News - Lifestyles

Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008

FACEBOOK FOR FOGIES For the over-30 crowd, a guide to the popular social networking site

Once upon a time, I heard about Facebook.

But I surfed right past www.facebook.com.

Sure, I was an avid blogger. I had journals through the alphabet ... DJ, IJ, GJ, JF, LJ.

Heck, I even had a MySpace.

But Facebook held no lure. Didn't you have to be in high school? Or college, at least? And, truth be told, I qualify as one of the fogies. Maybe even a Fogie 1.5.

So I blogged along, happily ignorant of all the friending I could do in Facebook Land.

Yes, friend is a verb now. Defriend is, too, but that's the negative side of a positive experience. And a detour from Facebook.

Anyway, earlier this year, some of my newfound journalistic siblings at the Charlotte paper were ragging on me about not having a Facebook account.

Hey, up until February, I didn't know Sally J. Everybody could have one. My daughter has one, by the way, but she says MySpace is cooler.

A month or so of "why don't you have one?" and I caved. I got a Facebook account.

Go me!

Then, just as I get up and running, Facebook goes and changes its look. Sure, I wasn't on the old one long enough to be upset by the revamp, but I'm still a newbie learning to figure out the writing on the wall.

Moreso than those other journals I have, Facebook demands interaction. Duh. (Insert the "coulda had" slap) It's a social networking site.

Right now, I only have 43 friends, but at any moment I can see what they're doing. Uh, if they remember to update their status.

Or I can answer the Kidnap! and Beautiful Places requests. Or boost that "Torchwood" trivia score beyond Addict.

Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting to feed my Pokey! puppy.

Feeling overwhelmed by Facebook?

The folks at McClatchy-Tribune have compiled this handy-dandy guide. Read closely, but don't let anyone see you. Don't want to look like a geek.

HOME PAGE VS. PROFILE PAGE

When you become a Facebook member, there are two specific pages you must know the difference between. Your home page features your news feed, which fills you in on what your friends have been up to. It tells you everything from who just got married to who updated his favorite music. Your profile page is the page about you that everyone else sees. You can get to it by clicking on your name in the top left corner. It shows your chosen picture, and is broken down into sections: wall, info, photos and boxes (which contain your applications - we’ll get to that later). The info section features the personal information - such as your birthday, relationship status, favorite television shows, and education and work information - that you decide to release online. In the “contact information” section, you have the option to set your own privacy settings on each item, like your IM login and your phone numbers. Choose from “Friends of Friends,” “Only Friends,” “No one” and “Customize.”

FRIENDS

Without providing the option to make friend requests, Facebook could not call itself a social networking site. Facebook lets you find friends in several ways: searching by e-mail address, IM address or name; looking up former classmates and current or former co-workers; and by suggesting people you may know (based on how many friends you have in common). You can get to this “Friend Finder” page several ways: through the “Friend Finder” link at the bottom of the right column of your home page, the “Find Friends” link at the bottom of every page, and “Find people you know” link on your “Friends” page. Note that if someone’s privacy settings are set high (see below), you may not find them in a search.

PRIVACY

This is probably the most important thing you need to know before joining Facebook. The privacy controls allow you to determine who sees what information about you. You can choose who you want to see your personal information, what photos of you they can see, who can view your wall (more information below) and who you are friends with. You can allow everyone in your network to have access to this information, or you can limit your information to your friends only. You can restrict who can look for you on Facebook, and there is an option to block people from finding you at all. You also can choose what kinds of information you want to show up on others’ news feeds and on your wall. Make sure you spend time going through all the privacy settings and figuring out what works best for you. You can change your settings at any time.