Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or what’s happening in the region. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly.
There is a big difference between being signed up on Facebook and being a participant. I signed up years ago in order to access a Facebook posting while doing research for a story. That was it as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t interested in diving into the social networking world and so my Facebook account was out in cyberspace neglected and ignored.
However, nowadays if you are in the newspaper/website business you almost have to be an active Facebook participant. And so folks, I am here to announce that I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the world of social networking. Frankly, I’d rather be home chilling out (chilling out is the operational world since as of this morning the heat was still off in my apartment building) watching my new 58” plasma HDTV or playing with my cat. I sure won’t be talking and texting on my cell phone — I’m proud to say I still don’t have one.
When you work all day on a computer, I don’t get the attraction for sitting in front of it all night at home, but this is the way of the world. There are classes and seminars announced all the time designed to show businesses how to can use social networking sites like Facebook to connect for more potential readers/customers.
I’m starting slow. I finally filled out my profile and put in information about my favorite movies (I’ve already been blasted on the rottentomatoes.com site for not liking The Social Network) and TV shows, and what I my interests are — movies, cats, family, cooking, sports and playing cards — not necessarily in that order.
Now I am going through all the Facebook messages — which go back to 2009 — I’ve been ignoring and the list of people that want to “friend” me. Some of them I actually know. I was happy to find out the professional comedian Sean Morey, Atlantic City High School’s Class of ’71 class clown and class president, is still funny. Rick Apt is still crazy about Sinatra and Bobby Darin, and my old Whoot colleague Doug Deutsch is still promoting music in L.A.
I’ve got a bunch of messages about out upcoming 40th high school reunion, which are rather depressing. 40 years! Yikes!
I just went through my “add as friends” list. I guess I’ll find out who my real friends are.
I know I am just scratching the surface of this special network stuff. It will be interesting to see if the six degrees of Facebook “friending” takes me to people I’d actually like to remember and connect with from my past.
I guess next up is activating my Twitter account. Screw that — I refuse to Tweet.
