Ok, so you have a Facebook account…now what? Well if you over 40, this may not affect you. But for the 39 and under crowd, take note.
Here are some Facebook rules of etiquette:
- Its OK if someone ignores your friend request. Do not take it personally. If they have complete and normal lives, clicking “confirm” isn’t usually the highlight of their day.
- You don’t have to have a zillion friends. Unless you are a party promoter (who do VERY well on Facebook), you know that you don;t have that many “real” friends and they probably don’t read the weekly digests that you send about your life.
- If someone who is your Facebook friend does not choose to follow you on Twitter, do not send them an email asking the whats and whys. Smells….like….desperation.
- Just because you were a mere acquaintance of someone in daycare, being “friends” at age 2 is not the same as being friends with someone at age 21. If they don’t remember you even after multiple attempts to refresh their memories, let it go…
- Don’t expect the queries to come pouring in once you changed your relationship status to “single.” Facebook is not eHarmony, J-Date, or Match.com or Yahoo Personals. Even if no one even bothers to make a peep about your status….you will be a’ight.
Check out this great article from MSNBC, “When You Don’t Want to be Facebook Friends.” Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite:
It’s all about dealing with expectations, said Ariel Waldman, community manager for Pownce, a social networking and microblogging site. “In Web 2.0, people have developed expectations of what friending or not friending means. They get put off if their expectations are not met.”
One person might want to follow only 200 people on Twitter, for example. Another might prefer to friend only those in the same geographic location.
“Everyone has different communication protocols,” Waldman said. “The important thing is defining what your own protocols are.”
Then there’s the issue of real friends versus online friends. Take Hal Niedzviecki of Toronto, who wrote about his experience throwing a “Facebook party” for the New York Times Sunday Magazine. He invited his nearly 700 online friends to meet him at the neighborhood bar. One showed up.
Hee-larious! Keep it strictly stylish!
