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I found this article today. Do you have long time friends that are on your friends list on Facebook (or MySpace or whatever) and now you only keep in touch by updating your Facebook Status? No more phone calls, visits, or e-mails? Do you think this is still a "real" friendship? I'm talking about people you used to keep in contact with in other ways, not just people you knew 20 years ago and added them as friends even though you haven't kept in touch in those 20 years.
Location: In my own little corner... sittin' in Jax FL
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Interesting article.
For me, Facebook has allowed me to be in contact with people I've known in my life. I am hundreds, sometimes even thousands of miles from most of them. My high school friends, wow! I don't know that I'd talk to many of them off Facebook -- distance in time apart and physical locations make it difficult.
I will say that sometimes it is easier to send an electronic message be it through a social networking site, instant message, or e-mail. Phone calls take longer. Regular mail? No way am I paying the Pony Express that much to mail something that I could do another way. LOL
Does it make me a recluse? Perhaps sometimes. But most of the time I recognize when I do need to make a call or meet up in person, when possible.
I actually found my Nephew through Facebook and a couple cousins. We keep in touch, IM and other ways of communication. Our busy lives and time zone differences make it difficult to pick up the phone and call just to chat without causing an inconvenience.
I found this article today. Do you have long time friends that are on your friends list on Facebook (or MySpace or whatever) and now you only keep in touch by updating your Facebook Status? No more phone calls, visits, or e-mails? Do you think this is still a "real" friendship? I'm talking about people you used to keep in contact with in other ways, not just people you knew 20 years ago and added them as friends even though you haven't kept in touch in those 20 years.
Just curious.
No. Quite the opposite in fact. I have friends and family (TONS of family!!! t) on Facebook that I hardly EVER communicated with, and now am able to stay in touch with. Friends that I have not seen in years, are now easily in touch. It's been a wonderful tool for me, though I never thought it would be as useful as it has been.
The people that I normally am in contact with "in other ways", have not changed. We still call, talk, whatever. No, FB has not been a detriment at all, for me.
I'm glad you posted this article. I'm one of the few people I know who's not on Facebook. While I see the value of it and how it makes it easier to stay connected with people who live in another city or when you don't have time to meet in person, I also see the potential for laziness. Instead of having a conversation to catch up on each other's lives, you can just post an update. It's a bit impersonal after a while. Then you have the phenomenon of people "collecting" friends. It all feels so high-schoolish, trying to see who can collect the most friends like you're competing in one giant popularity contest. But if you really want to prove that the value of Facebook is overstated, just ask people how much they would pay per month to use it. Every person I've asked has said they would never pay for it.
Don't you think MySpace is better? Facebook has too many applications ...
I think it depends where the rest of your friends hang out.
I didn't care for either at first but then one of my best friends ask me to join MySpace so I did. She's now one of five friends I have on MySpace but even she seems to spend 99% of her time on Facebook now.
Facebook seems a bit more user friendly. I can navigate around and find info a lot quicker. I have a grand total of 12 friends on Facebook and don't just go looking for people I knew once upon a time to add to my number. I don't use most of the applications on there either, you don't have to if you don't want to. I've had friends "throw snowballs at me" and "leave presents under a Christmas tree" but I ignore 90% of those things, too juvenile for me.
If I send an "old-fashioned" e-mail to a friend and they don't respond, or answer my e-mail questions in the form of a Facebook update, I get a bit ticked off. If I'm not worthy of a personal e-mail response then I will probably write you off as a friend before too long. This happened to me a couple months ago and I no longer consider the person to be a real friend to me which is very sad.
Myspace I can't stand. It's a mess. Facebook has a much cleaner look and is easier to use.
Facebook is useful to stay in touch with friends and co workers since they are all scattered all over the country and world. I do try to keep the friends list limited though and wont accept friend requests from people I don't want to stay in touch with. Sometimes I pare the list back as well.
I'm a die-hard Facebooker. I have a myspace, but rarely log into it.
Facebook helps me stay in touch with friends that I've known for almost 15 years! I've got many business, school, family, and friend contacts.
The only time I send anything via snail-mail is packages, holiday/special occasion cards, and bills. IMing is simple because I can multi-task... in time it takes for person to respond back, I can have checked and written an e-mail, paid bills online, etc. I do call and see the people in person on my Facebook.
Over-all, I give it a .
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I have friends and family (TONS of family!!! 
t) on Facebook that I hardly EVER communicated with, and now am able to stay in touch with. Friends that I have not seen in years, are now easily in touch. It's been a wonderful tool for me, though I never thought it would be as useful as it has been. 
.
