Now It's Just A Matter Of Principal

I refuse to join Facebook.

I think I’m the only person on the planet who doesn’t have an account. (I’m so lame…is “have an account” even the right Facebook lingo? I have no clue.)

First we had MySpace, the breeding ground for teenagers lying about their ages and the subject of many Dateline “To Catch A Predator” specials.

We have now progressed to Facebook, which I believe is Gen X’s way of keeping in touch and filling up an 8-hour work day.

(Normally I would now launch into my “Back when I was young” speech, about how the hell did people ever keep in touch before the invention of computers? I’ll tell you: they either saw each other at school or called each other on the phone. And these phones were not portable, you could not take them with you. They were attached to the wall. And had a rotary dial.)

But I digress.

So, back to Facebook and my ridiculous refusal to join/sign up/get an account/give in to the masses.

There’s a slight chance that I think Facebook is evil. That it is taking over the world. That it’s like a drug. (It’s a verb, for gosh sakes: “OMG, totally Facebook me later…byeeee!”)

EVERYONE I work with is on Facebook. And these people? Spend their entire day on Facebook. They are constantly updating, talking about who just posted photos, who they friended. One girl at work had to shut down her Facebook account because she wasn’t getting any work done. She sort of had a self-intervention.

My copywriter is constantly trying to wear me down and get me to join.

HER: “It’ll be fun! We can be friends!”

ME: “We already ARE friends. See, you’re standing in my office right now.”

HER: “I can Facebook you, and you can Facebook me.”

ME: “We already email each other all day long. What’s the difference?”

HER: “It is different. It’s much more fun!”

She already wore me down and I now use the company’s Instant Messaging system (was fighting that one, too...). And I like IMing. But it’s very addictive and it can take up lots of time during the day. Which is what I think would happen if I were on Facebook.

I have avoided Facebook for 3 reasons:

1. I don’t like the idea of putting my life online for the whole world to see (Yeah, I know. Call me ironic.). And I know that not everyone can see my profile and details, just the people who are my “friends”. But still.
2. It’s like setting myself up for failure. I can’t think of anyone who would want to look at 347 pictures I post of my dog Vito (except all of you lovelies, natch). So what Facebook is asking me to do is put myself out there, only to be ignored, ripping my self-confidence to shreds. No thanks.
3. I’m not sure I want people finding me. Not that I’m hiding from the law or anything, or have royally pissed off people in my past, but I don’t know that I want people having a very easy way of finding me. (This excuse doesn’t really hold up, since anyone with a computer and knowledge of Google can be knocking on my door in 15 minutes. Also, I have a LinkedIn profile. ((Which I created strictly to help me network and find a new job))) Okay, this excuse doesn’t count.

But, in reality, I feel like I’m too old for Facebook. Technology scares the crap out of me (probably why there’s no special bells and whistles on my blog – I’m lucky I even HAVE a blog, for that matter; or why I don’t “follow” blogs – I want to, and I want people to follow mine, I’m just not good at that sort of stuff; I don’t even know how to check who’s viewing my blog. I’m that technologically challenged.) I’d have to learn about widgets and applications and finding friends and winking at people. It's just too much. Sort of like an old dog/new tricks sort of thing.

I’m an old-fashioned girl, and I keep in touch with my friends the old-fashioned way. It’s called email. And I’m pretty good at it.

BUT...

Maybe I’m totally wrong about Facebook?