Tags
blogging101, Janet Thomas (Elixir: Creative and Reflective Writing), Journaling, Reflections, Uncategorized, Writing 101
Have been over visiting Janet’s blog at Elixir: Creative and Reflective Writing. She wrote an excellent post about starting her Facebook page and how she really enjoyed reconnecting with so many family members and friends — for awhile. But then a bit later she discovered WordPress and found that the feeling for her was kind of different.
Now Janet is struggling with whether to close her Facebook page, and there are a bunch of questions running through her mind about it. Things I would never have thought of like “…how can I positively influence the state of the world?” I really urge you to drop by her blog and have a read. It gave me a lot of food for thought. You can find it at Averting One’s Face.
I’d started a Facebook page years ago, but just could not abide the thing! I still have it, but only so my daughter could share the grandkiddos’ pictures with me (because she’s too dern lazy to email them!!! Yes, I mean YOU, young lady!). I told Janet I’d be curious to see what she decided in the end. This was her response to my comment:
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When I decide I’ll let you know. Part of me wants to maintain my FB connections, but I am discovering more and more that WordPress contacts encourage more meaningful conversations’ on a range of diverse topic with people from across the world. Perhaps it’s because spending anything from ten minutes to three hours writing a post makes one more thoughtful and measured? Since starting my blog and reading other blogs (something I still struggle to find the time for) I feel as if FB is where you meet people at the bus stop and WordPress is where you sit down to a meal. Even contact with lifelong friends becomes abbreviated on Facebook, which makes me more than a little sad. Something I have found somewhat confusing is that most of my long term friends don’t read my blog, or if they do they don’t comment. Maybe they think the ‘me’ on FB and the ‘me’ on WordPress is the same person, but the FB me is the person you’d meet at the bus stop. WordPress me is more like the ‘real’ (?) me How did deep and intimate friendships get reduced to ticking ‘like’? Maybe there is another blog post hidden in the fold of that question.
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I’m posting this because I thought it might spark some interesting discussion. Do YOU have a Facebook page? How does it compare to a blog? Which do you prefer? Inquiring minds want to know! (Well, at least mine and Janet’s!)
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Picture Sources:
Facebook — FreeIconsPNG
WordPress — WordPress.org
Impromptu Promptlings 
I don’t really see it as a choice. I’m on Facebook, and I am not considering deleting it. My personal page has been very useful in keeping in touch with far-flung family and friends. Its readership is almost entirely non-overlapping with my Word Press blog. My family doesn’t read my blog, and only a few of my friends do that I haven’t met online.
I also have a separate Facebook author page, however, that isn’t all that useful or widely read. It doesn’t take much time though, so I don’t think I’ll delete it either. I’m trying to build an online presence for when/if I publish my novel.
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You know, I’ve heard so many people say that their family and friends don’t read their blogs. What’s up with that? Mine don’t either, btw.
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Yeah, what *is* up with that? I think in my case it may be that they think they can just talk to me or call me, and that’s better than reading a blog. My mom did read one of my blogs, last year about Veterans Day. It was the one called Veterans Day Tears, which was pretty personal and emotional. We had a good conversation about it, but it was also a little awkward. We both admitted to crying easily. I hadn’t really thought that about my mother in all of these years. I had always seen her as “tough” and myself as a crybaby in contrast. I think it was slightly difficult for both of us to readjust that particular frame that we’d seen each other in all these years. So she does read it sometimes, but maybe it would just be too much for her to read it on a daily or even weekly basis.
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Do you feel like that was a growth step for the two of you or maybe not?
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Yes, I do feel like it was a growth step. But sometimes you can only stand so much growth at once!
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😀
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I have FB and have recently not spent much time on there, as I am stupid enough to get dragged into the comments section of news sites I follow and then I am down the rabbit hole with people who have zero interest in my way of thinking.
I like Twitter a lot more, as I find since I’ve cut the cable, that I can find info fast on there as it is happening, so not totally in the dark.
I am the realest me here on WordPress. 100%
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Yes you are! And we love you just the way you are. {{{Shannon}}}
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I have a Facebook page, or rather my blog does. I started it as a way to promote the blog. However, you won’t find much on it. I find that I get the most traffic to the blog by being around this community; commenting, likeing, and subscribing. If I want to be on Facebook, I not there very often -prefer twitter – I tend to post short posts to my timeline rather than my page.
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Twitter is one place I haven’t even ventured into. But it’s more a place to shout out stuff and move on. Not a place to really meet and converse with people, right?
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I must admit that I am on a lot of Social networking sites. I should really delete the more inactive ones, like Voxer, Snapchat, blogger and life journal. (Yes, I go back that far, a sign of my age). But, I use a lot of others. I think they all have both pros and cons. Twitter is my favourite because it was the first social networking site I used. It’s really useful to have twittering away in the background. It’s good for; a quick check in to see what friends are doing or a quick shout out. But, I have also witnessed some really interesting conversations on twitter.
Facebook is what it says on the tin. It’s about the moment and sharing that moment with friends. I don’t think that it works as a blogging platform. I don’t think that it was intended for that purpose. I tend to be very careful who I friend on Facebook. They tend to be people who I either know from real life, from my reading or from other social networks. I am not on Facebook very often. I don’t always find it a friendly space and it’s time consuming.
My blog lives here at WordPress. It’s here that I do all my major writing and connecting.
I must admit I really like the smaller sites, like Tumblr, Instagram and imzy. I just find them more friendly and fun.
I have a mission on my blog and in my social media life. That mission is to shout about the books and authors who I love and who give me so much, especially if they don’t get much attention. I find the best way to do that is to be in as many places as possible, reaching as many people as possible. This is a long comment. I hope that it’s not too long, but this is a topic that interests me.
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I think it interests a lot of people. I do think people are get so immersed in social sites to the point where some of us are overwhelmed. So why is it so hard to take a break? “fraid we’re going to miss something life shattering? Do you ever take a break?
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I love Janet’s response to your question. Her analogy is spot on. Yet, as a bus traveller (before I got a bike), I’ve had more meaningful interactions and even developed friendships from engaging with someone at the bus stop (buses here were never reliable!!). I can’t say that about Facebook and I agree, I feel my friendships are trivialised there. WordPress does require some thought, and encourages greater responsibility and ownership of what you say. Disinformation is a concern, but it isn’t limited to facebook/twitter etc. I personally find Facebook frustrating, it increases the disconnection between people rather than encouraging connection. The connection people think they have there is very superficial. However, I’m going to keep using it as a forum to keep pushing the message that it is possible to change the way things are – but mostly, I’m doing that by feeding my blog posts there!!!
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Thanks for the link, Calen. I am taken with randombitsoftrialanderror’s idea of a private page for the family; I might suggest that to my children and extended family. I can also keep in touch with family and friends via Messenger but that’s only if I keep my account. Since writing my post I’ve only logged onto Facebook twice and hung around for about five minutes. I think this kind of self discipline is called for in my case. I’m still considering deleting my account, but I’ll try abstinence first. I have already found more time to read other people’s posts and that is, as many of you have pointed out, a bonus. I am loving the wise, nuanced and compassionate responses I see on WordPress. Thanks everyone.
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Something I tried recently was deactivating the account. It put a stop to some unwanted attention I was getting. The advantage of it is that if you change your mind, you only have to log in and it reactivates again. But it was good to have the break from it for a while.
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Yes, that is a good compromise, thanks.
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I have FB but it is really just to connect with friends that I’m not in close contact and enjoy being in touch. Having a blog is so much different. I have made some wonderful connections with people I never met. I like following people that have the same interests and find their post inspiring and motivating. You can be more creative with Word Press. Have a good week!
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I joined Facebook in response to a BloggingU task, promptly got stuck on something and asked for help in their forums (as you might do here). A spammer replied to me and that was all, which compared very unfavourably with my experience on WordPress. I realised I was doing Facebook because I’d been told you ought to do it, but without any enthusiasm. After a month or two I deleted the account. I am not sure the platform really matters as much as whether you have a warm, supportive community.
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I do both Facebook and Word Press. Facebook is my way of not only connecting to my family and friends, but also a way to express my views on many topics. Can it be frustrating? Yes. Can it piss me off? Yes.
WordPress is my creative place. For my writing and other things.
Can I do both? I can and I’ll continue to do both.
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I like her “bus stop” analogy. I love my Facebook because I am in touch with all of my family dispersed around the United States (we have our private family pages where we put updates, pictures, family stories, etc.). As far as delving outside the family realm with the innermost me, I prefer to do it in WordPress–where people who WANT to be here can and where I can meet new people with like interests and depth (not necessarily coworkers, neighbors, or people who friended me from meeting me in the hair salon). The two entities are totally separate to me and each serve their purpose. Dawn
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I was going to say exactly what Clare above said. I have Facebook, I’m fed up of the fake news stories and fakeness in general. I do like keeping in touch with family and friends though. WordPress is my private sanctuary and I prefer it over here.
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Hi Calen, Yes I do have a Facebook account, but like Janet, I’m seriously considering deleting it. Of late FB has been full of false news and negativity and the “mere opinion or blatant lies” leave me feeling depressed. To be perfectly honest, I don’t need that in my life. WordPress have never impacted my that way.
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Oops – never impacted me that way – silly auto correct.
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