Saturday 5 January 2008

Facebook and Label Neurosis

Facebook or Labels? That isn't a choice between two, I'm wondering whether I should do either. And I'm spiralling into a black hole of indecisive despair.

For months now I've been asked to join Facebook by various people, be their friends (usually by people I thought were friends, or people I didn't know knew my name, let alone wanted to be my friend). I'm tossing up. Should I join? Should I not join? On the one hand, it's good for photos, and Scrabulous, some say. On the other hand, it's a villainous invasion of privacy and more importantly more of a waste of time than these blogs. And goodness knows I spend enough time blogging. Is everyone talking about Facebook but me? On the other hand, if I join, will they be talking even more about me, because I'm on Facebook and they can see me - and worse still, my Scrabulous scores!

So should I set up Facebook and spend my time nudging, winking or whatever people do, and putting up photos and playing Scrabulous, and exactly what IS Facebook anyway?

Next: Labels

Should I put Labels on my blog?

Other people seem to do it. In fact labels seem to be everywhere. I haven't got round to labelling my email but one day I probably will and then I won't be able to find a thing but it will all be filed very neatly, thank goodness. The trouble with labels is I'm sure I will have a new label for every blog-post, which kind of destroys the purpose of a label, doesn't it? What if I can't think of anything but daggy and unoriginal label names? I can't think of anything but daggy and unoriginal label names! On the other hand, is my blog hard to read if I don't have labels? Are labels like mobile phones, soon everyone will have them plastered to them, and if I don't too, I can't communicate with other labelled people? What if I can't think of a label for a post, do I label it "unlabelled"?

I HATE making unimportant but world wide web changing decisions in my life!

12 comments:

Shelley said...

I've labelled exactly twice. I was too lazy to continue.

Facebook is a terrible, terrible, highly addictive, stupid waste of time. It can make you feel like the biggest loser ever. But it's also good for stalking people. Even people you don't need to stalk like dumbarse cousins you see every other day.

Scrabulous is good.

JahTeh said...

I can't find anybody on Facebook and I can't work the network stuff and it's tacky, very trailer trash.

Labels are easy, I have drivel, very important drivel and unimportant drivel along with various other bits which I can't delete. One day when I bored out of my brain I might go back to 2005 and label all those entries.

Lad Litter said...

I label because I'm a compulsive categorizer. It's not necessary to do it, but I find it helpful in going through archives of bloggers whose writing I find interesting. Alas, not too much time for that these days.

Blogging is putting your ideas out there. Facebook is putting yourself out there.

JahTeh said...

Nicely put Ladlitter, the best description I've read.

Maria said...

Thank you, Lad Litter, very helpful and extremely off putting. I don't like the ideas of lots of albums of real photos of myself out there, in a bunch, under my name, since I have a frightening resemblance to a zombie in most photographs. Just more two-dimensional.

At least with a blog I can plagiarise lots of magazine articles and internet quotes and pretend originality. I mightn't fool anyone but myself, but perhaps that's the most important person to fool.

Maria said...

Labels seem like good, useful things. ON the dwon side, they require me to actually think about what I've written in my blogs. I have a feeling "spontaneous scribble" "neurotic raving" "late night rant" "meaningless drivel" could be ascribed to many, any or all of them, and some won't have any other categorisation. Damn!

Maria said...

Helloo, thank you, I've now tried the labelling and not the Facebook. I've stuck (pardon the pun) with kinda boring label names, rather than creative ones, mainly because at least I'll rememebr what I meant by them that way. Hopefully this experiment works, at least it's deletable. It's just a start and I have been scratching my head thinking "What the heck do I call this one?" and "would I give this one this label?" but then I figured it wasn't a matter of life and death, just time and potentially embarrassment, which could be worse, but I don't know yet.

Anyhoo, thank ye all for input.

BwcaBrownie said...

Do you ever read Melbourne Lawyer Trixie?

I labelled once. The thingy suggested 'Fall' and 'Scooters' so that's what I labelled the post.

Over at Farcebook, Bwca Bwican would like some more friends please.

Maria said...

I hadn't read Trixie but I will now. That's how susceptible I am to links.

I saw the "fall" thing too, and considering how klutzy I am it seemed very appropriate. I couldn't think of what "scooters" would be appropriate for though, on the other hand I considered writing a scooters post just so I could use the label.

Maria said...

Thanks for that, bwca. I think I'll keep reading Trixie ....

Maria said...

It's depressing to find that almost everything you have written about your law life is also labelled "employment" because you've either spent most of your time last year just starting, just finishing or desperately seeking a job, isn't it? Not feeling that a job's just the usual thing in the background setting ...!

Friendless said...

Facebook has lots of privacy settings so you can control what people see. You should play Scrabulous against me while you still can.