A few weeks back, some of the commenters suggested that I have been away from blogging because I probably spend more time on Facebook. Hmmm.... to a certain degree I guess that is true. Although I have been an FB member for more than two years, the appeal of logging online to this social networking website is still not lost to me.
Effbeeing is different from blogging.... yeah, I know there is no such word as `effbeeing', but I'd like to use it anyway. It is an alternative way of saying `FBing' or `facebooking', i.e. the action of spending time online on Facebook. Some of my friends even use the Malay version of `berfb' (pronounced ber-eff-bee), so go figure.
I'm sure many of you have read or heard stories of addiction to this latest online activity. It has been blamed for non-productive employee hours to the extent that some companies block the connection from their office computers. I am not quite an addict but I admit that I do spend time effbeeing because I like to be connected to friends. And thus the likely cause of me spending less time on blogging...
Blogging really appeals only to writers... because that is what it essentially is, putting thoughts, stories or ideas in the form of words onto paper, or in this case, on a computer screen. And since I consider myself a writer, I don't think I'll stop blogging any time soon. Only that my writing is now a bit sparse compared to when I first started... and to justify this, you'll expect me to say that it wasn't about quantity in the first place. Hehehe... excuses, excuses.. Actually though, there is a more valid reason why my frequency of writing has dropped of late... but I'll write about it a bit later, next year perhaps.
Ok back to this phenomenon of effbeeing... apparently there are more than 500 million users of Facebook today and the company is estimated to be worth USD35billion. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of FB is the youngest ever billionaire. I recently watched the movie `The Social Network', about how it all started. Quite an interesting film actually, because it does not have the documentary style that I sort of expected. One lesson I remember from the movie is this : When it comes to money (especially when it is a lot of money), loyal friends can become enemies.
The question in my mind now is, after FB, what next? For those of us who grew up with computing from the days of punchcards, writing in BASIC and working with DOS, there have been many revolutions in the IT world. IBM, Lotus 1-2-3, Microsoft Windows, Internet, dotcom explosion, Yahoo and Google. Some have survived this far while some are now but distant memories. Will Facebook last or will there be another phenomenon after it?
6 comments:
Great post. I remember there was Friendster once but it doesnt last that long to me. Maybe there will be another but just hope it does good to us. =)
Hi Darlyn (dare I pronounce it as darlin'...)
Some friends used to invite me join Friendster, many years ago but I never got myself to do it. Does it still exist?
Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
I must confess to not liking FB very much. It's full of stuff I'm mostly not interested in. And I don't farm or play any other games either - so I'm in and out in less than five minutes!
I go there only when someone leaves me a message, or when my daughter posts new pix. Otherwise, I'm not there.
I guess it is a great tool for networking. But, for a loner like me, it's not where it's at! Hahahah!
Pat, when I first registered on FB, I was quite hooked on some of the games and the part where we sent virtual gifts or stuff to other friends... but later I stopped playing them. Now, I log on FB mostly to check friends status and also to update them on mine.
You're a loner, Pat? Cannot be lah!
thanks to fb we can connect with families in malaysia, best part is sharing photos and commenting on them as if we are sitting together going thru an album, without fb it is quite impossible to keep track with all friends and cousins, bdays, newborns, newlyweds, now we dont miss anything..
we just came back from cairo :) will write about it insyaAllah
Salam Doc,
I trust the old man is doing well over there in Cairo. Must have told you stories about us kan?
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