InfiniteTides

Status updates are the lifeblood of your Facebook news stream and are the primary (and most public) way many of us interact with our Facebook friends.  I love status updates.  I enjoy when people share what’s on their mind, and I do enjoy dropping the occasional status update myself.

My all time favorite type of status update is possibly the most noobish as well.  That’s why I do it!  I’m talking about the generic greeting of “good morning,” “goodnight,” “hello,” etc.  It’s fun to throw one of these fishing lines out once in a while just to see who will bite.  I find it noobish to greet Facebook every time you log on and log off, but to each their own.  The occasional use of the generic greeting can measure how connected you are to your Facebook friends.  For instance, I posted a “good morning” message today, and no one has yet replied.  This tells me that I’m quite unpopular, and I should de-friend everyone on my friend list and close my Facebook account.  OR, maybe I should work on strengthening the connections to people I care about hearing from. I suppose it’s also possible that many people on my friend list don’t log into Facebook every day, or by the time they read my post, it’s gone stale.

Another type of status update is the “what I’m up to” post.  These posts are usually caused by your fingers uncontrollably blurting out where you are, what you’re doing, or some other fascinating morsel of personal info without considering how that information might be used by your stalker(s).  Just kidding, no one needs to stalk you now, because they can easily follow your every move on Facebook.  But don’t let that discourage you from posting the “what I’m up to” status update.  We non-stalkers also enjoy knowing what you’re up to ALL OF THE TIME!

Interactive or invitational status updates, like those requesting feedback, opinions, comments, advice, lottery numbers, etc., are often some of the most fun threads to read and respond to.  These updates instantly create conversations and invite interactions between people who might not even know each other.  To my mind, the invitational status update is the most likely type for cross pollination of your Facebook friend list, and let’s face it, we could all use a few more active Facebook friends (except for my sister!  She is little miss popular).  I consider every one of my status updates to be an invitation for comment.  I LOVE COMMENTS on Facebook, and the more I receive, the more likely I am to continue sharing what’s on my mind.

This next type of status update is a little touchy, at least for me.  It’s the religious/anti-religious status update that I’m least comfortable with.  I blame Facebook for not giving us enough options for hiding offensive posts in our news stream.  I’ve said before that if one of my friends frequently posts religious statements that show up in my new stream, I will hide all of their updates.  It would be nice if I had a choice to hide only those posts that I don’t want to see, maybe even allow me to filter updates by keyword.  Facebook even hides the unhide option all the way at the bottom of the Home page, because no one would ever change their mind about whose updates they want to hide.  Stupid Facebook!

Everyone probably has one person on their friend list who is the king/queen of the embarrassing revelation status update.  You know, the person who constantly posts images of themselves and their friends that SHOULD be embarrassing, often at various stages of inebriation.  Drunk people are always good for a laugh, but before you become THAT guy/gal, consider who else might view your images and get the wrong impression of you.

The last type of status update I’m going to mention is one I wish people would post more of, and that’s the weblink.  I want to know what my friends are into.  If you find something cool online, why not share it?  All you have to do is copy and past the address into the box and click “share.”  Most of my friends selfish keep all of their cool finds to themselves, and it’s beginning to irritate me!

Lately I’ve become tired of hearing that Facebook isn’t very useful, that people don’t interact enough, or it’s too quiet.  If you aren’t posting things yourself, why would you expect everyone else to do so?  That seems to be the biggest problem with Facebook right now, people who are there aren’t posting, but they expect everyone else to pick up the slack.  I’m on Facebook every morning, posting a few things, commenting on the rare status updates of friends, and basically just killing time.  I understand that most people are busy throughout the day, and just can’t be bothered to jump on Facebook because there usually isn’t much going on.  You people are part of the problem, so start posting!!!

Now I’m going to play some Rock Band, and when I get back, I better see some status updates in my Facebook news feed or heads faces are going to roll!