Twitter versus Facebook: where is the love?

I've recently rejoined Facebook.

The first time I joined, it was as "Fairly Odd Mother", and I quit after a few months when the whole "Facebook hates breasts" controversy erupted. I was lured back in by friends who kept telling me of everyone I knew who had joined. This time, I joined using my real name, maiden name and all.

Twitter has been my little pal for a while longer. It took me a while to understand Twitter, and most importantly, to build up enough people to follow to make it interesting. Now I've progressed to the point where my Twitter updates are on the sidebar of this blog. I even use Tweetchat when I want to focus on a single topic (like Battlestar Gallactica Friday night at 10pm; Tweetchat room #bsg).

So, which do I prefer?

On Facebook, I now have 119 friends which include my husband, people I knew in high school and college (and haven't seen in over 20 years), my husband's aunt, my brother-in-law, people I only know through the blogosphere, and an ex-boyfriend and ex-boss. My photos, bio and even a link to this "anonymous" blog is now splayed out for all those people to see.

On Twitter, I am following 354 people and have 514 following me. This is not because what I say on Twitter is so interesting, but rather I get a little lazy in following people back. At some point, I'll probably follow most of those people too, except for Holy God, who I suspect isn't really who I think it is.

When I write my little (140 characters or less) quips on Twitter, I think less about what people will think of me. First of all, I'm "Fairly Odd Mother" and not my "real" name.

Second, what I say will soon get pushed to the bottom of the page and not be sitting there for hours and hours for my "followers" to read and ponder.

So, if Facebook is like having a meaningful relationship with someone, where you tell them the "25 random things about me" and send them little gifts or "pokes", Twitter is more like a "wham-bam-thank-you-man, get in/get out, hope-you-had-fun, now get the hell out of my bed" quickie. You may laugh, you may cry, but in the end you can walk away relatively unscathed.

I prefer the quickie.

That isn't to say I dislike Facebook. I've learned a ton of things about friends, love seeing photos from people I don't get to see in person nearly enough, and think there is something warm and fuzzy about getting friend requests from people I haven't talked to in a while.

But, when it comes to which is more of a time drain, Twitter is where it's at for me.

So, what about you? Do you have a preference? Do you use both? If one but not the other, why?

Or, if you use MySpace instead, what the hell are you thinking? Seriously, doesn't it give you a headache?

Maybe I'm just too old.