L'Enfer c'est le Facebook

Last night was my night to clean up my inbox which is growing ever more in need of some sort of intervention (Trinny and Susannah? Aggie and Kim?  Is this in your line of work?). Between the emails I get for this blog, my The Secret blog, T.O. Mama, T.O. Mama's chat group, literary mama stuff, volunteer work stuff, preschool stuff and personal stuff, even with a great spam filter, I have hundreds of emails marked either as unread (troubling) or read and flagged as urgent (more troubling). So I decided to give it one last go before I  waved the white flag and declared email bankruptcy.

A number of the emails I had skipped over originally were invitations to join Facebook. And a number of groups to which I belong are now using facebook to keep in touch with one another. And so last night I signed myself up. Piece of cake.

Only while I was setting it all up, it asked me if I wanted to take advantage of some function that, as I understood it, would link me up with the people in my email address book who are already on Facebook. But instead, it appears that I sent a "please, please join my Facebook list" request to anyone I have ever emailed in my life.

Oy.

I'm sure there exists out there some Emily Post's Guide to Facebook Etiquette and I have committed the online equivalent of eating an artichoke leaf using a knife and fork. The horror. The horror.

I've even received a few messages asking, "who are you and how do I know you?" In one case, try as I might, I cannot find any record of this person . She is not someone through literary mama. Or T.O. Mama chat. And she is not in my address book. Given that I think I sent something to everyone from the receptionist in my doctor's office to Caitlin Flanagan, I guess it is not surprising that a few misteps were made.

It also amazes me that so many people have already agreed to my request. I thought that there would be more questions -- a sanity hearing at the very least -- before agreeing that I was OK.

Facebook looks like it has potential if I ever manage to master it; it does do the six degrees of separation thing I have always found ridiculously cool. But it does smack a little of being a popularity contest (which is fine as long as it's a contest I can win).

And now I have been bombarded with a whole slew of new Facebook related emails which add to the overwhelming pile of emails I already had. Plus I still have to deal with the requests for Linked In.

And they said technology would simplify our lives.

Comments

[Alley Cat]

...and I thought you just wanted to get to know me better. Hey, I'll take what I can get!

[Carter-Ann]

That's why you 'friended' me? hahahah that's great. My boyfriend once thought he was in his account and emailed his entire contact list AS ME.

[Chris (Mombie)]

Jen - you can reduce the amount of email you get in facebook by un-checking some categories in the My Account section.

I set it so I only get emails when someone writes on my wall, messages me, tags in a photo or mentions me in a note.

[Suburban Turmoil]

Even worse, I got one of your Facebook e-mails and was charmed that you'd thought of me. And then I sent you a freaking LinkedIn invite. So who's Oy'ing now?

[Lee]

*sniff*

I didn't rate a Facebook spam from you!

*sob* *honk*