Pros, Cons, and Differences – FaceBook vs Twitter

Last night my husband and I were discussing the pros & cons and differences of FaceBook and  Twitter. Now mind you my husband is one of these old fashion types who has absolutely no interest in joining FaceBook or Twitter (or any other Social Media site).  He’s perfectly content with his eMail & eMail group lists…

 

In looking at the FaceBook vs Twitter  I have noticed the following

 

FaceBook is a 2 way street  Once a “friend request” is accepted, you can both “see” each other – of course each of you can both control what goes out to what level on your own wall.  In many ways that’s great, but it requires that the person you are wanting to “follow” accept you as a “friend” before you see anything.  The nice thing is that facebook has “Pages” that many companies, etc use which you can “like” without having to “ask permission” to view (unless it has been set up in such away.  The other thing is that unless you know what you are doing (and are willing to put a good amount of work into it) it can be difficult to secure a personal FaceBook Wall (not impossible mind you), unless you just simply do a blatant secure & lock everything.  The one nice thing, however, is that unlike twitter you can set choose what is shown to what level (as mentioned above) = public, all friends, friends but no acquaintances, and close friends).  You can even choose post by post.  With twitter it’s an all or nothing = either your tweets go to whomever is following you or they are protected (in which case no-one can see anything unless you approve their follow).

 

The nice thing about twitter is that you can follow whomever you choose (assuming their tweets aren’t protected) without having to get approval and if someone is following you, you aren’t required to follow back.  I know that may not sound very “Social”, but there are times when you may not want to follow someone who is following you and it is nice to have that control.  One of the biggest issues with twitter is that whatever you tweet goes out to whomever is following you (there is no choosing) – so you have to be very cautious of what you tweet and how.

 

I have both FaceBook and Twitter accounts not because I am trying to “make a name for myself” or put myself out there, but because many of the “old friends” I have are on FaceBook (who have no desire to join twitter/just don’t get the hang of it); However, easily finding those who have similar interests, following their posts, and making connections is not necessarily as easy on FaceBook as on Twitter.  I’m sure it is possible to do so, but I seem to have better luck, in that regard on Twitter.  While I have enjoyed connecting with old friends on FaceBook and keeping up with what’s going on from time to time, I have also enjoyed the new “friends”/acquaintances that I’ve made on Twitter.