This isn’t really a post. It’s just a public service announcement intended only for those of you who say you’re interested. Yes. Facebook. I don’t really understand the appeal, and I’m not very good at it and I can easily forget about it for months at a time. But if you don’t mind that, then look me up under Kelsey Kilgore. Even though that’s not really my name. And I’ll try to remember to confirm or add or whatever it is I have to do to befriend you.
See?
Told you i was bad at it. And I’m pretty sure the whole point of Facebook is that you DO use your real name.
But I don’t like that. And there is a noticeable lack of people from my past who figured out how to find me there. And i like that. Which is probably another reason I’m doing it all wrong.
My mom looked at it once and said something like, “Kelsey! You have, like, 42 ‘friends.’”
“yuh huh. That’s really not that many, Mom.”
“Oh I know. But for YOU – that’s a whole lot.”
There’s probably at least 9 reasons why I love that conversation. But I won’t list them.
It just makes me smile.
3:11 pm
I know what you mean. I got on FB after being nagged by a friend for months and I only intended to have 4 friends – close friends who now live in other states. I figured it would be a good way to keep in touch with them. Now I have 50-some friends – people I’d forgotten I ever knew, friends of my husband, his relatives whom I’ve never met and some I had never heard of. And I can’t say “no” because I’m afraid of hurting someone.
What gets me is how some people have 200, 300, even 600+ friends. I don’t think I’ve known that many people in my entire life! Where do all these people come from and how in the world do they keep track of them all?
And then there are the days when I’m updating my status and thinking, “Does anyone really care that I’m making mac & cheese for dinner?” Because in all honesty I don’t think I’d care if they were.
It is a strange little world, isn’t it?
9:45 am
So can I ask you a question? Didn’t you have a book that came out awhile ago? Did you use a pseudonym for that too? I was just curious. Since I’m a writer and I’ve tried to learn as much as I can about the publishing business, I never really thought about it from the perspective of someone that doesn’t use their real name. Especially since social media is supposedly such a huge part of selling books.
I have really struggled with all this social media stuff. But I think I’ve finally found my sweet spot with all of it. Mostly, I just stopped obsessing about how much I hate it. Ha! I do get a lot of Facebook friend requests from people that I don’t know. I just don’t approve them. As bad and obnoxious as it sounds, a lot of people have created “fan pages” for their blogs and stuff. This helps funnel fans of books or blogs away from someone’s personal Facebook account for their friends and family. Ever read The Pioneer Woman’s blog? She has a ton of “fans” on Facebook. That gives her the option to interact with people on FB but it’s not like they’re viewing the typical personal FB account.
The only good thing I can say about Facebook if you do add everyone who sends you a request, is that you can tweak privacy settings so that not everyone sees your status updates or your photos. Or however you wan to do it. I like that.
10:27 pm
Finally! Someone else who used a fake name on facebook!
When I first signed up (probably three or four years ago, then promptly forgot about it until a couple months ago) I was trying to come up with a good fake name.
One of the most powerful people in our county law enforcement was doing some pretty loathesome things, so I wanted something about “lawlessness.” That took me to “lawless,” and I settled on “Lucy Lawless,” even though it sounded vaguely familiar. I convinced myself it was because it was the perfect fake name.
But then I started getting all these friend requests from people I’d never heard of, mostly Romanian-sounding names. I couldn’t figure out why they wanted to be my FB friend. Then I looked at their pages, and realized they were die-hard Xena: Warrior Princess fans.
Uh-oh.
Yeah. I googled Lucy Lawless and realized she played Xena.
So I had to change it to a less-known fake name.
It took me a loooooong time to become friends with Facebook. There are still days when I absolutely hate it.
And I’m up to 73 friends! Wahoo!
Seriously don’t understand people with 500+ friends. That’s just ridiculous.
10:27 pm
Wow. That was probably the longest comment I’ve ever left.
2:35 pm
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4:40 pm
Just thought I’d weigh in on the “Who has 500+ friends?” question. I my husband & I both do, but here’s the reason we have gotten so many… We have moved around alot in the past 10 years (9 different houses), and my husband is a pastor. I find it a really easy way to keep in touch with those friends we have moved away from, and a great way to get to know people in the community we have just moved to. I don’t add people I don’t know, but often after I have briefly met someone at church, I’ll add them as a friend & get to know them via facebook, since with 2 young kids it’s often hard to talk to them after church.
12:39 am
I’m guilty of having almost 600 facebook friends. Yes, I do know them all. But it was never my intention to collect friends. Many are friends of my husband or high school friends and I’m afraid of offending them if I decline their friendship. I do make use of lists tho, I have a “close friends” list and a “family” list. Most of my posts and pictures are only for them to see.
I did also open another account with a totally fake name (shhh!), mainly so I could check if my sons’ accounts are secure (they weren’t, now they are more private). I think FB is going to close it down soon tho, cause I’m supposed to confirm the email attached to it, and yahoo has already closed it for lack of use.
Anyway, I’ll look you up, kelsey, if you haven’t already closed your account.
By the way, I don’t have my birthday listed and I change passwords often, I hope that will help keep hackers out. But I don’t know…
9:11 pm
I use a “fake” name for my blog, and most everywhere else, because it’s so public and so out there. For Facebook, I use my real name, because there were friends and family members that I wanted to be able to keep in touch with and wanted them to know who I am. And even though my blog can be accessed from my profile in Facebook, it doesn’t work the other way around. I have my FB privacy settings so no one can see anything unless they are a friend.
When I first got on FB I had a rule that only people I currently know and really wanted to be in touch with would be my friends. And then I would get requests from people I knew in high school and felt bad denying them, even though they really had no business being friends. And now I’m back full circle. I have defriended those I don’t know (or want to) and don’t care how mean I look. They’re probably only my friends because they WANT 500 friends anyway. But I don’t. There are a couple of “virtual” friends that I do keep in contact with on Facebook, but those are limited and I’m pretty selective about it.