Twitter vs. Facebook

This update was inspired by this blog post.


Twitter creeps me out and makes me feel weird. I get all of these people I don't even know following me on Twitter and I just wonder how on earth they found me. And even though there are a few people on Twitter that I know that are following me, I feel like I'm spamming them if I post updates - especially because I am limited to those 140 characters.

What I like about Facebook is that while it has the "update" feature the same way that Twitter does, I like that it also has so many other aspects - like the ability to post on someone's wall, applications, a marketplace, communities and groups, and sending them private messages where there aren't the same constraints of getting your message across in 140 characters (like on Twitter) and also having everyone else on your Twitter get that same message.

I guess my real problem with it is that there's not the same level of privacy. Once you have someone following you on Twitter, they can see everything you post, whether it's directed at them or not. I suppose there is a privacy option where you can restrict people from viewing your Twitter account if they're not your friend, but even so, your "friends" can still see everything you write even if it wasn't meant for their eyes. Facebook has the limited profiles feature, which Twitter lacks. Once someone's a follower on Twitter, you either restrict their viewing access or they see it all. There's no in between.

On Facebook, you can't always see conversations so easily because if you write on someone's wall, it's for them and only people really looking for it or checking out their wall can find it. On Twitter, since there's ONLY status updates, people read everything. There's this sort of difference where on Facebook, you seek out what you're interested in seeing about people's conversations... but on Twitter, you're witness to everything.

I think I'll always be a Facebook junkie at heart. I have had an account with Facebook since the very start, so I am a bit biased.