Facebook® for Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 18. Ten Questions That Leah and Carolyn Get a Lot

In This Chapter

• Is my computer infected with a virus

• How do I convince my friends to join Facebook?

• What if I don't want everyone knowing my business?

As Facebook employees, Leah and Carolyn often get an insider's look at the specific complications, confusions, and pain points people come across while using Facebook. At dinner parties, group functions, family events, or even walking across the street wearing a Facebook hoodie, someone always has a suggestion or a question about how to use the site. It's understandable. Facebook is a complex and powerful tool with a ton of social nuance, much of which has yet to be standardized. Questions like "When should I send a Facebook message instead of an e-mail?" "When is it OK to request someone be my friend?" and "How do I turn down requests?" are popular questions for which there are no concrete answers because the social norms are still being formed. However, because your authors have heard a lot from friends, our families, and strangers about the experiences they've had on the site, we have been able to form some opinions about and recommendations for some of the fuzzier Facebook questions.

What follows is the set of questions Leah and Carolyn hear most often from friends and family, often with strain in their voices or pain in their eyes. The goal of highlighting the more complicated questions is to save you the stress of encountering these issues yourself and wondering if you're ...