Twitter is like being at a conference. Facebook is like being in a dinner party with friends.
This is the realization I came upon a couple of nights ago while browsing Facebook -- something I haven't done in months because it has become frustratingly boring. And yet I still can't quit it. But, recently, something happened that has made me sure that, not only can't I quit Facebook, it'll be stupid to do so. Well, at least, until the internet changes again.
For a few weeks now, I'd been contemplating why I go back-and-forth between Twitter and Facebook. Call it coincidence but I found the answer in an unexpected way.
I had chanced upon a good friend's Facebook status update. It was very emotional, worrisome, and filled with a sense of dread. Plus, he had posted a related essay about immortality and mortality. Although his messages were generally cryptic, you could tell that something was not right in his world. I asked him to send me a private message (PM) about what was going on. A while later, his PM came through and, true enough, it was about something very serious. A recent medical check-up revealed that he has a life-threatening cardiac condition. To save his life, he has to undergo open heart surgery in a couple of months. We exchanged words of comfort, love, optimism, faith, and peace in that PM thread.
It is private and close connections like these that made me look at Facebook with a newfound sense of appreciation. Having a social network setup that can be as specific and organized as you need it to be makes it easier to keep connected to those who really matter to you. It is this level of intimacy with friends that can be difficult or almost impossible to achieve on Twitter.
Although people do get to have direct interactions with people who are usually unreachable, e.g., celebrities and public personalities, those interactions rarely become "intimate". In my experience on Twitter, strangers meet other strangers based on similar concerns, interests, and other nifty things thrown around. Familiarity rarely goes deeper than that, which is what sets it apart from what Facebook offers at its core. On Facebook, meeting strangers isn't the default; there, you hook up with friends and family at the onset, and in a private way that can't be achieved on Twitter.
I'm not even sure Twitter wants to create a similar setup. I'd rather that it stays the way it is -- an auto-microblogging platform that sends out updates in real-time to the world. Its design allows it to speedily and easily disseminate all sorts of information, which has made it the go-to social media in critical situations. Facebook doesn't have this same flexibility but, maybe that's by design as well.
Once you've understood what particular social media tools can specifically do for you, then it becomes clear to you how to manage the information that you get through them. That's an important thing to determine before you subscribe to any new social media offering. Make the technology work for you, not the other way around.
This is the realization I came upon a couple of nights ago while browsing Facebook -- something I haven't done in months because it has become frustratingly boring. And yet I still can't quit it. But, recently, something happened that has made me sure that, not only can't I quit Facebook, it'll be stupid to do so. Well, at least, until the internet changes again.
For a few weeks now, I'd been contemplating why I go back-and-forth between Twitter and Facebook. Call it coincidence but I found the answer in an unexpected way.
I had chanced upon a good friend's Facebook status update. It was very emotional, worrisome, and filled with a sense of dread. Plus, he had posted a related essay about immortality and mortality. Although his messages were generally cryptic, you could tell that something was not right in his world. I asked him to send me a private message (PM) about what was going on. A while later, his PM came through and, true enough, it was about something very serious. A recent medical check-up revealed that he has a life-threatening cardiac condition. To save his life, he has to undergo open heart surgery in a couple of months. We exchanged words of comfort, love, optimism, faith, and peace in that PM thread.
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It is private and close connections like these that made me look at Facebook with a newfound sense of appreciation. Having a social network setup that can be as specific and organized as you need it to be makes it easier to keep connected to those who really matter to you. It is this level of intimacy with friends that can be difficult or almost impossible to achieve on Twitter.
Although people do get to have direct interactions with people who are usually unreachable, e.g., celebrities and public personalities, those interactions rarely become "intimate". In my experience on Twitter, strangers meet other strangers based on similar concerns, interests, and other nifty things thrown around. Familiarity rarely goes deeper than that, which is what sets it apart from what Facebook offers at its core. On Facebook, meeting strangers isn't the default; there, you hook up with friends and family at the onset, and in a private way that can't be achieved on Twitter.
I'm not even sure Twitter wants to create a similar setup. I'd rather that it stays the way it is -- an auto-microblogging platform that sends out updates in real-time to the world. Its design allows it to speedily and easily disseminate all sorts of information, which has made it the go-to social media in critical situations. Facebook doesn't have this same flexibility but, maybe that's by design as well.
Once you've understood what particular social media tools can specifically do for you, then it becomes clear to you how to manage the information that you get through them. That's an important thing to determine before you subscribe to any new social media offering. Make the technology work for you, not the other way around.
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