soot
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2013
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I wouldn't necessarially say that it's any easier or any harder.
It's a different medium of communication.
Here's an example of why I find it useful.
Within Facebook I belong to a private, invitation-only group consisting of a bunch of old Army buddies. There are about 40 or 50 of us in the group, guys I served with in a particular unit between 1990 and 1994 (as well as some guys who served in that same unit from a few years prior to those dates and a few years after who are sort of like friends-of-friends from my perspective). The group "grows" all the time as guys locate other members of our unit through Facebook and invite them to the group.
That group serves as a sort of de facto message boards, not a great deal unlike Debate Politics. We have different threads going on within the group discussing any number of different topics. I can log into Facebook and "discuss" things with my old friends with pretty much the same functionality we have here on a vB forum; everyone can see the ongoing discussion, add their own comments at will, share links or pictures relevant to the discussion, and what have you.
The Facebook infrastructure also allows for "event" planning so we use Facebook to coordinate our yearly reunions. We use FB to construct polls in order to agree upon dates and locations for our event, share links to different bars and restaurants in the area we'll be visiting, and coordinate "outings" like rounds of golf and chartering fishing boats. We also use it to share flight information so groups of us can arrage for transportation from the airport to our hotel.
Getting back to the "message board" like feel of the Facebook group, it's handy because it allows for people to share information or ask questions at their convenience and their comments just sort of "sit there" like they do here on DP so others can respond at their convenience, and everything is out in the open so once a question gets answered everyone else can see that and know that it's been answered so they don't waste their time answering the same question a dozen different times by a dozen different guys. That "open" nature of the medium also alllows for guys to take things off on a tangent.
Now, since I'm one of the organizers of the event this year I frequently find myself on the phone or texting or emailing with other of the organizers as we arrange and finalize everything. We can do administrative stuff behind-the-scenes and then post the results of our administrative shuffling and negotiation to the group discussion for FYI purposes or for the rest of the group to comment on.
Could I do all of this by other mediums? Sure. But I don't think it would be as "clean" or as easy. There might be other software or other mediums that we could use to do all of this and still have the same functionality, but since we're all already on Facebook, and since Facebook serves our needs just fine, I can't think of a good reason to branch out into something else.
And you also need to understand that I'm not a HUGE Facebook user. I usually check in a twice a day during the week and frequentlly don't log into it at all on the weekends (you'd note, if you were interested at all in looking, that I rarely ever log in to DP on the weekends either). For no cost, very little effort, and no commitment I have a powerful tool to communicate with a group of people who are scattered all over the country and all over the world (including on FOBs in Afghanistan).
Facebook works for us so we use it. As I keep saying though, what works for me/us might not work for you. I don't think there's anything at all "wrong" with that. If you have a communication need and Facebook isn't the right tool to fill that need then I agree that'd you'd be crazy to try pounding that round peg into a square hole just to "get aboard the Facebook train".
If it stops working so well for me, or if something else comes along that works better, I have no problem leaving Facebook or migrating to some new medium. I have no real loyalty to the site and I fail to see how issues like "cool" or "lame" would factor into my usage (or cessation of usage) in any material way.
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