I know, Facebook and twitter serve different purposes, but I’m switching. And Facebook is a tremendous company that has built an unprecedented following worth a ton of money. I have nothing but respect for the group that did this.
However, I’m a grown up — and Facebook is a pointless toy. The concept of “my 100+ closest friends” is a perversion of the term “friend.” I don’t have 100 friends, never will, and never hope to. And, if I haven’t “contacted” someone in 20 years, there just might be a reason for not doing so — I didn’t care about what you were doing before, and I’ve been on the internet for a long time, so just because you’re online doesn’t mean I am suddenly interested in your life. If I were, I or you would have connected in other ways.
I am pushing 300 connections on LinkedIn and they are just that, connections. Some are also friends, but that’s the exception. There simply are not that many people with whom I want to keep in touch on a personal level. I don’t care what someone’s children did this morning (their relatives do), I don’t care how someone is feeling about their upcoming plane trip or what someone’s dinner tasted like. I am simply not interested — not in the minutiae of someone else’s life.
People have been starting to use Facebook as a marketing and self-promotional tool. Don’t you see that if you are trying to market anything serious (I saw entreprise software webinars come through a couple of times), you and your content will automatically be dismissed as worthless junk bordering on a teenage prank. I will never take anything on Facebook seriously from a professional point of view.
Facebook is a great app and a powerful medium, but a complete waste of time. Nothing useful — just human fabric minutiae. I have nothing to contribute to the topic and want nothing in return. I guess that makes me an anti-social misanthrope.
I have recently started using twitter. Skeptical at first, I am starting to get quite a bit of value from the network. It lets me interact with the professional side of my life. Now, twitter can devolve into a Facebook style baby-food stained goo pretty easily. If I really need to, I can always get two twitter accounts: a professional one and a family one. That way things are cleanly separated.
Since I am not very into family communications, I have just one twitter account: @sheynkman. See you there… My Facebook days end tomorrow.