From the desk of Robert Rappaport on Tuesday, January 13th 2009 at 6:36

FACEBOOK? NO WAY

I recently created a Facebook page to allow for better interaction beyond this blog, but I deleted it before I mentioned it in this space. Here’s why...

First, some background. When this blog was first created last June, I was told by our web developers that a “comments” section would be enabled soon to allow listeners to chime in and start lively discussions. Well, that never happened and I’m getting busy answering emails that people send me via the link I added below. Since it would be so much easier for people to just add a comment and start talking to each other, I figured I’d go another route, an off-site social networking page. I don’t have one personally, but I figured I’d set one up for work and see what happened. That’s where it all went downhill.

After wasting a big chunk of my time just figuring out how the website worked, I made some progress in setting up the page. After refusing to answer many of the default questions for a profile, such as age, political views, religious views etc., I wasn’t left with much. As an unbiased newsman, I didn’t feel right answering any of those questions and it’s really nobody’s business anyway. Hence, my frustrations began.

I’m pretty much a private person and not much of a talker with people I don’t know, so I soon realized this wasn’t the thing for me. With virtually no information in my profile, I essentially was left with only what Facebook calls “status.” I’ve seen people fill this out and comment on what their doing every minute. I’ve seen things like “Mary is warming up the electric blanket,” and “Bob is waiting for pizza.” That immediately brought two words to mind...WHO CARES?

Why would I think anyone would care what I'm doing at the moment and why would I really care what anyone else is doing, especially people who become my “friends,” even though I don’t really know them?

Having the page would invite “friends” to join our group, but quite frankly, we’re not really friends. While I do get paid to deliver you news each morning, would you really want me hanging around your house all the time? I wouldn’t want you hanging around mine and that’s how I feel about these social networking sites. If you use them and they work for you, fine. However, I think they’re a huge waste of time and an invasion of privacy, so I won’t participate. This blog is good enough for me.

For those of you really interested in my status...."Robert is working."

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