Is Facebook Productive?


With today’s privacy “simplification” announcement over at Facebook which rolls out to all users over the next few weeks (unless you’ve recently quit…or you may not see if you are going to) , it rekindled an old argument: Is there is any productive merit to the web service?

A lot of users use the site to promote their blogs (WorkAwesome included) as well as to keep touch – and regain contact – with old friends.  This can result in new opportunities and can be effective in keeping communication easy and centralized.  Certainly birthday greetings have become simpler to send (and remember)!

Do you still use Facebook?  If so, for what?  Is it a productivity “suck” or tool?


Mike Vardy an editor on Work Awesome. We could tell you where his personal productivity parody site, Eventualism and all of his other projects reside on the web, but you'd be best served going to Vardy.me and following the trail of virtual bread crumbs from there.

Discussion

  1. Kristen on the 26th May

    I find it to be very entertainingly productive — at least for my ADD mind 😉 But on a serious note, I think it’s a great networking and keep-in-touch outlet for this great social media time! And you’re right — it’s great for keeping up with birthdays (if nothing else)!

    Businesses benefit too for sending updates and possible goodies for their “fans” or those that “like” it. (Not a big fan myself of the “like” option for pages though.)

    All in all, it’s a good idea.

    Privacy, smiracy, it’s a networking tool, you post what you want others to know about, it’s gonna get out somehow.

    Cheers!

  2. Onno Knuvers on the 26th May

    I just deleted my account about 4 weeks ago and found I’ve got lots more time for client work, personal projects and friends. I was worried about the loss of exposure and contact with people but I haven’t noticed any yet.

    I’m sure I’ll find my way back to facebook oneday 😉

  3. Rasmus Willemoes Paulsen on the 26th May

    I’ve never been exaggerating my use of facebook. I only use it for remembering birthdays, and keeping in touch in an easy way with my family and stuff.

    Occasionally i use it for contacting people, if i know they poses some sort of skill, that i need for a potential client, while working as a freelancer.

  4. Andre Kibbe on the 26th May

    My friends have been trying to get me to follow them on social networks since Friendster. One friend even tried ignoring my emails in a lame attempt to coerce me to correspond with him on MySpace. I was on Facebook for about four months before I finally felt guilty about ignoring it; so I deleted my account. Without making any judgments about other people’s usage, Facebook just seems like a solution looking for a problem. If I want to contact people, I look for an email address. I am on Twitter, mainly because it requires less care and feeding than a full-blown social network.

    I think businesses, especially ones with limited resources, should really focus on building a community through their own blog rather than a through a network that’s not under their ownership or control. Increasingly when I do Google searches for products and services, I’ll see a company’s Facebook page outrank the company’s own website. Businesses would do better to spend less time building a following and more time their converting their own site’s visitors into customers.

  5. tim on the 27th May

    Facebook is a social experiment set up by the government to collect as much information about mostly western populations. This information leads to a greater understanding of a population, contributing to a more precise targeting of taxation based on peoples activities. ( joking 🙂 )

    But seriously, how sad it has become that on one’s birthday one receives a bunch of characters in the form of a line of text on one’s facebook profile, hence, making the sender feel okay that they’ve remembered the recipients birthday. I’d call it social prostitution.

    It’s nice for sharing pictures, but sooooo adicitive, I’ve lost days on facebook!

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