Most people who know me know that I dislike Facebook intensely; I’ve said so on here several times. Nevertheless I have a Facebook account as it is useful for small ‘closed’ groups, like our writers’ club, a project I did with a group of teenagers in our village and even my ‘daily journals’ following our summer trips to Romania during which I had limited access to internet.

It’s also useful for ‘Messenger’ for brief communications with someone you know opens it regularly but otherwise, for anything important, it’s better to go to email as Messenger messages are often ignored.

As far as the Romania trip is concerned, I’ve begun to receive ‘requests’ to join the group from people whose names mean nothing to me. What is really strange is that, typical of Facebook, they say nothing about themselves. Consequently, such requests are ignored.

Facebook laziness

It could be they read about the group on this blog as I’ve referred to it a time or two but, if so, why on earth don’t they say so? Facebook inspired laziness I think; now, for so many things you just ‘push a button’ not needing to write a word. Yes, it’s good to have a reminder of a friend’s birthday but for heaven’s sake write a personal message to them! (But take care, they may be telling a ‘porky’ in their profile 😳).

’Publicize’

For quite a while the ‘Publicize’ facility of WordPress was turned on on this blog, putting a short summary of posts on Facebook and Twitter (I never selected the other options). A few posts ago I turned this off. One of the problems with this facility is that Facebook may choose the least relevant picture if there are more than one, people putting a ‘like’ on that having never read the post. As pictures I put on a post are always an integral part of the post the ‘like’ doesn’t mean a lot. I reckon if anyone is really interested in what I have to say they’ll follow the blog.

Very occasionally I may turn ‘publicize’ on to tell the tightly restricted group of ‘friends’ on Facebook (who may or may not be friends) of a particular post which may be of special interest to them, excluding those who, for whatever reason, I don’t want to point to it.

Of course a ‘like’ from someone I don’t know on this blog is always welcome because, as I said in yesterday’s post, it often sets me off on a journey to other realms as I almost always follow up with a visit to the blogger’s site.

WordPress reader

Nevertheless, I have noticed a similar problem to that with ‘publicize’ with the WordPress reader. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that some of the ‘likers’ have not read the complete post, just putting a ‘like’ on the introductory few words and the one picture which accompanies it. If I put a ‘like’ on a post you can be sure I’ve pushed the ‘visit site’ button, read the whole thing and seen all the pictures.

As I’ve said before, the above comments may not apply to anyone using their blog to promote a business, whether it is declared as such or not (eg, those asking for a donation in some way, or promoting a book they have on Amazon).