On the Efficacy of Facebook

I've been unexpectedly away from home for a few days and am likely to be for a few days more.  I hope you will therefore excuse the lack of posts recently.

This being the case I've had to contact some people and let get info from them at short notice.  I've discovered a Top Tip: people are happy to ignore e-mails and Google+, but they feel almost obliged to respond to a message on Facebook by return.  At one point yesterday evening I was juggling four open message windows (just call me Joe Communications!).

Facebook has a poor reputation - I recently saw it compared to a 'restaurant' where one points at pictures on the menu and says "Ugh, me like!".  There is that.  It's handy for gently insulting people and sharing pictures of cats - being sillier than you can get away with even in a blog.  But I've also found it a useful place.

I first came to Facebook at the insistence of my geographically-spread family, who used it to keep up-to-date when one of us was in hospital and things were touch-and-go.  And it's worked - we're much more connected these days (and it even translates into visit each other).  My Mother would be surprised - she spent a portion of her final months worrying that the family was going to disintegrate.  Actually the opposite has happened (for example, I have tried to bash my brother's brains out in years).

So as far as I'm concerned FB is a handy tool.  Google+ is a waste of time.

Back to more interesting posts shortly...