Facebook Phenomenon

I signed up with Facebook a few months ago when my oldest daughter said she wanted a Facebook page. I told her I’d check it out for a few days and report back to her.

It was easy to set-up, load my profile pic, connect with friends, and start getting inundated with mostly insignificant up-to-the-minute updates from hundreds of people.

I’ve found LinkedIn to be a great resource for professional networking and have even made a few business deals or at least connected the dots on deals through this site. Facebook on the other hand is most assuredly not professional.

To put it into a high school analogy, LinkedIn is the classroom and Facebook is the hallway between classes. Loud, crazy, chaotic. A pinball existence where the ball launch is the start of the day (with people posting at 5AM “I’m up!” or “Going for a run” or even “I’m not feeling well so I’m going to stay home from work and rest between trips to the bathroom”), and immediately the inane comments and updates begin.

If you remember back to the atmosphere of those few minutes between each class in the high school hallway you’ll faintly recall the randomness of comments, yells, the bumping into people and dropping books, the hand-holding and the quick conversations and news updates about where to hang after school or who’s gonna fight who. It’s a blur.

Just like Facebook.

In the last 15 hours I’ve learned the following about my Facebook connections (and this is only about ¼ of the total status updates):

…is up drinking the java (whats so new about that), and writing one of the last chapters of the long overdue book
…thought she was getting up late, but then realized she has an extra hour today
…has odd halloween candy
…had a wonderful dream that Rick Leach was the new coach at Tennessee
…is getting ready for church
…is happy for the time change finally!
…is awake....not sure why
…is saying iPod lives again! I won't have to run in silence!
…It was nice to have the extra hour's worth of sleep. And I'll be able to run in the daylight.
…Front row at concerts - awesome! Front row at the movies - not so good.
…hangin with cody at pizza place.
…is wondering if she will ever learn to make pumpkin cookies that halfway resemble pumpkins.

…is full from soup, football and friends....what a night.
…is so grateful that we get an extra hour tonight...and that the fall fest was a hit.
…is tired...tired....tired...and is deep in the southlands of Alabama.
…misses Halloween already.
…is setting the clocks back. I love this day!
…is typing.
…is laying in his hammock at the end of an amazing day w/ his III chickens...and just heard a COW moowing!
…study study study!
…is having a fire and smores with the ones I love.
…is all dressed up and ready to go.12 hours ago - Comment
…is paying bills.
…is cleaning out my closet and drawers...what a fun Sat.
…is takin' it easy tonight
…Our house has been invaded by ladybugs. There are hundreds on the windows and sills.
…is on her way home to grill some Costco steaks for dinner with John!
…is stuck in a dress and had to bend in crazy ways to get the security tag off so i could get out of the dress.
…is watching Curious George again and again and again.
…is getting ready to eat lasagna and watch Psycho when Aidan goes to sleep.
…I've procrastinated as long as I can. I need to process 66 emails, then pack for Chicago. I have a flight out in the morning.

And the most interesting that would most certainly be categorized as “too much information”

…is slinking off to bed with wife in tow.

I have Facebook in my “Start The Day” Internet Explorer tab/group. Every morning I click the group and about 15 pages pop up on tabs for my morning read/update time. Facebook is now off the list. I think a 2 times a week glance is about right.