My wife and I differ on our Facebook philosophies. Maybe it’s one of those gender-specific things. Her rule is “don’t befriend me unless you really want to talk to me“. She’s a woman. She wants to connect. To relate. To be more than a status icon on somebody’s hundreds-of-friends list.
My rule is “befriend me. Maybe we’ll even talk“. It’s a sad fact that my daily life is so crowded, with so many actions, inputs, and open loops, that unless I notice you on Twitter, IM, email, Facebook, or “RealLife” (probably in that order of update frequency!), we’re going to miss each other.
So, the big personal advantages of Facebook for me, is my newfound ability to keep in touch with friends near and far, with minimal effort. I’ve found old school buddies, family members, and new friends. I check that handy little mini-feed, and now I know that my cousin is traveling, a friend is immigrating to Switzerland, my sister started teaching again yesterday, and another friend is currently in Peru.
So, if I befriend you, but don’t engage you, I’m not “using” you, I’m “hanging out” with you, mostly in comfortable silence 
17/07/2007 at 7:36 am Permalink
Great explanation, David! I read an article (think I linked to it on my blog… not sure) about how Twitter replaces the proximity that people used to have when we all worked in big offices (”us” being people who work from home or with remote teams)
17/07/2007 at 7:39 am Permalink
That’s an interesting thought.. I hadn’t really considered that aspect of Twitter.. have you seen http://www.twittervision.com ?
17/07/2007 at 8:19 am Permalink
Excellent article, I must say that I am with you on this one. I unfortunately do not have the time to contact all my friends, but know that if I want to, I can just Facebook them. It is the same as having a cellphone with their numbers on it, it does not mean that I am going to phone them all the time. The great thing with Facebook is that you can easily locate friends, which you cannot really do on a cellphone.