Facebook

For some time now I have slowly come to realise that Facebook is not a very good way for me to communicate with my friends, family and followers. When I am at sea I don’t have any access to Facebook, something that my 24/7 internet equipped friends don’t seem to fully grasp. That fact that I can usually send and receive email without internet access seems to fox a lot of people. I’ll write a post on how I send and receive email from the boat at a later date.

The fact that I can make blog postings etc. appear on Facebook but not actually have Facebook access myself causes what could be called communication discontinuities. People leave comments on the Facebook version of the blog entries, and write me messages on subjects that would be far better put into an email expecting instant answers whilst being oblivious to the fact that I can’t read their prose.

On the other hand if people comment on my actual blog I will receive the comments via the email system on the boat.

Without Facebook people will be forced to actually write to me directly and will have to think about whether or not to use the email address of the boat or send the email to my regular email account where it can wait for my return to civilisation.

So whilst Facebook might be a good way for friends and family to follow my wanderings (both mental and physical) it is not a good medium for two-way communication, in my circumstances. This coupled with several concerns I have with how Facebook and various apps within it can harvest data on users has lead me to the conclusion that it will make life simpler and more efficient for me if I close down my Facebook account.

I’ll continue to monitor it and may come back to FB if I think the issues have been solved; but from sometime soon I’ll disappear off FB. I am working on having these posts appear in a FB app page called, or course, Tweed’s World…. but that could take some time to get working smoothly, and I am not sure that I can do it without having a FB page hmmmmmmmmmm.

I’ll continue to use Flickr as my primary online photo site. I will of course include photos in the blog postings if I have a shot that justifies the bandwidth. I’ll take this opportunity to ask that my friends type me an email with their news now and again to my usual email address which I can monitor from the boat. If you don’t have my contact info you can use the contact form on this site to get to me and I’ll get back to you with what you need to know.