I've been a Facebook member for about 8 months. The part that I've really liked about it is being able to reconnect with old friends and connect with fellow enthusiasts of Romanian gymnastics. But I find a lot of Facebook to be rather silly. For example, several of my friends like to tell the world what they had for dinner. I just don't get that one. My life is not so dull that my only excitement is dinner. Maybe I'm just an old cynic, but I really don't care what other people have for dinner unless it's a super spectacular, one-of-a-kind meal. Others like to give minute-by-minute updates while they're traveling. They have mobile phones with Internet access and take full advantage of it. What happened to reading a book while waiting at the airport?
I leave tomorrow for the USA. Here is what you won't be hearing from me during my trip:
* Reports from the airport. Does somebody really have the need to know how I'm spending every second at the airport? I figure that people will know that I made it to my destination when they don't see any plane crash reports on the news. Is buying a magazine at the book shop, eating a meal, or using the toilet at the airport really that newsworthy?
* Food reports. OK, I'll give in a bit on this one. The usual choices on an overseas flight are (inedible) chicken or pasta, so I'll have one or the other of those. A few years ago my brother flew on Aeroflot, which is obviously an airline that wants to make things easy for the Facebook crowd to report their in-flight meals. Aeroflot offered a meal choice of beef or beef. I'm flying to the States on Lufthansa, which likes to continuously serve food in order to keep the passengers seated and docile. Passengers who are busy stuffing their faces are less likely to bother the flight attendants or "go postal."
* Restaurant reports. My Facebook wall won't be covered with, "I went to (insert the name here) restaurant with (insert all names here)" postings. I eat to live and don't live to eat. Food to me is fuel for my body and not something that is a big production. People in the States love to entertain visitors and friends by going out to dinner. I'd rather spend the time with them talking in their homes or out and about somewhere. A simple barbecue in the backyard is more enticing than going to a restaurant. I like to know what's in my food. Restaurant food is loaded with a lot of hidden fats, sodium, and sugars that I really don't need, especially when I won't be exercising as much as usual.
* Up-to-the-minute photos. Since I'm leaving my laptop at home, and won't be bringing a phone with Internet access (it doesn't work in the States anyway), downloading photos from my camera will have to wait until I'm back home.
* Reports about every place that I went. I may mention when I'm in a new city if I happen to have easy access to a computer. But I won't be posting, "Went to the zoo, then to the beach, then went to Paco's Taco Shop." If I go someplace very special, I'll probably end up writing a full blog entry about it later instead of taking away from the moment and pausing to post it on my Facebook page.
* If I come in late from somewhere, the first thing that I'll do when I get to wherever I'll be sleeping is getting ready for bed. I'll be tired and will have sleep, and not Facebook, on my mind. I won't be coming in and typing, "It's 2 a.m. and I just got home from (insert the place here)." That's another thing that I don't understand about Facebook users. Why not just wait until waking up the next morning to post something on the Facebook wall?
Will I continue to use Facebook? Probably, because I can find out what my friends are doing. As I said before, it has helped me stay in touch with friends. Most people don't use e-mail anymore, they use Facebook. Also, I'll be able to know what my friends had for dinner, where they went, and what time they came home.
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facebook. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Facebook, Food, and Friends
I'm very new to Facebook, having finally signed up for it just after Christmas. I have a small friends list and am still figuring out how it all works. There are a few things that I've learned about Facebook in the short time that I have been on it.
If you want to get lots of comments from your Facebook friends, post photos of whatever you're eating. I never understood the whole phenemenon of photographing your meals and posting them for all to see. When I'm eating a meal, I want to live in the moment and enjoy it. My first thought isn't, "I must photograph these chicken fajitas so I can post them on my Facebook page when I get home." I guess Facebook photo ops of your food are the Kodak moments of this millenium. To be fair, people generally post positive comments about food photos that a friend posts, or they'll ask about the restaurant that the meal came from. If I think that a certain meal looks like a greasy, nasty-looking calorie bomb, I don't say anything at all. Most other people seem to be the same. If I find a good recipe, I'll share it. But you won't find me photographing my meals.
The other thing about food and Facebook is that people like to post when and where they went out to eat. A typical post would be, "Went to Belly Buster Burgers for lunch." Again, when I go out to eat, I want to be in the moment enjoying myself with my family or friends. I don't think about rushing home to post on Facebook that I had Gulaschsuppe or Wiener Schnitzel mit Pommes at one of the local eateries. If I went somewhere and had a truly outstanding meal, that would be one thing. But it seems like every time someone goes out for a meal, he must post about it on Facebook. Appreciation for the excellent seems to be lost when every mundane restaurant experience is elevated to grand status. To me it's like writing about my training runs. If I wrote about every training run that I did, the non-runners (and runners too) who read this blog would be bored to tears. The only training runs that I write about are those that stand out because they were either excellent or horrible. Average training runs just aren't worth writing about. I believe that the same thing should apply to restaurant meals. Judging from what I read on my friends' Facebook pages, I'm evidently in the minority when it comes to food and restaurant meals.
There are two types of people on Facebook: friend collectors and people who are very selective about their friends. I fall into the latter category. I only friend people that I know. There are only two people on my friends list who I've never met in person, but I "know" one through a mutual friend and the other through a long-time acquaintance on an online forum. But there are others on Facebook who have hundreds, and even thousands, of friends. They'll accept anyone who sends a friend request. If the person requesting friendship says, "I met you at Joe Shemanski's party in 1982; don't you remember me?" he gets accepted.
A lot of people on Facebook are also game players and post the latest scores or promotions in games that they're playing. I must admit that some of the games on Facebook looked interesting. But in order to play them, you must let Facebook share your personal information. The people at Facebook don't have the need to know my information, so I won't be playing their games. There are plenty of online game sites that I visit regularly (e.g. Sporcle) that don't require users to provide personal information. I'll stick with those.
Despite this cynical-sounding post about Facebook, so far I've had a positive experience with it. I've reconnected with old friends, some of whom I lost track of in the '80s. It has also been nice to get back in touch with friends who left Germany and went back to the States. Facebook has also been a good way to communicate with my brother and cousins. The benefit of staying in touch with friends and relatives outweighs the food photos.
If you want to get lots of comments from your Facebook friends, post photos of whatever you're eating. I never understood the whole phenemenon of photographing your meals and posting them for all to see. When I'm eating a meal, I want to live in the moment and enjoy it. My first thought isn't, "I must photograph these chicken fajitas so I can post them on my Facebook page when I get home." I guess Facebook photo ops of your food are the Kodak moments of this millenium. To be fair, people generally post positive comments about food photos that a friend posts, or they'll ask about the restaurant that the meal came from. If I think that a certain meal looks like a greasy, nasty-looking calorie bomb, I don't say anything at all. Most other people seem to be the same. If I find a good recipe, I'll share it. But you won't find me photographing my meals.
The other thing about food and Facebook is that people like to post when and where they went out to eat. A typical post would be, "Went to Belly Buster Burgers for lunch." Again, when I go out to eat, I want to be in the moment enjoying myself with my family or friends. I don't think about rushing home to post on Facebook that I had Gulaschsuppe or Wiener Schnitzel mit Pommes at one of the local eateries. If I went somewhere and had a truly outstanding meal, that would be one thing. But it seems like every time someone goes out for a meal, he must post about it on Facebook. Appreciation for the excellent seems to be lost when every mundane restaurant experience is elevated to grand status. To me it's like writing about my training runs. If I wrote about every training run that I did, the non-runners (and runners too) who read this blog would be bored to tears. The only training runs that I write about are those that stand out because they were either excellent or horrible. Average training runs just aren't worth writing about. I believe that the same thing should apply to restaurant meals. Judging from what I read on my friends' Facebook pages, I'm evidently in the minority when it comes to food and restaurant meals.
There are two types of people on Facebook: friend collectors and people who are very selective about their friends. I fall into the latter category. I only friend people that I know. There are only two people on my friends list who I've never met in person, but I "know" one through a mutual friend and the other through a long-time acquaintance on an online forum. But there are others on Facebook who have hundreds, and even thousands, of friends. They'll accept anyone who sends a friend request. If the person requesting friendship says, "I met you at Joe Shemanski's party in 1982; don't you remember me?" he gets accepted.
A lot of people on Facebook are also game players and post the latest scores or promotions in games that they're playing. I must admit that some of the games on Facebook looked interesting. But in order to play them, you must let Facebook share your personal information. The people at Facebook don't have the need to know my information, so I won't be playing their games. There are plenty of online game sites that I visit regularly (e.g. Sporcle) that don't require users to provide personal information. I'll stick with those.
Despite this cynical-sounding post about Facebook, so far I've had a positive experience with it. I've reconnected with old friends, some of whom I lost track of in the '80s. It has also been nice to get back in touch with friends who left Germany and went back to the States. Facebook has also been a good way to communicate with my brother and cousins. The benefit of staying in touch with friends and relatives outweighs the food photos.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
