Facebook vs. Twitter; March 4, 2013

“Facebook is where you find the people you know.  Twitter is where you find the people you should know.”

I heard this said – or something very similar – this past Saturday afternoon. 

Or rather put, the latter may also be – as I read in an article where I found that quote above – “to follow people you find interesting or have the same interests as you”.

There was a time, under another handle (my original @walksports), that I used it to “anonymously” vent to respond to and deal with some hurts that I believed had been levied against me. 

That was, of course, a major, major mistake. 

Now I do much, much less of that, because the individuals who caused the hurt have gone away, but it still makes me curious why people choose to follow me there.

I guess the reason that I’m even writing about this is because somebody that I know in person – but not too well – started to follow me on Twitter Sunday evening (after being around them in person two consecutive days a little bit more than before), but did not send a friend request on Facebook (which is really OK).

And it was that same person, when speaking directly to somebody that I consider a friend, who referred to the quote above.

So is it that you can look inside somebody’s fishbowl on Twitter and not become emotionally attached, but with Facebook it is as if you’re addicted – hanging on their every movement?

Well, maybe not that involved, but you get the idea of the difference between the two.

I kind of know, and this is what the article states, pretty much everyone that is a Facebook friend, but I’d have to look and really see who was following me on Twitter.  The only way I even know sometimes is if I go to the associated e-mail account to see who states that they are starting to follow me.  That is actually how I discovered this individual.

I guess I feel like I’m auditioning to be a friend to this individual, which is a bit odd.

I hope I don’t scare them off. 

Why?  Because I’m actually a little bit more raw – and random – in Twitter.  If I see a funny license plate, I’ll tweet it.  Or a church sign with a funny or thought-provoking message.

My Facebook is just as open, though, as Twitter is.  (In fact, some of my Facebook statuses flow right over to Twitter.)  There might be 1 in 1,000 status updates, etc. that is hidden to “friends” or “friends of friends”.

In closing, I will say this about Twitter:  I typically get more useful information from Twitter than I do Facebook these days, but it seems I follow much more on Twitter and therefore don’t get to everything that I want to see.

And the things that I post there are more flippant whereas I post with intention on Facebook.