For a long time, I was one of those people who shocked others when I revealed that I didn't use Facebook. I really didn't see the point of it, and I thought it was dumb, how much time people spent on it. Eventually, years after the first of my friends to get it, I reluctantly and begrudgingly signed up. And then I proceeded to almost never, ever use it, except to view the occasional photos or event info that existed nowhere else.
More recently, however, not only do I find myself using it continually (and being one of the shocked when I now meet people who don't use it), but my hackles tend to go up when people pooh-pooh at it, and I even find myself defending it now and then.
It made me consider exactly what has changed since once upon a time when I never used it, and it seems to boil down to two main things:
First, the world has become a smaller place for me. Part of this is because of people graduating and moving away, and part of this is because I've met people abroad... but much moreso now than ever before, the people I know and really want to keep up with are all over the place; very few of my friends even live in the same city as me. We all have our own separate lives, and we're busy with hugely varied schedules, so it's nice to have quick updates on at least the major highlights (and often a lot of minor ones) even when there's nothing specific we'd be inclined to, say, email one another about.
Second is that one of the main things I do whenever I have a big enough chunk of free time is dance. This, of course, requires somewhere to go dancing and people to dance with, so being able to keep up with goings-on in the dance scenes relevant to me is huge. There are lots of different events and socials and workshops organized by different people and dance schools, and it's hugely convenient to not only know what's going on when I happen to be going to Toronto (or, perhaps more importantly, have something to plan around so I can go for the stuff I'm interested in), but also have a rough idea of who's going to be at what. Maybe this wouldn't be as big a deal if I were out dancing several times a week (as was the case during my Summer of Freedom) and could keep up by word of mouth, but alas... time is far more scarce these days... and even in this scenario, having events listed all in one place is super handy. The Events feature is also of great utility when trying to wrangle my various scattered amigos into the occasional get-together.
There are other reasons I use Facebook these days, but those are the most important ones, and the ones which perhaps most rationally justify my reliance on a form of social media that part of me still hates.
UPDATE: I like how I happened to post this just before Facebook decided to revamp the homepage layout to something that makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon.
Epic. Fail.
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