BEDM Day 3: Facebook or Twitter?

Call me a heretic, but clearly Facebook.

I use both daily, but I just end up interacting far more on Facebook than Twitter, though reading around some of the other #BEDM14 blogs (I am late writing today), I appear to be in a minority of one.

For me, Facebook is full of my friends, and Twitter is full of people I like but I don’t know so well, or haven’t met (yet) – though there is obviously quite a bit of overlap. I’d say people tend to graduate from Twitter to Facebook once I know them better, I suppose.

Most of my closest friends are quite into Facebook too. My Facebook feed moves quite fast, and it’s not populated by random weirdos I haven’t seen in 20 years. It’s silly messages and links from people I see all the time, and photos of things we’ve done in the last couple of weeks.

It’s really big with all the guys at work too. Everyone is really into it, and it makes it quite fun in school – lots of conversations at work start with mentions of something stupid said on Facebook. So I think maybe I use it quite differently to other people – they seem quite annoyed by incessant invites to play stupid games and dreary news from ancient school friends from times past. For me, it’s all based around my current friends really- it’s like a big, convenient hub where we can all talk together about the same thing, over a time span of a few days.

The messaging is a godsend too. Group messages on Facebook are generally how my friends arrange absolutely everything now. Texts are too complicated now, as you don’t know what other people have said regarding making plans. Emails get too unwieldy, and you end up with an inbox of twenty-million messages as each new bit gets added on. But we have strings and strings of Facebook group message threads (of say, 6 or 7 people), where we sort out dates and times and everyone can see the responses from everyone else. It really has become quite indispensable now, and I think I’d feel a bit lost without it.

Twitter?  I like it, but it isn’t as useful for me, nor as fun. I see it more as a source of entertainment, but it is a far less interactive space for me. I like running through my feed and opening up all the news items that grab my attention, random photos etc, and the odd conversation, though it doesn’t seem to take off in nearly the same way as any communication on Facebook inevitably does.

I do love the fact that you hear everything first though. I always know about exciting, significant or dramatic news items ages before everyone else because of Twitter. I remember when Michael Jackson died, and the Twitter Rumour Mill was grinding away, back and forth with uncertainty as details gradually filtered through across continents. Then about an hour later, television news finally caught up.

So they both have their place, but in terms of being fun and sociable and useful, it’s gotta be Facebook all the way.  

Sorry geeks and bloggers - I know it’s heresy, and I almost feel there’s this sense of superiority on Twitter, as if Facebook is for the riff-raff.

But from my perspective, Twitter is for the people who talk about it but don’t do it, Facebook is for the people who do it, then talk about it after.

And more than likely, post 25 photographs of it for your perusal.