<p>I had a myspace page back in high school. I deleted it halfway through my junior year. Never really got into facebook. Do you think it's a tad narcissistic to have a web page completely dedicated to yourself and your life? I always got that vibe from people who are on their pages 24/7 and have dozens of pictures of themselves. It seems like people misrepresent who they really are as well on these things. Maybe I'm just over analyzing.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t have either a Facebook or Myspace, but I think it’s more about keeping in touch with other people than focusing on yourself. </p>
<p>I do think Twitter is creepy as hell though.
Why would anyone want to know what I’m doing every second of the day? And then the whole being “followed.”</p>
<p>Not into that.</p>
<p>^You answered your own question.</p>
<p>I always saw MySpace and Facebook as a way to keep in touch with people that I don’t necessarily speak to on a regular basis anymore. It’s a good way for old friends to see what I’m up to, how I’ve changed since I saw them last, etc. It’s also a good way for new friends to be able to get to know a little bit more about me. (cross-posted with Plattsburgh).</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m not a Twitter fan either. It just doesn’t make sense to me.</p>
<p>It is a means of keeping in contact with others, but it seems many people, particularly in college, get way too into it. Adding new pictures every day, “friending” everyone with a pulse, and giving constant updates about insignificant things, as if people care. Narcissism is a growing trend in today’s society. (I actually just read a news article on this very topic a few days ago) </p>
<p>Nobody has 500 friends. Nobody.</p>
<p>I think I’m just old fashioned. I prefer phone calls over text messages (unless it’s something short) and face to face interaction to commenting on social networking sites. Even if it means I come into contact with less people, I think its worth it.</p>
<p>well i hate twitter - i don’t want to know every little thing my friends are up too, but i find facebook to be diverting and good for keeping in touch. Only problem - i can never get any homework done when im on it. I initially got it to look at pictures, and i find it a great tool for sharing pics that otherwise not all would be able to see, eg from our class of 11’s senior trip to NYC.</p>
<p>Everytime a new way of communication is invented - telephones, cell phones, email, IM, texts - people always worry over the new way to communicate, fearing it will cause all kinds of problems. I think you’re overanalyzing social network cites, just like people once overanalyzed telephones and email. It’s just another way to communicate, keep in touch, share photos, videos, etc.</p>
<p>When you talk on the phone, you can only hear a voice. When someone leaves a video on your Facebook wall, you can see their face and it’s just so much nicer to see them smile and laugh. Some people overdo Facebook and constantly update and add hundreds of people, but for most people, it’s just fun and a great way to keep in touch. </p>
<p>I don’t get how people can misrepresent themselves on Facebook…it’s not like they’re being someone else. They post their own photos, talk to their own friends, etc. It’s not like you develop a new identity and set of friends online lol. In HS I thought it was useless but after I graduated I wanted to keep in touch with everyone (not just friends but old classmates and aquaintances).</p>
<p>I use Facebook a lot for scheduling things as I don’t have anyone’s number and it’s easier to talk things out through multiple people on there than on the phone.</p>
<p>I think part of the problem might be that you’re used to myspace (particularly, the old myspace, I’ve heard its got better since you and I quit) instead of facebook. </p>
<p>Yes, having a facebook profile is inherently narcisstic, especially if its loaded with pictures, information about yourself, and status updates. No one cares. At the same time, the home page shows an extensive record of your friends updates, not your own. In other words, facebook encourages you to stalk other people (creepy), rather than preen yourself.</p>
<p>Facebook can be a really useful tool for keeping in touch with people while you’re far away, and I think most people will tell you that they are using it mainly for this purpose, even if they aren’t. </p>
<p>If you do end up caving and getting facebook (only 1 person I know is left…4 of my stalwart friends who refused to join the mob throughout the entire schoolyear gave up within a week of getting back home), be warned that it is incredibly addicting, and will have a negative impact on your grades if you let it. Seriously.</p>
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<p>Not speaking of one form in general, I do feel that people nowadays constantly being in contact with each-other causes more problems than it alleviates, especially when it comes to something like dating. Seriously bugs the hell out of me.</p>
<p>Yeah, I don’t really see the addiction in it. You say “hi” to a few people, upload a new photo, and maybe change your status. Shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, and certainly nothing that should eat away at your social life. (Unless Facebook is your social life…)</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s narcissism.</p>
<p>People like facebook or are drawn to it because the page is completely under your control so you can show the world how cool you are (by detagging any photos you deem ‘uncool’) and score some points on the social hierarchy. In other words it’s more external than internal.</p>
<p>The second reason is that it is one of the most casual/ least committal forms of communication.</p>
<p>Whatever you believe, I believe a big reason why people text over calling is because it’s a lot smaller of an investment/ less of a committal. If you call someone, not only do you have to have a conversation, but if you’re trying to make plans/ figure out what people are doing for the night, you pretty much have to arrange something right there or figure out if they are coming along, etc. Hell, if you send someone a short text, you don’t even have to respond to it, or you won’t be put on the spot, it’s obviously a different dynamic.</p>
<p>Facebook is even less personal/ less of an investment than texting. You don’t need the persons number, and it’s more impersonal to post on someone’s wall than send them a text. You won’t be invading anyone’s space or whatever.</p>
<p>Crazy, I know. People just to pick up the phone sometimes and have more face-to-face interaction.</p>
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<p>Take my example. I’m an international student and i’ll be going to the US for college. Calling my friends back home isn’t going to be cheap and there’s going to be an 11 hour time difference. So facebook is the only way to communicate with my friends and all.</p>
<p>I don’t post any pictures of myself on facebook, the only pictures I have are from people who post their pictures and then tag me in them…</p>
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<p>I’m the opposite. I text or IM people I don’t really want to talk to.</p>
<p>Facebook can also become a very very bad thing when you have stalkers, people who cause controversy, the whole “who you’re dating” jealousy syndrome and “omg I knew she was at that party last night with him wearing that red dress at 3 am. I’m so going to ask her why she didn’t take me” kind of thing. </p>
<p>Facebook is also a way for employers to see who you “really” are.
I personally just deactivated my faceboook not because of the above reasons but because it consumes too much time that I could be investing in something more important. And it is definitely not coming back on for a while. Especially when I’m going back to school in a less than a month.</p>
<p>“The best way to predict your future is to create it!”
-Abraham Lincoln</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t find Facebook to be that addicting, but maybe that’s because of my personality. I don’t enjoy stalking people and browsing through all of their pictures. I have a friend who has about 1500 “friends” on Facebook, and anytime I go by her and she’s on Facebook all she does is sit there and be like, “Hmmm let’s look at Person X’s page” and I find it incredibly annoying and boring. I hvae about 100 “friends” on Facebook and only keep in constant contact with about 15 of them. Many times people add me and then never talk to me and I end up with a bunch of people who have added me simply to mind my business which is why I started doing “Facebook cleanups” every few months where I delete the people who added me and then never speak to me. I also try not to have too much information on my profile. My close friends will know all of that already.</p>
<p>Joiya: Have you heard of Skype?</p>
<p>It’s a program you download on your computer and you can basically make unlimited calls to a country of your choice for $3 a month.</p>
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<p>Have you heard of a time difference between far off places? There is an 11 hour time difference between California and my home.</p>
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I started ‘cleaning’ up my profile as well. I removed like 40 people last month whom i hardly talked to in school lol</p>