Facebookin'

Thanks, Bess, for setting this up.

This morning I'm experiencing the challenge I anticipated that made me resistant to joining Facebook. I'm having trouble keeping up with answering all the friend requests (yes, I'm very popular!) and cannot resist the urge to sculpt my page into the perfect representation of myself. These Web 2.0 tools take time. Is this another instance of "more work for mother," the argument that new technologies of industrialization (think the Cuisinart and all its precursors) aimed to make life easier for housewives, but in fact gave them more they were 'obligated' to do? These new tools, aimed at making it easier to communicate and network, clearly make keeping up socially and professionally much more complicated and time-consuming than the old-fashioned way of simply emailing. Prior to PEMCI, I kept such things at arm's length, not willing to commit my time and energy. I now see the great potential of social networking and all its cousins, but am I really willing to throw myself in completely? Do they still work to their full potential if I am just half-assed about it? As you can see from my ever more fancy page, I am currently about three-quarters-assed about it, adding my flickr link and an addictive geography game. Can I keep up? Should I?