I get more active in Facebook

I am now quite active in Facebook. Initially I joined to network with artists. Some are with the online art forum which I have been active, and the others are their friends.

I spend time trying to get familiar with FB, especially with their privacy settings. The trouble is that FB has special terminology. It looks simple but is actually quite complex. They have to be complex as they have to cater for more than 300 million users each with their own interests when they network.

FB keep encouraging us to link up with more friends. This is their successful business model. They provide a free site and rely on income from adverts in their pages. The more users they get, the more businesses are willing to pay to put adverts there.

Gradually I notice other friends also using FB and I link up with them. Some are old classmates, and some are relatives. This is where the situation gets more complex. This I like to show or talk about to do with art are not of interest to others.

Fortunately a few artist friends are helpful and guide me on how to separate the conversations into groups of friends. But sometimes I forget.

In general, for networking with artists, FB has its pros and cons compared with online art forums. I notice so far in FB I cannot get in-depth discussions with artist friends. It is not designed for longer comments. After a while, the line of discussions gets buried and does not rise to thet top with new comments.

FB has fan page for more in-depth comments. But the comments are limited to friends who link to the fan page.

On the other hand, the amount of interest in online art forums seem to be reducing and artists are drifting to FB.