(b)logophile » social

Another reason I hate Facebook

tikitu — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:39:14 +0000

So someone asked to be Facebook friends with a message saying they read and enjoy this blog. Great!¹ Only, I pretty much hate Facebook and wish I didn’t have to be there (to keep up with a few family and friends who aren’t online anywhere else). All my Bookface “friends” I’ve met face-to-face, and there are still too many of them. So I’d like to reject the request, with a polite note explaining why.

Can I do that? No I can’t.

Presumably they’ve got their privacy settings locked down so non-friends can’t contact them. Smart move… except Bookface doesn’t make an exception for replying to a friend request.²

It’s probably a bug. But a cynical little voice keeps reminding me that this is yet another source of social pressure to accept yet more invitations, just what Bookface wants…

Lucky for me, I can presume this person will see this post instead. Or that they’re not a human. Problem solved.

Notes:

Assuming it’s a human being, of course. Oh I am cynical today.
There’s a “Send a message” link, but when the message window pops up it needs the recipient filled in … which has to already be a friend.

Artificial construction of social categories

tikitu — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:42:43 +0000

Someone (who I won’t name, but she’s given me permission to use the quote) answered my question about her love life the other day with the following:

“I’m in a complicated relationship on facebook yet single on bebo.”

Friends list on LibraryThing

tikitu — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 14:10:05 +0000

LibraryThing has split the ‘watchlist’ option into two: ‘interesting libraries’ and ‘friends’. So if anyone I actually know is using it, drop me a friend request. As you might have guessed, my LT name is tikitu.

(I don’t, as a general rule, do social networking. But I’m genuinely interested in the books people I know are reading, if only so I know what I can borrow off them.)