I Think I'm In Love...

...and his name is Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney.com editor at large.

In a recent article entitled "Why I Hate Facebook," La Monica indulges us in good dose of anti-Facebook rhetoric. Here is one of my favorite lines from the article:

My brother recently harassed me over the phone about why I wasn't on Facebook. My response was, "You want my status update? I'm about to hang up on you."

Sigh...a man after my own heart. Besides from an all too brief anti-Facebook rant, Mr. La Monica puts his money where his mouth is and legitimizes his claim that “Facebook or any social network can never truly be a major generator of ad revenue.”

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. La Monica further during an in-depth interview. Enjoy Part 1!

Me: As much as I proclaim to be an anti-Facebook advocate, I still couldn't resist the temptation to try it out. I quickly confirmed my suspicions and canceled my account after realizing it wasn't for me. But I needed that proof. As a tech savvy guy with a wife and brother on Facebook, how have you managed to avoid succumbing to the peer pressure and curiosity?

PL: Truth be told, my wife will show me things on her Facebook page that I'd find interesting, such as photos/videos of our friends' kids and messages from my brother. But I'm happy to let it all go through her. I still don't feel the need to set up my own page.

Me: The fact that my boyfriend needs to check Facebook on his iPhone every 2 seconds is grounds for a break-up. Do you and your wife's differing views on the subject ever result in an argument or tension?

PL: Ha! That is an amusing question. We haven't had any arguments about Facebook per se. Sometimes I have to nudge her on a Saturday morning to stop playing Lexulous when I want to do more practical stuff like go grocery shopping. But honestly, it's not a big issue. Plus, I'm sure I wind up wasting enough time on the computer looking at "important" things like checking out fantasy baseball stats and scouring for Lost spoilers. So it would be hypocritical for me to be too concerned about her time on Facebook.

Me: Have you had experiences with any other social networking sites like Friendster, MySpace, Twitter, etc? Good? Bad? Indifferent?

PL: The only social networking site I am a member of LinkedIn. And even there, I rarely use it. I don't think I've ever invited someone to my network. I simply respond when people invite me. But I haven't had any bad experiences with social networking sites per se. In fact, I enjoy checking out MySpace for music recommendations. My brother has a band so I visit his page frequently. All that said, I see no need to set up my own page.


In Part II we get into the bad AND the good of Facebook...to be posted shortly...