Facebook And The History Of You
At one time I was like you. I was completely unable to accept Facebook into my life. I also spread word that Facebook was useless. And it was useless to me, at a time. I was probably one of the first thousand or even hundred thousand people to create a Facebook account but a few years ago - no more than three - I decided it was time to delete my account. At that time deleting your Facebook account was more difficult than it is today. In order to do so I had to change my Facebook name, add an unused email address to the account. delete all posts and pictures and basically erase all traces of me, myself and I.
Recently my daughter convinced me to join again and I did. I found a great reason why most adults, and especially those with children, should join Facebook. Facebook is, in the end and no matter how silly, immature or a waste of time you think it is, simply the history of you. Let me explain.
Each and everything we interact with on Facebook or off of Facebook (via the Like and Recommend buttons combined with regular Facebook Sharing buttons) gets posted to our Facebook Wall. That information about you and your interests accumulates and becomes a part of who you are or what you represent. Again and in essence that information could be interpreted or taken as a history of you and what your interested in.
You may be asking me "why and who cares?".
Our children, family and friends may, in that day when the leveler of life pays us a visit and says it's time to go.
When we're gone those who cares about us will be able to, from time to time, browse through our profile and remember some of the good times. Our children especially will be able to see the videos we loved, the songs we loved, our political, ethical and professional opinions, thoughts and ideas. They'll be able to see our friends, our interactions, our views and our interests. Depending on how much cross posting you've done, our children will also be able to view the websites we've visited, the articles we've read or the website's we've joined and even from there read more about us.
To me, as a parent the ability to create a history of myself of which my children can one day read up on is truly important and I thank Facebook for that opportunity. Can you imagine if Facebook is around for another 120 years? My children's grand-children can read up on old-great-grandpa Dave, back in 2010. Wow!
I've decided that I would like to use Facebook as much as is reasonably possible to build a little history of myself and mainly to give my daughter and grandchildren the ability to read a little about me when I'm gone. I've got about a years worth of Wall matters posted and I plan to post much more. Sure my daughter's only 13 and doesn't care too much about her poppa right now but the day will come when she will and I'm more than sure she'll appreciate the ability to go through my profile and learn a little more about me.
That's my overall take on Facebook and the reason not to delete my account. She's not, her friends aren't and neither should I.
And to all the parents out there that have younger children: I tell you that there will be nothing you can do to stop your children from joining Facebook when they're older. Create your Facebook account now and start building that little history of yourself. Start interacting with your spouse. Let your children see that interaction one day. When they're in their 30s they'll love the chance at seeing the two of you bantering over some subject or another or viewing your comments of love to each other.
At the very least when they do join you'll be able to monitor what they're doing as far as you can through those means - that is if you're the kind of parent who likes to make sure your children are being safe and sound. Facebook is going no where soon and I think this is one band-wagon that's OK for us to jump on and take advantage of.
;)
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I have to agree with you since it's becoming a good means to share about daily life experiences. I know that other social networking sites share the same objective as Facebook. But Facebook's magnet continues to increase and it has dominated the world of social networking. No wonder, it's popularity now is unbeatable. I'm a Facebook lover myself and as a mom of a 4 year old, I created a space for my daughter in my Facebook account. Though my daughter is too young to read and understand things posted on my account, I know when she grows up, she will love reading them and will appreciate how I posted milestones of her growing up years.
