LooseSuits

Never use it I despise both the FB and the My Space thing although I gave both two chances.

A friend of mine has had great success with FB as a marketing tool for a cause, by virtue of being able to sign up over three thousand people in one hour to the site which promoted his cause. For that reason I can see it being useful.

I see friends who have to check their FB four or five times a day and just don't get it.

But on the other hand they don't understand why I have a blog. I've been told that blogs are for people who are less social.

I use Facebook. It's a good way to keep track of people. And see what they're up to. I use LinkedIn more for professional contacts. But I prefer Facebook to MySpace, mainly because I feel dirty after I'm on MySpace. There are just so many creepy people out there.

Alright now here's where I'm going to step in. I actually like Facebook and while I don't check my account five times a day, I do check it three times a day.

My theory is that there are people on the Internet that hate on Facebook because they don't really have that much of a social life. No social life = no social networking. (No offense to Neil or anything.)

"But on the other hand they don't understand why I have a blog. I've been told that blogs are for people who are less social. "

coooper you bring up a good point although on the flip side of that I do know people who are way to dependent on Facebook as a means of amusement. It's definitely a balance though.

In my school blogging is supposedly the new cool hip thing and yet I am the only one who I know who blogs personally. I've shown my blog to my friends and we've even had a couple of good laughs over some of the stuff I've written but I doubt that very few people I know in the physical world read it.

Anyway those are my thoughts.

Oh and another thing, there is also a possibility for you older people that you just happened to miss the Facebook generation. They got us while we were young.

I have a MySpace... I don't really use it that much but now with a new semester I can talk to people I won't see during the day. Plus it teaches kids HTML without them knowing it!

I don't know about FaceBook... I got invited and tried to sign up but I never had my inviter listed as a friend so I haven't been back lol.

I feel this way with MySpace especially, and, until fairly recently with FaceBook as well. I can say that a majority of my friends are extremely addicted to both MySpace and facebook.

I personally use it primarly as a marketing tool and secondly as a way to stay in touch with friends and family.

It is a rather clean system, that does allow you to easily stay in touch with distant friends.

It's funny, I have both a MySpace and a Facebook profile.

I NEVER use MySpace because I think it's pure-D moronic... yet I use my Facebook profile ALL the time.

I think it's the level of maturity as far as facebook goes. MOST people on Facebook are college folk while the pile of "14 year old girls" and perverts on MySpace is just WAY too staggering to think about,

Michael: I actually have a pretty large social circle but I will admit to being adverse to a lot of social life and trying at times to keep it at bay because for me getting through all the academic hoopla was my main goal.
I've often been criticized for this by friends, so I see your point.

The friends I know who are face book aficionados, now that I think of it, are the most charismatic and socially adept people I know.

The other commenter who said My Space made him feel dirty, those were my thoughts exactly. Don’t know why.

For some reason blogs don't make me feel that way.

I'm a FB addict. I had a MySpace account for a while, but the designs were so terrible both by users and the system itself that I couldn't stand it. That website is horrendous. Plus the ads are more provocative than necessary for that demographic (and in general).

My name is Jorge Quinteros and I'm a MySpace addict. After I found it that it was possible to customize your page with some sweet CSS, I thought the whole concept was amazing.

the fact that facebook profiles use real names, not myspacey *~DaVeMoNkEy~* or whatever, is a both a contributing factor and a symbol of what facebook represents. People meet people on myspace but tend not to actually know who they are, whereas facebook simply mirrors existing social structures (which is why there are networks for schools, work, regions, etc.)

wow jorgeq nice myspace page, one of the best i've seen

I am not mentioning MySpace.

I have had a Facebook profile for a short while now, but so far I don't see much value in it.

I have two contacts, but as far as staying in touch with them? I already chat with these people, send them e-mails, read their blogs and track their pics on Flickr. What else do I have to know that they cannot simply tell me if it's of interest to me?

Multiplicative has a point: FB mirrors existing social structures. I tend to meet my real-life network in the pub, though, and they're major n00bs, so not on there anyway.

I have this theory that real social interaction only happens when you actually create something: blog posts, pictures, videos... Sites that simply keep stats of what I've done or listened to: they just don't generate any kind of community feeling for me.

If someone can tell me what it could do for me however... please do.

Like I said Nils, I think you're part of the generation that missed MySpace, Facebook. However in the end Facebook is only a supplement towards real social interaction.

The same goes for blogs. The 9rules community is good but I also think that our members wouldn't be able to produce such awesome entries if their personal lives were not in decent shape. (Just a theory) Balance is a good thing. Balance bring stability and inspiration to do great things. But that is for another note.

I think there's a large market out there that MySpace, Facebook, and the copycat networks aren't addressing and that's how to better interact with people you already "know". I'm not talking about your friends or your family, but more like the casual people you interact with -- commenters on your blog, people on other blogs you read, people who react to your 9rules Notes threads, etc. Not everyone wants to meet a hundred new people that they'll never see in person, but I see a lot of value in strengthening the casual relationships that people have since we have many more acquaintances than friends.

Somebody should work on that something like that ;)

Yeah Mike who the hell would ever do that? :)

*points fingers in all directions

:)

I've been a member of Facebook for quite some time now and I hardly ever use it. But I'm also not your average Facebook user. I'm older, have most of the contact information for friends etc. elsewhere. With age came the realization that I was spending too much time online, so I had to limit that time to a few projects ... 9rules being one of them. There's enough interaction for me here.

I feel like I don't spend enough time online, interacting that is.

Maybe it's because I missed some trend somewhere, maybe it's because I'm vacuous, uninteresting and basically anti-social anyway.

I like Mike's idea. I would be like a network, with blogging and forums combined, and lots of interactive features.

8-|

We all know no one could do Mike's idea properly and if they did they would have to compete with MyBlogLog.

Hi Everyone

I'm new to the site, and I had to weigh in on this. I have accounts with both MySpace and Facebook. I like FB's interface much more than MySpace and I think MySpace(as a website) is very poorly done.

However, I do see the value in both. Within a week of my joining MySpace, I was contacted by a friend who had moved far away when we were about 12 yrs. old. I know something like this is a little more likely in todays technilogical age, but it was nice to hear from him and it was MySpace that facilitated the reunion.

Facebook is nice b/c it has the college networks and you can keep up with old college friends, etc.

I only check the sites when I receive email updates on my profiles. So I wouldn't say I'm addicted though.

Hi!

Yeah Facebook is great for keeping in touch with old people but I also think it's great for meeting new people or rather, strenghthening those casual relationships...people who you just met that once.

I do hope that Facebook survives.

I love Facebook. Originally I stood under the presumption that it was similar to Faceparty.

Oh how wrong I was.

To make myself appear popular out of some sort of Web 2.0 status anxiety, I'm going to start adding you all. You have been warned.

Yeah I like Facebook alot, but like Mike said, the issue that I have with some of these social networks is that aside from writing on someones wall and sending a message, there is no interaction. I feel like I sign up for all of these different services that do the exact same thing, just with a different look and feel. It's getting old really fast.

@JPhill

That's true. In the end it's all the same. They just do it differently to try and stand out.

I guess the only thing I can say is that things are different in college. We're ten times more hyper, energetic and take lots of pictures so our photo albums are somewhat bound to Facebook.

It's tough to understand unless you're there. It's kinda like a web2.0 frenzy, except nobody really knows what that is.

Oh I definitely understand what you mean Michael, I was still in school when Facebook kind of blew up on my campus and everyone started using it. Just seeing more interaction would be great though, aside from writing on walls, etc.

As a college student Facebook helps me keep track of so many friends and just the little 'goings-on' that are in our lives. I constantly meet new people (at a public university its easy) and it's a great way to keep everyone organized in one place.

Our generation has also been semi-skipped by email usage. We went straight to 'instant' communications. Wall posts. Instant messages. SMS texts. That's why I see so many people post FB messages in class and comment on walls non-stop.