Over the past few months many of you have commented that you don’t understand Facebook or that you just don’t get why it is set up the way it is. First off, let me assure you that your confusion is not a deficiency on your part. FACEBOOK IS NOT INTUITIVE. Facebook has a lot of functionality under it’s hood and as a result, it’s interface suffers. For example, the help link is all the way at the bottom of the page (do visit it anyway though, please–you’ll be happy that you did.)
So, I have decided to provide you with a screencast tutorial on how to use Facebook, the wonderful, crazy networking site that has taken the world by storm and instantly addicted half the people I know.
Specifically I will introduce you to three important features of Facebook:
- The INBOX and privacy options and issues
- Status updates and comments
- Requests and Applications
In the meantime let me briefly go over the differences between THE WALL and THE INBOX. First and foremost, the wall is public and the inbox is private. When I say public I mean all your friends (and often friends of friends) can see what’s on your wall unless you change the default settings. We’ll talk about settings later but for now know they are there and perhaps take a minute or two and look around at your options.
So, if you want to say something slightly sensitive to a friend it’s a good idea to use the inbox. Most adults don’t discuss health issues in any detail or curse heavily on their walls.
That said, the wall is the main activity of Facebook–it’s where you and all your friend’s STATUS UPDATES show up. If you have a friend who posts too often or posts updates on every single action taken during every game they play you can hide the friend entirely or hide the application (game) individually. This is one of the best things about Facebook. It is incredibly customizable. We’ll cover that in more detail later also.
And then there are the comments. I LOVE the comments. I love to make comments. In my opinion, these are the single best feature of FACEBOOK. Using comments, confined to the update, photo or link posted, you can have little mini-conversations (or just fly by and say hi) about the post.
Finally, there are the friend and application requests. Your friends can’t see your wall unless they ask you to be their friend and you ACCEPT THEIR FRIEND REQUEST. Along with and in the same area as friend requests you’ll often see requests to accept gifts from your friends. Often these gifts are tokens necessary for game play and so it is to your friend’s advantage if you accept their invitation and in return send them a gift. In the screen cast I’ll show you a few of the games I play.
So, for now, get your Facebook account. Search for a few lost lost friends (this is the best). Send them a message (which will show up in their inbox and not on their wall) and request them to add you as a friend. Then tell your friends what you’re doing in the status update box, comment on your friend’s posts and you’re on your way.
So, off I go to work on the screencast. See you soon.