Non-Facebookers respond

Facebook has proved a great tool for fuelling watercooler chats. Photo / Thinkstock

Helena McAlpine is glad her blog is generating some virtual conversation...

Last week I launched this blog, which will be taking a look at the conversations and events that spill out and over from real life, to Facebook and back again.

Before I get into all that heavy stuff though, I thought I'd take the chance to respond to some of the feedback from my initial post. (Names have been changed!) Enjoy.

*****

Hi Helen,

Facebook addiction is certainly right. The article came across as a total dig at those of us who do not 'do' Facebook as mentioned. How much are Facebook paying you to sing their (lack of) merits?

Do you really think people miss out on invites to social events if they don't have a FB account? The 'Horse and Hound' reference was cringe inducing. No one reads 'Horse and Hound', although I would drink a 78 Chablis (capital C needed by the way) if one arrived in front of me.

Your 'blog', which shouldn't have been published as an article, gave me visions of yourself and your friends sitting around talking about non FB users, in the same way 13 year old girls sit around and talk about some other (probably hotter) 13 year old girl who has just got a new haircut that you don't approve of.

I hope you can find something worth reporting or even blogging about in the future, and I hope I can refrain from reading such s*** next time.

I look forward to your response if you are not too busy telling everyone on Facebook that you have just wiped your arse with 'the nicest toilet paper ever', or your 'cat is looking sad today'.

Get a life!

Cameron

Hey there Cameron,

My apologies for not replying sooner to your email - I've been insanely busy sitting at my computer Facebooking my little heart out and invoicing them for my troubles.

Ah, c'mon - you know I'm totally kidding, don't you? But, for the record, Facebook doesn't pay me anything. The blog that I write for nzherald.co.nz is for nzherald.co.nz only. It just so happens that the subject of that blog is associated with Facebook.

The blog was created to comment on conversations that cross over between real life and Facebook. It will be a look at the highs and lows of this incredible new media social community. It is certainly not written to solely praise FB, but to make people think about where we find ourselves these days interacting with one another.

But I do love the fact that the very first post has generated such polarising opinions.

You are not the only person to contact me with the notion that using Facebook is an addiction of sorts and that FB users do nothing but get drunk, post pictures, invite each other to parties and make mundane status updates. Of course, all these opinion holders (without exception) have never actually been FB users.

It's rather like saying all French people are rude, eat frogs' legs and smell funny. You find that people who tend to say things like this have never actually been to France.

And so, let me respond to the other points of your email:

Of course people still get invited to events if they are not on FB. Of course the Horse & Hound comment was cringe inducing. And of course you would drink a 78 Chablis (I apologise for the lack of capital C).

I'm rather pleased that I helped you to envision hot 13-year-old school girls with nice haircuts, though neither my friends, nor myself are partial to thinking about them ourselves.

You realise there is something of a difference between an actual news article and a blog, don't you?

I respect your opinion that you thought the blog was s***. I hope my further efforts will sway you otherwise.

As for responding, once again I am sorry it has taken a while. Though I would like to recommend Cotton Soft as my toilet paper of choice and it might interest you to know that Mr. Tiddles is looking quite content and happy today.

Best wishes and keep in touch,

Helena

*****

You will end up a loser on Facebook... I'm retired open minded, opened an account to find a family member in a crisis to find out why my elderly mother was not answering her phone [she was in hospital]. But what I have found is that the young ones are getting boozed to the eyeballs and openly talking to each other on FB using not so good language and spending time [to all hours of the night] on a computer when they need sleep. That might be progress to you, I hate to see what the next generation will turn out like. Thankfully I probably won't be here to see. I hope you have a nice day.

Fred

Hey there Fred,

Apologies for not replying sooner to your email - it's been quite a busy time!

I'm glad you took the time to drop me a wee line. Isn't it wonderful that technology enabled you to do that instantly? Wasn't it also wonderful that you were able to use an online platform like Facebook to check in with your relatives? (By the way, I hope your mother is ok).

Speaking of mothers, mine is in London. Facebook has been a great way for me to stay in contact with her and the rest of my family. We exchange personal messages, engage in instant text chat and share photos daily. It's almost like being back in the UK with them (albeit without the hugs and good old-fashioned home cooking!). FB has been invaluable in keeping her and my father up to date with my daughter's development, my career and the contact needed to retain and strengthen family bonds.

Now then, in any social forum (whether virtual or in real life) you will always find the party people! It's a beautiful fact of life that humans are socially interactive creatures. And, thanks to our opposable thumbs and large prefrontal cortices, we have developed astonishing ways of communicating.

From the early cave wall scratchings to the birth of the internet, each new form of local, regional and global communication has been embraced and celebrated.

I'm pretty certain sharing gossip or organising boozy parties hasn't developed solely because of online-based communication. Sending party invites by carrier pigeon might have taken longer, but it got the job done!

I hope that you will be around to see how this and the next generation will turn out, Fred. Whilst the internet and sites like Facebook can seem scary and inappropriate at times, they serve a purpose. And that is to share information.

You've done it - you emailed me.

And I hope you have a nice day too.

Take care,

Helena

*****

I can live without Facebook. Who REALLY needs it?

Sarah

Hey there Sarah,

Apologies that it's taken me a while to respond to your email - it's been a pretty hectic time!

So, who REALLY needs Facebook? The answer is, of course, nobody!

You and millions of others with access to the internet go about your daily lives without that constant itch of checking your home page feed, thinking of witty and informative status updates or worrying about being the first to upload photos from the weekend's shenanigans. There are more people NOT on Facebook than are on it - and there is nothing wrong with this at all.

The majority of us have a social life of sorts. We all like to keep in touch with our nearest and dearest. At times we enjoy a catch up with folk we don't get to see often and, on occasion, it's rather pleasant bumping into someone you haven't seen for ages.

We achieve this interaction through face-to-face meetings, phone calls, emails and texting. FB is really just another form of communication to achieve this and much more.

The purpose of this blog is to look at how FB flits between virtual and real life. I've often thought of 'life on Facebook' as a kind of interactive soap opera.

Now, people don't stand around the water cooler at work just talking about Coro Street or Shorty. We exchange the excitement, horror, congratulations and good old fashioned gossip we saw on FB the night before.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the comments and conversations that this blog is generating - it's all about the communication regardless of whether people share my views or not! It's quite exciting.

So hopefully, you'll stick with occasionally checking in on the blog. It will never point a finger at who is right or wrong between those who are on Facebook and those who aren't.

There will always be a lot of people who will never use Facebook, or be keen to use any online social networking... but can you imagine what it would be like if we were still using carrier pigeons?

Technology isn't all bad, eh?

Take care,

Helena

*****

And there you have it. Some great feedback from people who read the first Status McAlpine blog. Let's hope that everyone who reads this blog, uses Facebook, surfs the web, makes telephone calls, texts, emails or even enjoys a good old-fashioned face-to-face chin wag will continue the great human privilege of communicating and sharing opinions.

* Helena will happily accept Facebook friendship requests from people who apply with a short message.