Cathy Classics by Cathy Guisewite for August 04, 2009

This is where the “delete” button comes in handy.

or the NO!

I’m new on facebook but I have gotten friend invites from people I didn’t know so I checked who all their friends were. Facebook tells you how many mutual friends you have. I wrote to the mutual friend (who I did know) and asked who is this person?

I recently turned down two Friends offers because they were just friends-of-friends and not people I had any other contact with, like ever actually having met them.

Since there is always I chance I’ve met someone and don’t remember, I send them a message to ask how they know me, and if the only answer is friend-of-friend, I delete the request with a polite explanation.

But if I start getting too many of these, I may end up forgetting about the politeness and just cutting them off immediately. Facebook should be fun, not a chore.

Facebook is kind of like hanging out - over the backyard fence - talking to all your neighbors … or just eavesdropping. I found the “hide” button early on. I mostly use it to keep in touch with all my children, who are kind enough to post messages every day.

Some wag once said “LinkedIn is like hanging out around the water cooler at work, Facebook is like a barbeque in the backyard with old friends, and MySpace is like happy hour at the local gin mill.” I don’t drink so don’t have a MySpace page. The rest of the quote is pretty accurate!

Draw the line, Cathy! Only friend someone if you know them well, or you’d like to know them well. It’s not that hard.

Facebook really isn’t the ultimate evil.

And this is why I don’t do Facebook………

facebook: intrusive, uninvited and all powerful!

down with facebook! death to facebook! off with facebook’s head!

There are people in my past who I knew, and I don’t especially want them to find me again. Why ask for it?

You don’t have to accept anyone’s friend requests if you don’t want to.

Facebook isn’t so bad. What’s wrong with keeping in touch with friends you don’t see as often as you’d like?

Hey doctortoon, how is it that you know exactly what I’m thinking? and express it so well, also?

I think facebook is fine, just not for me. gocomics uses as much of my time as I want to use for computer socializing. I have other things to do as well - like sometimes even socializing with a real live human being…