Dividing by Zero » Bowing to the Inevitable

Bowing to the Inevitable

At this point in time, I think there are perhaps a dozen people in North America who don’t have Facebook accounts. Up until 5 minutes ago, I was one of them.

I’ve been noticing a trend lately: If you want to know what’s going on, you have to be on Facebook. I’ve missed out on a lot of news because of that, and frequently have to ask people to resend photos so I can view them. (I frequently receive photo links which lead to Facebook pages which say “You must have a Facebook account to view that page.”)

So I’ve decided to bite the bullet and join Facebook, at least until the next fad comes along.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 29th, 2009 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Assorted Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Responses to “Bowing to the Inevitable”

Blair Says:
November 29th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
One interesting step in the signup process is where you’re asked to pick people you know from a list of people you might know. (I skipped the step where they asked for my email password. Internet Security 101 — don’t share your password.)

Some of the people they listed really are folks I know. Some of them are folks I’ve never heard of.

Then we have the “interesting” ones.
- Richard Hatch - Well OK, I have met him. He signed The Snow Shovel. Even watched him and Peter David get into a water gun duel.
- Gary Graham - Yep, I’ve met him too. Gary was at “SnowPoint” which was the last time The Snow Shovel was used for snow. (I really need to meet him again so I can get it signed.)
- Howard Weinstein - OK, Howie and I actually know each other by name and have even chatted about non-convention topics. But I don’t know him well enough to call for a ride when my car won’t start (though I think he’d say yes if he were local).
Yet very few of the people I do know well are listed on this page. (Even though they talk about Facebook quite often.)
Blair Says:
November 29th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Ouch!

We all have “down” days, but this is just mean.
Dave Learn Says:
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I am sorry that you have succumbed to Facebook illness. I was quite willing to pass the photos along by a different route, and you’ll note that I did. (I only sent them Facebook route because I was under the mistaken impression that you would be able to view them without an account.)
Blair Says:
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:15 pm
You’re not the first to send photos that way. It is possible for a non facebook user to view photos, but apparently you have to set permissions for each photo or something like.

It ends up being enough of a hassle that over time, I end up not seeing photos. Likewise, when folks post stuff to their facebook accounts, such a large percentage of their friends are on the system that non-facebookers tend to be overlooked.

I was probably gonna end up there sooner or later anyhow. There’s been nothing big yet, but we’re starting to look into doing things with Facebook at work.
Katya4me Says:
December 17th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Shawn and I are still Facebook-free. I have succumbed (sort of) to Twitter though….