I joined Facebook because it seemed a less-garish version of MySpace, but ever since it opened its doors to anyone (which was shortly before I joined), it's become more garish as it (apparently) attempts to appeal to the MySpace crowd and advertisers. But there's also the fact that, apart from its providing a space where students as well as bloggy friends can "connect" with me, I no longer find myself spending a great deal of time there. I had started up a group and it was fun, for a while, to keep up with it . . . until I noticed that the vast majority of those who joined were just, you know, joining, as opposed to joining or initiating conversations. So, I figured that if I wanted to talk in front of a mostly-silent audience, I could just keep on teaching since I already had that particular pleasure in real-life.
So, aside from Facebook's growing propensity toward the sort of insidious ad-selling that you not here, my ambivalence toward it also has to do with my just not being a social-network kind of person. I'm not that way in real life; why should I be inclined that way on the 'Nets? My blog--the people who find me that way and who have kept coming back to it--is more intimate (and, frankly, flattering) that way: people visit and, sometimes, return because of its content and not because we're "friends," whatever that means in Facebook's world.
I'll keep mine and continue to let students know I have it. But, Belle, should you retain your Facebook account, I'll continue to be glad to keep you as a Friend; just don't expect me to Zombie-chomp you anytime soon.
One real need here is to have portable identities, so people don't have to deal with sunk costs every time they want to exit a social network and enter another one.
If facebook allows export of your info and app-driven data in a simple xml file or something like that, I'd continue using it. But if it doesn't, and relies on the irksome, annoying, Microsoft-style winner-take-all of network economics and sunk costs, bah humbug!
I like Facebook, but I agree with John that the creeping MySpaceization of it since it opened up to everyone is irritating. They do seem to be gradually figuring out the privacy issues, though; after the fiasco with the feeds, which led to a lot of mobilization and activism among the users, they've been good about telling people about upcoming changes in advance, and if there's a similar reaction to these ads (which there may well be) they may well eliminate them or at least change the system to better address privacy concerns.
And as for what "friends" means in Facebook's world, it used to be that it meant exactly what it means in the real world: your Facebook friends were your real-life friends who you saw every day or kept in touch with by other means, and this was an additional (and very useful) way to keep in touch with them. Now that it's gotten so big, I don't know.
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