[awakeasleep]

I'm really interested in the difference between your perspective (which I share) and the perspective of Mr Pavlina (which my friends share).

I see people's attitudes towards FB fall into these two distinct camps:

1) People who feel compelled by FB somehow, and end up deleting their profiles or "Quitting" entirely, and

2) People who have a profile, but don't feel compelled to check it or interact- except at their leisure.

I think it has something to do with implied disrespect when you don't get back to people quickly; Ignoring a text or phone call sends a message. Does 'ignoring' a facebook ping send that same message? What about failing to respond to an indirect message on Facebook? There must be some sort of social phenomenon putting uncomfortable pressure on people somewhere in the setup of facebook.

[DanI-S]

For me, Facebook is a cool address book that lets me contact people I know in a less 'immediate' way to text/phone. I'm not friends with people that I don't know in real life. I look at it once a day to see if anyone has posted anything interesting; from time to time I might post a cool link I've found, or a couple of photos, or something I heard in the news that pissed me off.

This guy, with 5000 friends, strikes me as odd - isn't that more like what Twitter is for? I don't think Facebook was conceived with that kind of usage in mind. It doesn't scale to display such huge amounts of data particularly well.

It's fascinating how people will adapt your product to uses that you didn't intend; it must also be frustrating to hear them moan about it.

[alex_c]

I fall squarely into the second camp, and most of my friends know it - they don't expect a reply from me on facebook, and for something time-sensitive they contact me through email or phone.

Everyone has different means of communication they prefer. Some people like to stick to email or IM, others vastly prefer phone, some people always let their phone go to voicemail and call you back at their leisure (or not at all). There's always going to be some give-and-take, Facebook is just another piece in that puzzle.

[toadi]

I agree. But I don't see Facebook as a direct communication link. It is just a feed that I consume at my leisure.

If you want to contact me and are in my circle of people that have my cell number that is the best way to directly contact me. But even on my cell I sometimes choose not to pick up immediately and listen to the voicemail. This way I can decide if the message needs my direct interaction.

Anyway people put to high of hopes on tools. Social interaction is about people and not the tools.

[yaix]

"Ignoring a text or phone call sends a message."

No it doesn't.

At least no for me. If I ignore a call or text, I was busy. If its important, s/he'll call again. If I forget to call back later, I forgot it. No drama.

Or maybe its just this kind of acting that makes the drama people stop contacting me. Sort of natural selection. Works pretty well.