Friday, May 8, 2009

call me

i hate facebook. well... hate may be a strong word. i don’t care for it. and it really annoys me. does dislike + annoy = hate? i don’t know. you tell me. in any case, bleh to facebook. i use it out of necessity because 1) i have a crush on a guy from high school who is my friend and i use it to secretly keep tabs on him (in a non-stalking way, of course) and 2) to keep in touch with my friends from france who i’m not close enough to email, but could, theoretically, someday send a facebook note and be like, “hey christoff, i’m in frankfurt, we went to school together in france? remember? let’s meet up.”

so when i saw this video, i totally agreed. and it made me wonder why i stay with facebook. and then i remember my stupid reasons and don’t delete my account. but IF facebook comes out with those stupid legal agreement owning all the photos on the site again, i might have to delete my account. and i don’t think i would like that. there are a lot of european friends on there whose email addresses i dont have that i would like to maybe someday stay in touch with.

so why do i dislike facebook? for exactly the same reasons why i use it. people who i do not like can use it to keep tabs on me. i dont want those people keeping tabs on me! some people don’t deserve to know what i am doing these days. oh, and it also kind of sucks that I’M NOT DOING ANYTHING. thats another reason for me to dislike facebook. and i hate the whole “friends” aspect. like, all these people from high school who i didnt even talk to in high school try to befriend me. this is a smallish community, so i feel bad when i don’t accept them as a friend, even though i dont care what they’re doing now and dont really want them to know what i’m doing. and now i had to join the facebook group for class of ’99 reunion. UGH. so now i keep getting these emails about what they’re doing at the reunion and how much it is and when you have to RSVP by. and i’ve just decided not to go. my good friend, deepti, is not going and i can’t get a hold of my friend molly. other than that... there aren’t a lot of reasons for me to go. and then i read this article about things this woman learned in high school and figured, “20 years. i’ll go to the 20 year reunion and have no problems with it.” hopefully by then i’ll be successful and won’t mind showing up at my reunion.

so what do i do instead of go to my reunion in july? i read an article recently about germans "safeguarding" their language and it hit me. preparing durchstehvermögen to ensure i am ready for my impending gammelfleischparty and to prevent bildschirmbräune (all words taken from aforementioned article). basically, i have to improve my german so i can understand words like that. i think i might spend a month this summer back in germany to improve my german. plus, i want to get back to berlin, they're partying without me! in the meantime, once i am back from my trip, i am going to definitely start looking for a job. suggestions?

until then, i will keep my facebook account (begrudgingly). but the question remains: do i "friend" people i didn't really talk to in high school? or even people who i was semi-friends with back then, but probably never hung out with outside of school... should i friend them? one of my brothers friends anyone he meets at a bar and likes. i just don't feel that open and care to have others that interested in me. besides, my TRUE friends read this blog. :) so, what do you think about facebook? according to this article, people should "cull" their lists once a year. maybe i will do that to mine now... if you get axed - sorry! :)

11 comments:

  1. So you have a blog and twitter account and are afraid facebook will lead to internet stalkers? Also if by your highschool reunion you still don't have a job and are in Fargo I would think the reunion would be a positive turn of events from watching previously aired episodes of Chelsey Lately on your parents couch. If you ask me the potential rewards far out weigh the risk in that senerio.

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  2. yeah what ted said
    facebook is about networking as well, which is a high-gain activity
    you just need to put friends who aren't real friends into a separate "label" so they can't stalk you and you'll be cool

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  3. Take some time, organize everyone into Friend lists. I believe that's what Dave is referring by "label". Facebook is not the root of all evil. Facebook, just like Twitter, and myspace (which sucks), is a social network which can help build the danielle erdmann brand name. It takes some time (I think you have it) to make friend lists, but it's worth it. Facebook allows great flexibility and control over what people can and can't see about you.

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  4. I don't think not having a job is any reason Not to go to your reunion. In fact, how many of your classmates could have or did take a year off.....travel Europe, relax and still have money left over to move and buy furniture when the time comes?? You have been more successful than probably everyone in your class AND more traveled than anyone.
    And one other comment.....Everyone changes. Some people you didn't hang out with you may now find you like. I remember at my reunion thinking how much I like someone now that I didn't in high school. And I got to know a few guys I didn't know in high school and they were pretty cool. I wouldn't have discovered that if I hadn't gone to my reunion. My suggestion....don't write off this reunion so quickly!

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  5. love all the suggestions but i'm actually really not interested in going. i wrote this over a week ago before i left for my trip, haven't thought of it since which means i cant think of a good reason to go. thanks anyway. check back tomorrow for pictures of this old house i'm staying in in france!

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  6. and for the record - i dont like facebook because people always tag me in photos and leave comments that i have to regulate. i much prefer twitter where i am in control of what i show and honestly, i like all the people that follow me on twitter...

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  7. Wow that sparked some discussion. As far as facebook they are the shadiest of all social networking sites since they constantly try to develop new revenue streams mostly thru using user's data for third party applications. As far as your reunion I could care less, really, if you go or not, I'm merely pointing out that not having a good reason to go is completely different then not having a good reason not to go. Some of the more memorable times I've had haven't been things that I had a good reason to do but rather the things I did because I didn't have anything better going on. Just a different perspective, more of a glass is half full view point if you wil. So that's my moment of zen for the month now I'm off to buy cupcakes. Why because I don't have a good reason not to.

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  8. subject: (cont) but there were many songs by this name...

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