prefer. I don't like the wind blowing directly on me, so I set my fan to blow toward the ceiling in the summer. The heat rises in the winter and I want to get that down to the floor and it's better if it makes a stop to warm me up along the way. I set the fan to blow down in the winter.
Either way you set it, the idea is to get the air mixing and even out the temperature. Whether it blows directly on you or not is your preference.