The uses of Facebook

I've been on Facebook for more than three months, and I'm starting to get the hang of it.

I've realized that Facebook isn't just one thing, but it's different things to different people, and everybody uses it differently. For me it serves as a pseudo-Twitter account where I post status updates whenever the whim hits me. It's also a sort of backstage party for the blogosphere, where other bloggers and I send each other behind-the-scenes instant comments - sometimes at the same time that we are publicly commenting on each other's blogs. I've also used it as a tool to locate and reconnect with people I haven't spoken to in years or decades. I've installed a service which posts each new blog entry from Another Monkey as a "Note", so even friends who don't visit my blog regularly can still be subjected to it. (THERE IS NO ESCAPING ANOTHER MONKEY.) Finally, I use it as a tertiary chat vehicle, after AIM and MSN Messenger.

Some of my friends use Facebook extensively as a networking tool. I'm thinking primarily of my friends in the sideshow business, who are linking to more and more fellow sideshow performers every day. Someday I may want to try using it for professional networking, but not yet.

A friend who had been in the Peace Corps back in the 90's opened a Facebook account and started posting tons of photos and videos of his time in Gabon. He has also been re-connecting with a lot of people who served with him in Gabon.

Other people use Facebook more like a MySpace account, or a Flickr photo album, or just as a plain old blog. I've even heard that it can be used for dating, though (unsurprisingly) I have no idea how that works. There are many different ways that it can be used. If you are on Facebook, how do you use it?


If you have a Facebook account and you'd like to connect with me, let me know!