Why I Joined Facebook – Again!

1. Stay in Touch with Family and Friends
I wanted to stay in touch with family and friends that I didn’t get a chance to see or speak to very often. Facebook allows me to stay in the loop more often now and see the happenings that are going on in the lives of all my family and friends without having to get on the phone with each person individually or send separate emails asking things such as “how’s everything going?” or “can you send me those new photos you took while you were on vacation?” Instead, I can simply do this and much more by jumping on Facebook.

2. Share/View Photos and Videos
Like most people, I have taken tons of photos and videos, but I have only shared this media with a few family members and friends. Don’t get me wrong, I use several different sites to share my photos and videos with friends, but sometimes it’s simply a hassle – mostly for the receiving party. For example, I could share these files with family and friends via Dropbox like I do with colleagues, but not everyone is interested in joining the fairly new cloud service to download a few files here and there. Facebook, however, allows me to share everything with my family and friends all in one place. This makes life easier for both parties. In addition, it’s also nice to see what photos and videos my family and friends have stored away of me that they’ll be sharing shortly.

3. Strengthen My Online Presence
I enjoy having an online presence and feel it’s important to have a destination where people can go to learn more about me. Sure, I currently have this website which shares some information about myself, Twitter, Foursquare, and LinkedIn, but I felt it was necessary to include Facebook into the mix since it’s closing in on 500 million active monthly users and growing rapidly.

4. Job-recruitment Tool
While LinkedIn is the professional social network for all-things jobs, Facebook is a tool that can also be used by companies who are searching for job candidates. Since Facebook allows users to showcase their skills within their profile, the social network can be very helpful when a candidate is searching for a job or when a company is searching for a specific candidate.

5. I’m Social – Offline and Online
I’m a very social individual – offline and online. I have a great social circle offline and I’m currently building a nice social circle online. I’m not “that guy” that thinks it’s cool to go against the grain and not do what everyone else is doing. I’m not worried whatsoever about being branded a “Facebook user.” That’s ridiculous. Instead, I want to be in the space where everyone else is hanging out, sharing stuff that matters to me, and just have a good time. I want to interact with my current family members, new family members, old friends, new friends, ex-girlfriends (read: only some ex-girlfriends), and college buddies all in the same space. Wait, let me back up a minute. I don’t necessarily want all my ex-girlfriends in the same space, but you get what I’m trying to say, yeah? lol. Nonetheless, interacting with all of these people in the same space is what it’s all about. Good times.

6. Family and Friends Wouldn’t Leave Me Alone
In short, my family and friends kept nagging me. Ok, I kid. I kid. On a serious note, although I joined Facebook in 2005 and left 14 months later, the majority of my family and friends had no idea I ever had an account on the social network. When Facebook began picking up traction in 2008 – closing in on 200 million users – my inbox started to get saturated with Facebook invites from family and friends all over. It was a little ridiculous, but in all honesty, I’m blessed to have a great family and so many great friends who care enough to want me to join the social network with them. Nonetheless, after giving it some more though, I finally made my Facebook reappearance in 2010.

That’s my Facebook story. I hope you enjoyed the read.

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