Jun/072
Facebook. The verdict.
Facebook. It's a phenomenon. I've been holding back from writing a post on it, waiting to get an opinion from Sarah. Sarah has a computer, uses Skype, shops on the web but has a very unusual attitude to the Internet world. Usually we are polarised into 2 groups - the techie, early adopters and technophobes who pick up on stuff like facebook. Sarah falls into a third category. A sophisticated citizen of the modern world who chooses not to be addicted.
So I finally demo'd the facebook website to her this morning. I showed how it works, what it does and how it grows. Her opinion?
"It's a waste of time. You could spend hours on that website when you could be outside doing fun stuff"
I could have blathered on for hours without nailing it so concisely. Turn off the TV and go and do something less boring instead.Facebook IS a waste of time. In exactly the same way that playing xbox for hours is a waste of time. That time spent in front of facebook would be better spent working on something useful, or if you've finished your work, get outside and go for a walk, go fishing, do some gardening - whatever floats your boat.
The interesting thing is why facebook is so addictive to those users who would normally sneer at wasting their time playing computer games, yet spend hours checking their profile and sending messages to people they barely know. It because using facebook feels like work. It feels like you're doing something useful, something sociable, something cool. You're actually being duped.
