’ve met through the world of social media. Sorting people took a LONG time, but it means that my Facebook world can have the balance it, apparently, needs.

Your Turn

I’m going to write more on my tricks within the Facebook walls soon (Including a full list of my privacy groups, and a look at my apps), but I want to know how you’re using the site. What does it bring to you? Who does it connect you with? What apps do you use? Why? Let me know.

Befriending in Facebook - The polite thing to do?

[ I had planned on posting on where I'd like to see PodCamp go - but I had a tooth pulled, and the meds from it are clouding my mind. So have this post about Facebook to kill some time. ]
So not long ago a few friends came into town and needed a place to [...]

[ I had planned on posting on where I'd like to see PodCamp go - but I had a tooth pulled, and the meds from it are clouding my mind. So have this post about Facebook to kill some time. ]

So not long ago a few friends came into town and needed a place to stay for a night. Let’s, for sake of example, call them Jane and John.

My wife knew Jane from high school. They were good friends back then, and kept in touch, though from a distance, when they parted ways for university. While my wife (or I) didn’t have a facebook profile until earlier this year, shortly after she set her’s up, Jane was added. I’m not sure if Jane found her, or if she found Jane, but that minor detail doesn’t play a large role in where I’m going with this, so just stay with me here. They were friends on facebook, and that’s what counts.

Jane and John are now looking at relocating to Kingston, and wanted to come explore the city first. We offered them our spare bedroom while they learn the city, and have offered it up if they return for some apartment shopping. And this is where Facebook tied itself to real life in a way I didn’t really expect. My wife, who already had Jane in her friends list, added John too… And commented that “It seemed like the polite thing to do”. She hadn’t yet met John (Jane met him after leaving high school) but he was on her friends list.

I feel the situation has a lot to do with the personal trust network philosophy. My wife trusts Jane, Jane’s in a relationship with John, therefore, until she can make her own conclusions, my wife trusts John. I’ll admit too that, while the adds didn’t happen from me until they were here, it was a result of not making the effort, not a result of not willing to add them. I trust my wife, who trusts Jane, who trusts John. We’re at three degrees of separation here, but I was still willing to add him to my list.

So… was it the polite thing to do? Facebook is growing daily and certainly has mass appeal… But how does it now tie into our daily lives? Should I be adding everyone I’ve met and using it in a “life history” sense? Is anyone else using it that way? Facebook seems to have a lot to teach us, not only about others, but, it appears, about ourselves. What has it taught you?