Tuesday 3 May 2011

Facebook (AGAIN)!


I am being hassled by Facebook.

I've never quite known what to make of Facebook, even though I have tried to understand it. Somebody told me once, that you are effectively off the radar if you are young and not on Facebook.

I’m not young – that makes it okay. I could survive without it. After all, I use it mostly for playing Jungle Jewels and Tetris. I leave the odd message and send the odd email but my life doesn’t revolve around it.

I have managed to acquire a modest number of friends but, if I were more proactive,I could increase that number. Up until now, I haven’t wanted to be proactive.

However, I do find it bizarre that people I don’t know and have never communicated with me in any way whatsoever have the desire to be my friend. My sister has a few hundred friends but doesn’t know all of them – they have befriended her through the games on the website, you know, games where you run a farm or a café.

Why would you run a farm on Facebook?

I have had a few friend requests from people I have never heard of; for example a guy with the same name as me, who presumably is trying to build a community; another from a female biker who I have never met.

A work colleague had a friend request from a girl he had never met but had a mutual friend. He asked his mate who she was.

“I don’t know. I only accepted her because she was fit.”

Youth, eh?

I do not look for friends on Facebook. If I have a friend request and I know them I will become their friend. I am not proactive and do not seek to be friends with people I see on a regular basis.

There’s no point.

Real friends who are my age refuse to join. They say they are too old. I can’t say I blame them.

My kids, on the other hand, refuse to be my friend because they think I will use it to humiliate them to their mates – I can’t say I blame them – I would humiliate them. And they think I'm too old for them.

I guess that I have been ambivalent towards Facebook really and I can begin to sense you getting frustrated now, dear reader, because you want to know why Facebook is hassling me.

It is not me who is being pestered - it is the Plastic Mancunian, my alter ego.

A while ago, I decided to create a Facebook fan page for the blog but I abandoned that idea fairly quickly. A few weeks ago I decided to create a user called Plastic Mancunian – Facebook didn’t like the name. I tried The Plastic Mancunian; Facebook didn’t like that either.

After experimenting, I came up with ThePlastic Mancunian and it worked.

Having created the user I then asked myself “Why on earth have I created this user?”

I had some weird idea about promoting my blog – the fan page was a bit of a disaster so why would a user work? What on earth was I thinking?

I abandoned the idea and let ThePlastic Mancunian gather dust in cyberspace.

Facebook didn’t like that.

It started sending me emails:

Hi ThePlastic,
You haven't been back to Facebook recently. Here are some people you may know on Facebook. Connect with friends, family, classmates, and co-workers to see their updates, pictures, and more.

I ignored them.

And then my real Facebook user has been notified.

Hey Dave, You may know ThePlastic Mancunian. Help him find friends

How on earth did that happen?

Finally, three of my other friends have spotted the existence of ThePlastic Mancunian and want to be friends too.

What can I do? I can’t refuse them; they are my friends.

I have come to a decision – which is amazing for an indecisive jerk like me.

I will brush off the dust and allow ThePlastic Mancunian to thrive on Facebook and via this blog and see where it gets me. Who knows he might even acquire more friends than me in which case I won’t hold it against him.

So if you want to become a friend to ThePlastic Mancunian dear reader, feel free.  I am sure he will accept.If not then fear not. I won't beat myself up about it - nor ThePlastic Mancunian for that matter.

I might even become his friend myself.


Or maybe I will give up on it – again!

See? Indecisive to the last.

18 comments:

Elephant's Child said...

So far this dinosaur has avoided Facebook. Let us know how this experiment goes.

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi EC,

I'll let you know. I'll give it a month or two.

:0)

Cheers

PM

Kath Lockett said...

Well I've just gone and 'found' you on FB. It certainly does have its annoyances but it's a great way to keep in touch (albeit on a very brief and shallow level) with a lot of people. I imagine I'll be posting on it a bit move when we're over in Switzerland.

River said...

I'm staying away from Facebook. My daughter has a farm there and I don't want to be roped into digging potatoes....

Anonymous said...

Ahahaha when I signed up to FB I started playing games too and got 200+ 'friends' in a matter of a few days. But then when I quit playing I thought what the hell who are these people. And so I commited a friendicide and started using FB to socialize with my friends who live abroad or far away from me (this is what FB's for isn't it??) and then some ppl from games asked me what's wrong and why I unfriended them just because I don't know them?! oh oh am I getting old??

Plastic Mancunian said...

G'Day Kath,

"ThePlastic Mancunian" now has FIVE friends. Wow!!

I'll bet you and LC are getting excited now about the move to Geneva.

:0)

à bientôt

PM

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi River,

Mrs PM had a farm - I still can't work out why - and I refused to do anything with it.

Then she migrated to a bloody cafe!

Why?

She's stopped now - thank heavens.

:0)

Cheers

PM

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Aluajala,

People take Facebook very seriously. I shall see how it goes with my alter ego for a while but it seems like fun for now.

Mrs PM was inundated with friend requests too (via games).

I do like the fact that you can keep in touch with people far away though - I get to know what my sisters are up to, for example.

Thanks for the friend add by the way.

:0)

Cheers

PM

AnfinsenArts Alive said...

I became a follower! How could I resist your wit and writing style. Besides, I can relate.

I still refuse to play games and I do have a "lame" fan page. Like you, I decided to give it a go and see what happens. Good luck!

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Carol,

My "fan page" didn't seem to work so I ditched it.

Let's see what happens.

:0)

Cheers

PM

Felicia said...

When I first signed up for face book I accepted all friend requests assuming I must know these people from somewhere! LMAO Your post cracked me up!
menearfamily.blogspot.com

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi ETAM,

"ThePlastic Mancunian" will accept all friends - that's the kind of guy he is.

:0)

Cheers

PM

Unknown said...

Did you create a fan page for your blog or did you create a user personal page for your blog? Because if you create it under personal profile, Facebook will likely reject that name .
I'm glad Facebook is created in this universe.....otherwise, I have no way to reconnect and find my long lost friends and gather my family far away in one place together so we can update and communicate easily anytime ---for free such as sharing our photos and thoughts.
It's only through FB that my high school classmates found each other and organize a very successful reunion party.....and I couldn't gather many fans to follow my blog if not for Facebook....my husband likes it too for the same reason.
I think each one of us have different purposes why we join FB---for me, it is to reconnect, and communicate easily and cheaply with my family and friends, discover my long lost friends and make friends with my "fans." I don't play games at FB....NEVER. Because the only online game I enjoy playing is Text Twist, Crossword and doll-up games.

Pandora Behr said...

Might just have to look you up PM - though I go by my real name. I agree with Kath - at times annoying but has its uses.

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Bingkee,

Yes - I created a fan page but I messed it up (which is embarrassing as I work in IT).

I totally agree with you reasons for liking Facebook particularly if you have a lot of friends and family abroad or a long distance away.

Like I've said, I haven't looked up my old schoolmates - maybe I should. The problem is that people my age group don't tend to bother with it.

:0)

Cheers

PM

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Pand,

I'm on Facebook under my own name too. I'll see how "ThePlastic" goes and I might end up merging them.

:0)

Cheers

PM

Anonymous said...

Oh don't you know my auntie who's 53 years old had just attended a reunion with her old highschool classmates who are all based in the US...she didn't know there were about 30 of them here in the US and they all found each other thru Facebook. My mom, my uncles and aunties who are way much older than you, have Facebook accounts.

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Bingkee,

That's great! One of my best mates who is also 53 refuses to be on it as do a few others I know that age.

However, yes, you are right in that people that age DO use Facebook.

I think its fabulous that people can use it to get in touch with folks they haven't seen for many years - I just haven't used it for that purpose myself - but maybe I should.

:0)

Cheers

PM