Facebook Observations

So I recently gave in and got me a Facebook page.
Not that I ever saw a huge desire or need for it, but I figure
it is easier to monitor my daughter, and then I found out that
my MOM has one, so what the hell!

I didn't know what to expect, since I had no previous experience
with it, and at first I was very confused. But now that I kind
of got the hang of it, here are my observations:

From what I can see, all it really does is show a bunch of
messages that people are typing to each other. OK, fine, I can
understand that. But the part that got me for a while was
trying to understand who all these people are, and how can I see
THEIR stuff, and how can they see MINE?

I figured out that going 'Home' meant I can see whatever people
have written to each other that are part of my friends' network.
I also found that just clicking on my account would just show me
my OWN stuff, and that my 'Wall' was where people could type
stuff that I can see.

(All you Facebook pros can laugh at my 'newbie-ness' if you want,
or just ignore this post altogether).

But as I acquired Friends, it began to get more interesting. It
became more of a virtual room with all these people that I know
talking to each other, and we all see what everyone is saying.
I had some fun with my nephews...who are both young men in
their early 20's...by posting some pictures of them when they
were like 15. All their cousins got a kick out of it.

Here is where it gets even more interesting...as I get more
friends, then those people are friends with other people, and
they are friends with even MORE people, and I find that I am
re-establishing contact with people that I have not seen or even
thought about in like 30 years or more!

It is pretty fascinating to see how these people interact with
each other, and how I discover that groups of people know each
other that I had not realized were part of the same circle.
Kind of like the six degrees of separation principle, if you are
familiar with that.
(Everybody knows someone who knows someone who knows
someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows
the President of the United States personally)...
click to enlarge this so you can see it:



Like most people, I have my own circle of friends and
aquaintances that I always imagined were separate groups of
people. I had no idea that these groups branched off and
interacted with each other until all these friend requests
started to come in.

I am astonished to see how many I really know...having never
been a really 'cool' or 'popular' person, I am reminded that I
really do know lots of people!

But...there are some annoying things as well...mainly when
people want to send me all these 'apps'. Anyone who uses
Facebook knows what I mean. But frankly, I don't have the
inclination to mess with these things, I don't want to load my
PC down with all these little add-ons it needs to install to
make them work, and it is not my bag or reason for getting on
Facebook.

So the problem is...when I choose to 'Ignore' these...do the
people get a message to that effect? Am I offending them? Is
there a way to tell them "No thanks, and please don't send me
this"?

So I am loaded down with all these requests that I have not
answered, such as 'so-and-so wants to send you a fish from the
farm' or 'so-and-so wants to give you a virtual pet'. By not
doing anything with them, I am effectively 'ignoring' the
request, but in the meantime I have all this 'stuff' sitting
around that I would like to clear out.

If I specifically select 'Ignore' can I do that without them
getting a message that I HAVE ignored it? What I would like to
do is be able to click 'Ignore' and not have them get any type
of response at all.

Peace be with you