My Unexpected Defense of Facebook

Here’s a post I bet no one ever thought I’d write.

John Dvorak, whose articles and posts I have long enjoyed, sets forth a persuasive argument against Facebook.

I’m not going to try to summarize years of my posts and podcast rants, so let me just say for any new readers that I long held, and argued with anyone who would read or listen, that identical position.  I called Facebook the new AOL more than a few times (for the record, MySpace, not Facebook, is the new Geocities).  I protested over the walls.  I proclaimed that I would always keep my content out here, free, accessible and controlled by me on the wide open web.

Then I realized something important.  Facebook and web sites are not an either/or equation.  Just because you use Facebook doesn’t mean you have to let your blog lie fallow.  Most of my content originates and lives here.  Some of it, I push to Facebook or Twitter (though I do not push my Twitter posts to Facebook and generally filter those who do).

But I have found Facebook to be a very fun and useful supplement to this blog, for two reasons.  It’s easy, and popular.

Easy, because it lets me post short thoughts and share items that don’t warrant a full blog post here.

Popular, because that’s where the people are.  There are tons of people on Facebook that would rarely if ever come here and leave a comment.  Many of them are not tech savvy.  Others are not particularly interested in the subjects I focus on here.

By using Facebook the right way, I can expand my interaction to another group of people, many of whom are real world friends of mine.  I can actually drive some traffic here, by sharing some of my posts here on Facebook.  And I can have more regular interaction with people.

John should give it a try.  If I can learn to like Facebook, anyone can.

If we are, Friend me on Facebook.