Questions about MySpace and Facebook

[msagara]

I'm not entirely a luddite. But. Well. MySpace and Facebook? They make me feel bemused and almost entirely incompetent. But I know there are a bunch of people in my flist that probably don't feel either of these, and I thought I would, you know, badger you for helpful advice.

1.* How does it work? I recently created a MySpace account and then ... kind of clicked in circles because I couldn't really figure out how to do anything, or in fact even figure out what I was supposed to do. My oldest son and my friends mock me mercilessly in Facebook, and because I love them, I want to avoid having to kill them, so I haven't yet created an account there.

2. Have you found it helpful?

ETA: * as in rudimentary step-by-step instructions as if you were speaking to your 5 year old dog. Because I in theory understand that you are suppose to build a friends-list there, but cannot figure out how to do this.

Comments

[fyrna.livejournal.com]

I've never used MySpace, but I have a Facebook account. I don't do much with it, just keep track of (real-life) friends. I filled out my profile, used the search function to look up a bunch of people, added them as friends, and waited for them to confirm me. Other friends (and some cousins) found me, and I confirmed them. Some of these people I haven't seen in many years, and it's cool to see what they're doing now.

I use Facebook mainly to broadcast my current occupation and contact information, to look up my friends' contact information, or to see what my friends are up to these days. Sometimes I update my Status to say what I'm doing, or how I'm feeling, or where I am (I travel a lot). I ignore all the application requests and stuff like that.

If I was a famous author, I'd keep my personal Facebook account for my friends and family--people I want to keep up with personally. And I'd create a Facebook "Page" (http://www.facebook.com/business/?pages) for my fans--for people who want to keep up with me as an author. (Facebook's concept of "friends" is designed to be reciprocal, and they created a "fans" concept and Pages to handle cases where the relationship is asymmetric.)

Hope that helps~ :)