Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Facebook Features Reach New Frontiers of Awkward

Hello, random Facebook friend from high school that I didn't talk to then and haven't talked to since. You know what we should do? Chat online! Let's see, how can we make this happen?

I don't have your AIM screenname, and I'm not in high school or college anymore, so I'm almost never on AIM anyway.

How about G-Chat? I love G-Chat! It's AIM for grown-ups! We never talk though, so I don't have your G-Chat name because I don't have your Gmail address.

Skype? Nah, it's not like you're in France or something.

Hmm...I think we're out of options.
A mere week ago, this story would have had an unhappy, chat-free ending. Facebook to the rescue! The long-awaited introduction of Facebook chat gives you real-time access to reconnect with all the people you never thought you would talk to online. Ever. You only friended them because you were curious what they were up to, but now you're one double-click away from starting a conversation that probably can't last more than three lines.

Need to find more people from your past to chat with? Facebook can help you there, too! Just check out the new "People You May Know" sidebar. Surprise, surprise...it's all the people you purposely didn't friend or didn't know well enough to even look up on Facebook.

I love the fact that Facebook allows me to stay connected to people--good friends and random acquaintances--from various stages of my life, but I want to control the terms of that connection. Don't friend me because I show up in a list on your home page and we have a few common friends. And if we haven't communicated in more than a year, don't chat with me on Facebook just because we're both "online" at the same time.

That's what Walls are for. Happy birthday, by the way!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

hahaha. very nice, matt. by the way, i didn't get around to calling verizon yesterday. don't text me and wate my money! facebook chat is free, after all. see you tonight!


(and yes, i realize that gchat is also free...)

Anonymous said...

I haven't checked your site in awhile, I'm sorry. Sorta took you outta my Reader because the silly thing actually counts your Del.ici.ous links as updates.

mindovermatt said...

Are del.icio.us links in my feed a bad thing? Feedburner does that for me...

Unknown said...

Oh, quit whining. The very features that you enjoy because they keep you connected to certain friends are seen as awkward and overreaching by other Facebookers. We all have our place on the "How Awkward Do We Find Facebook?" continuum; you've just finally hit your limit. But the feature is easily disabled. And even if it weren't, I'm not exactly being deluged with unwanted chats. Are you?

Anonymous said...

There is no nice way to say this: I'm more of a fan of your posts than your links...

mindovermatt said...

I have now separated my blog post feed from my del.icio.us feed. You can conveniently subscribe to both from the home page!

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