Has Facebook made Msn messenger / Yahoo messenger fairly redundant?

[Mr Bean]

I remember the time when I would wait for friends to sign on with whichever flavour we were using at the time. We'd drink beer together and type away. Sometimes we'd get out the mic's and headphones and enjoy the craic with each other.

My point is, do you think that Facebook has made things more impersonal? I feel happier using Facebook as I can stay in touch at MY leisure. I sound like I'm talking gibberish a bit here but it seems to me that I stay in touch with people a lot more because it suits me that way. I'm not tied to the PC like I used to be but I still seem to get the same up to date goings on from friends.

Please discuss

[PurestLight]

do you think that Facebook has made things more impersonal

Yes, I do. I much prefer the one to one and 'real time' conversations. It's good to have a gab with your mates in 'private' sometimes rather than posting snippets of often meaningless info on a notice boad for the world and his wife to see. And it was great when people popped on your Yahoo radar that you enjoy talking to. You cant have a conversation on Facebook the same way (unless you use their IM bit which is rubbish)

I know what you mean though, when yahooing or msning you can be tied to the PC, but if you want to do proper catching up (via PC) its the only way as far as Im concerned. I mean, yes you can catch up with what people are up to on facebook but you cant have a CHAT and a giggle which is what I miss.

Personally I dont like Facebook much, cant work out where to put anything unless it is blindingly obvious but I pop on there sometimes or Id never know whats going on.

[lufbra]

I keep forgetting I even have a Facebook page. :lol

I used you use IM's a lot, but not anymore or at least nothing like as much as I used to. I do have the Pidgin program which allows me to set up all the accounts from the other software, and once in a while I'll fire it up.

[Spider]

Apples and oranges.
Facebook is a webpage. Msn messenger and Yahoo messenger are real-time text messaging with conferencing abilities (video and audio).

Facebook is almost like blogging and messengers are real-time interaction. I think they serve different purposes.

[Mr Bean]

I never looked at it from the technical side.

[Spider]

Originally Posted by Mr Bean

I never looked at it from the technical side

I can only think from the technical side...a borned curse.

[lufbra]

I use Friends Reunited, and have found some long lost school friends through that. I'm trying to organize a night out with as many of them as possible, when I go back to my old home town this March.

[Mr Bean]

I used Friends Reunited a lot when it first came about but then they hiked the price and it put me off. The same with Gene's Reunited. I paid a years subscription to put my tree up and then never bothered after that.

[PurestLight]

Originally Posted by Spider

Apples and oranges.

Thats what I meant, but waffled instead Im not very good at succinct, which is why I dont like Facebook probably

I thought Friends Reunited was free now?

[Mr Bean]

Yes it is now Julie

[Harrie]

I've found a few people on Facebook, and I like it for that a lot. And it seems okay, but I feel it's nothing like instant messaging with one or two folks. That's very intimate and personal and fun. Facebook doesn't come close. But I do know 100% what you mean about it being at your convenience. That's true and there's some benefit to that.

[Snurfen]

They both have some very good points, most covered already.

However, I do miss the old days (like last year and the year before LOL ) when a gang of us would get on yahoo and drink and laugh and shout abuse at Wossy and Jools etc.

then a few of us got into that one with lots of rooms (me no remember name) and it all got out of hand - lost it's edge for me.

Facebook is just such an amorphous blob, it lacks coherence or consistency. I'd be back on Bebo like a shot of the Police hadn't rumbled me (THATS A JOKE, see contemporaneous news reports).

[PurestLight]

Twitter is great fun, Im hooked