Friendship or nothing
I’ve just been invited in FaceBook to join something called a ‘blog network’. The invitation purported to come from a well-known blogger - someone I’m happy to be associated with. I accepted the invitation, which caused the FaceBook to announce to anyone who cared to notice that I am now a fan of that particular blog.
Err - ’scuse me? I just joined a ‘network’ - I didn’t make any value judgement other than that which can be implied by my joining this network - and I don’t think I implied I was a fan. In this case I’m not too worried by this association as I generally appreciate the blog, but it could be otherwise.
Which brings me to the point (yet another thing I don’t like about FaceBook): It seems to work against any possibility of nuance or sophistication in inter-personal relationships. I can’t have a contact, or a business associate - it’s friendship or nothing.
July 18th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I agree, the terminology on social networking services can be confusing. I suggest to people that when they ‘befriend’ people on such services that they should regard this as simply establishing an undefined relationship. This should also apply to groups, pages and applications on services such as Facebook, Ning, etc.
And, as was pointed out to me by Ross Gardler at this week’s JISC Innovation Forum, the terminology associated with Twitter is similarly confusing - when I spoke about ‘my Twitter followers’ I did not mean to imply that I see myself as some kind of messiah!
July 18th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
“He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!”
July 19th, 2008 at 1:42 am
a well-known blogger? That is a bit of a one-dimensional description, surely ….
July 19th, 2008 at 8:47 am
OK - after reviewing the matter, I’ve come up with:
a mostly harmless, well known blogger.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
[...] Facebook also provides a false interpretation of your identity by the limitations in how you can describe your relationships with people and applications. You are always a friend or a fan, as Paul Walk has pointed out. [...]