I read a great article on Gizmodo today: If You’re Not On Facebook, It’s Time To Get Over Yourself
(Original article: http://gizmodo.com/#!5792570)
Surprisingly enough, I hadn’t yet seen an article with this perspective and voice, it was perfect. In spite of it’s perfection, I just want to add my thoughts.
“About to eat a taco. Yum!”
I’ve encountered far too many people that are dismissive of Facebook and Twitter. They often reduce it to the most vanilla arguments against the sites. “I don’t care what you are eating for lunch, or that you are going to the bathroom.”
Do people post inane details like that? Of course they do, but is that all? Not even close.
Here are a few things I’ve heard or experienced in the last year:
“What’s a Facebook?”
Someone actually said that to me, not all that long ago. “What rock are you living under” is my unspoken, mental retort?
I can’t comprehend someone that doesn’t even know what Facebook is. Beyond that, I can’t think of one good reason why someone would abstain from having a Facebook account. Even privacy concerns aren’t a good enough reason. It’s not like when you sign up that you are required to post you social security number, birthday and mother’s maiden name. Facebook is our global address book, it’s how we communicate, abstaining at this point is to have completely missed the tipping point. You should have an by account now, even if just to see your grandkids across time and space or enrich your relationship with one other person.
“I don’t get Twitter.”
The truth is that most people don’t get Twitter. Facebook is easy to understand; it’s a network (somewhat private) of people, with prior relationships. Twitter on the other hand is totally public, and often comprised of networks of strangers that share a common interest.
Twitter search enables you to tap into conversations about any topic. You can search by geography, by topic or by user. You can’t do this on Facebook in the same way.
It’s unlikely that Twitter will ever be as popular as Facebook, but that isn’t the point. The point is that there is a tremendous amount of value in Twitter, and those that abstain on the basis that it is all mindless drivel should consider speaking from experience rather than ignorance.
The person without a cell phone
My 9 year old nephew has a cell phone. My 7 year old nephew has an iPad. Is that par for the course? Maybe, maybe not. But when you are a grown ass adult, you should “get with it” because without a Facebook account you are in the same boat as the person without a cell phone. It is 2011 and this is the world you are living in, like it or not. You can abstain but the only person you are hurting is yourself.
Now if you can accept joining Facebook as par for the course, why not jump in “early” and get a Twitter account. Find out why everyone is talking about these tools.
Consequences
If, in spite of every good reason to the contrary, you insist on abstaining from all Social Media activity, know that I will look at you as a Luddite. I might laugh at you behind your back for your refusal to join the present. I may suggest that you watch movies on a VCR , play music via cassette tapes and prefer the Yellow Pages to Google. I will, infrequently, email you animated gifs and wordperfect documents to your @aol.com email address.
As the world turns, technologies change, and with that, behaviors change. You can change with the times or get left behind, it is your choice but understand the choice you are making, how it impacts your ability to get things done in modern society and also how that choice affects how others perceive you.