86 replies to this topic

[ShadowLink64]

Facebook is a part of many people's lives on here, I'm sure. It has some positives, such as being able to connect with people that you wouldn't otherwise talk to on a regular basis. However, it has a few negatives along with it. For one, I think it can cause you to put less effort into maintaining your social circle, since you have the instant gratification of looking up what the person's up to on their profile. There's also some privacy concerns with revealing all of your life's events online. As revealed a couple days ago in the news, Facebook (as well as many other corporations in the US) is being used by the US government as a source of information on foreigners and US citizens alike.

 

At what point do you figure it's not worth it to keep your Facebook account active? Has anyone been able to get rid of their Facebook account? Or, do you just embrace being hooked on Facebook and think it's a positive force in your life?

 

Discuss.

[anewvision]

It causes too much drama. It breaks social boundaries that exist in normal healthy relationships. Yeah, it gets a lot of cheaters busted, but it seems like it causes a lot more problems between friends because of he said she said they said we said this that blah left right up down green red blue purple brown lalala. I've been doing just fantastic without one for the past 3 years.

 

I'll get off my soap box now

[Adam]

The only reason I have an account on any social media site is to keep in touch with family. I don't call or text them regularly, so facebook is a great way to do so on my own time. I use facebook a lot more now that I'm stationed in places other then Wisconsin.

[Pilot]

Imagine using Facebook to sign in through the program manager

 

Wait a minute, oh god... is this a facade of what's to come? 

[Futurama]

The only reason I have an account on any social media site is to keep in touch with family. I don't call or text them regularly, so facebook is a great way to do so on my own time. I use facebook a lot more now that I'm stationed in places other then Wisconsin.

 

 

 

and to keep in touch with me, honey.

[Elindoril]

From time to time I get something stupid or wacky to say and I post it on Facebook. If I'm lucky people will like it and I'll feel a little better about myself.

I don't even use social media for the purpose of socializing.

[Barcodite]

I deactivated my Facebook account almost two years ago and haven't looked back since. I found that once I got out of school I didn't need to keep up with the daily lives of my former classmates. I can easily contact all of my close friends without the need for Facebook. When I tell new people I meet who want to be my Facebook friend that I no longer have an account, they are almost always shocked and ask how I keep up with people I know. I just tell them people have been maintaining friendships for hundreds of years without the use of Facebook.

 

Another thing I don't particularly like about Facebook is that virtually anyone could contact you at any time. I'll admit that I'm very introverted, so when near strangers commented on my posts or pictures, I felt very odd and never quite knew how to reply. I think it changes the dynamic of relationships in a bad way. Whereas on a lot of other social networking type sites where people who have never met in real life can interact, on Facebook, if you say something stupid or embarrass yourself, the repercussions are much worse. Facebook only appears to have that shield of anonymity the rest of the internet gives.

 

As for the privacy issues, I've had first hand experience with this. I made a comment of one of my friends status updates. The status was to the effect of "I hate my coworkers so much." I jokingly commented something like "Well I have contacts in Russia that can nuke 'em for you." Unfortunately, he didn't tell me that he had gotten a new job with the US government, and was using Facebook from his work computer. He said that his superiors put me on some type of list, so... I'm not quite sure what happened with that, but it can't be anything good.

[Ladida]

I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I am really nuts about my privacy and I don't appreciate people putting up pics of me or referencing me at all. Where I live, everyone knows everyone, so once it gets on there, everyone and their grandparents know about it in a few hours. We use facebook groups at work, so that's the only reason I have mine. I have utterly nothing on mine, except for people I know who add me and I don't want to look like a dick and reject the requests.

[NapisaurusRex]

About 75-80% of my friends list are people that I'm related to. The other percentage are people I talk to pretty regularly one way or another. I enjoy having a facebook and feeling connected and close to people I care about even though I can't be there with them.

That said, I try to keep a PG-13 wall and don't post things the government might be interested in. I don't have all the drama crap most people do. I either ignore it or string it out til I'm bored, but one way or another, the drama-makers get blocked so I don't have to see it.

Another thing I don't particularly like about Facebook is that virtually anyone could contact you at any time. I'll admit that I'm very introverted, so when near strangers commented on my posts or pictures, I felt very odd and never quite knew how to reply.

Block them. That's what I do.

[Keil]

I'm personally off facebook forever unless my club activities require me to have a facebook be be updated in a group. I only use it to be updated and don't stalk anyone (no one is really worth stalking. When I see the Fb feed, I get really pissed because I am friends with everyone I hate. This gif is my favorite because it explains perfect how I feel about FB. 

 

 

I'm at a point where I only use GroupMe's and email to communicate so stuff like twiiter and facebook are useless to me.

[Jiayu]

I honestly don't mind Facebook because I use it very minimally. I typically only login to chat with people I don't have on other clients and to poke my Mom. It is also a useful way of sharing photos with others and keeping in contact. I don't do anything beyond that, like posting statuses or "sharing" pictures or playing games.

 

There are obviously privacy issues, but I don't feel uncomfortable with it personally as I already keep tabs on what information I have shared.

[Romy]

I love facebook.
I use it to keep in contact with friends that I would have otherwise lost contact with.
 

If people have an issue with privacy, then they need to make sure they don't send sensitive information via FB. That easy imo.

[Kauvara]

Ugh. I'm off the charts on that one.

 

Entirely too much drama. Also I'm not really a fan of random people I went to highschool with sending friend requests when I never actually interacted with them in the first place. If you want to get to know me, walk right up and introduce yourself.   I started only adding people that I actually talked to, and then decided that was pointless because anyone who actually talks to me has my number anyways.

 

Aside from all that nonsense, I ran into a stalker problem, and so now I'm rid of the pestilence that is Facebook.

Edited by Jabberwock, 09 June 2013 - 08:34 PM.

[ShadowLink64]

Thanks for sharing your opinions. The reason I ask is that I am considering deactivating mine.

 

I noticed that it is a really big waste of time, and I don't really use it to communicate with people. I'm more frustrated about the things people post instead of enriched by it. And well, I no longer consider their service private by any means.

[darkmadness]

My mum is one of 16 children so you can imagine how many Aunties, Uncles, Cousins etc I have and they all live over in England. I use it strictly for keeping in touch with them and family that I can't get to see much over here in Aus. My privacy settings are ridiculously high and I don't play games or add people I've never met in real life.

[Maha]

Well I personally use facebook now only to stay in contact with family and to ramble on bullshit (gotta do it somewhere).

 

I used to play games a lot, do all that sort of crap.

 

Honestly I sometimes don't even check my facebook for days or weeks upon a time. 

[dkmjohnny]

To be honest, Facebook helped me reconnect with my old friends. I went MIA for a solid 14 months without telling anyone, and by the time I came back, numbers were changed and I'd already forgotten people's addresses. Facebook acted as a bridge back, and I'm pretty thankful for that.

[Syntax]

I don't really use facebook. I have it, and it's pretty nice to chat with them online and it's okay scrolling down status updates, cause most people have migrated to twitter ANYWAY. My privacy setting are pretty hardcore, I have like 20 lists of people with each their own privacy thingies but meh, it's where I get all my photos from and it's easier than email and since msn died I don't im anyone outside of facebook much anymore.

 

Bottom line is, I think it's great as an IM client because it's operable from everywhere and it's like a dropbox for photos but other than that, meh.

[Mishelle]

I haven't had any problems with my Facebook. It helps me keep in touch with my friends, keep track of their birthdays and keep track of all the events that are going down. The only problem I've had is realizing how embarrassing some of my family members are. I don't put anything on Facebook that I'm not ok with everyone seeing.

[ShadowLink64]

Just deactivated mine. Exxxcccceeellent...... I feel free already!

 

This will be an interesting social experiment I suppose.

[Ladida]

Just deactivated mine. Exxxcccceeellent......

 

This will be an interesting social experiment I suppose.

 

Congrats! I hope you warned people or else they'll freak and think you offed yourself (if they notice...).

[ShadowLink64]

Congrats! I hope you warned people or else they'll freak and think you offed yourself (if they notice...).

Haha, I didn't actually notify anyone, just posted a public message 5 minutes before I deactivated it saying I would deactivate it.

[Eefi]

The most common reason for Facebook that I hear all the time is: "everyone is on Facebook, you'll be singled out if you're not on there". I can't relate to that because I only have a handful of friends that I can easily contact by email, phone calls or Jabber.

 

What I don't like about Facebook is they're not even pretending they're trying to protect your privacy. The default settings are too open, they let other people identify you on photos, ask other people for your real name/old schools/etc. It's not even up to you anymore to fill in the information holes (I think you can opt-out when you get tagged on photos but how broken is that?). Occasionally, a few times a year something comes up on the Internet like:

person X tried to request all saved data about himself and what a surprise, it's over 1000 pages long and they didn't delete the stuff person X thought were deleted!

It causes some stir, is forgotten soon after and everyone just keeps using FB anyway.. lol.

[Elle]

Haha, I didn't actually notify anyone, just posted a public message 5 minutes before I deactivated it saying I would deactivate it.

 

*cough cough*

I don't put anything on Facebook that I'm not ok with everyone seeing.

 

This, one hundred times over. People don't think before they post content, and then when it comes back to bite them on the ass, they act like they had no idea that posting it could have negative repercussions. Stop being fucking stupid, and this won't be a problem.

 

I don't use fb often, but I find it comforting to know that if I needed/ wanted to get in contact with someone that i may have lost contact with, I could. I have a lot of family overseas, and so it's always interesting to see what they're up to I also use it occasionally for university group assignments, remembering birthdays, events, keeping tabs on music festivals/concerts/new season ranges from fashion labels/cat memes.

[ShadowLink64]

*cough cough*

 

Erm, I may have notified a couple select people.   I meant some mass message thing (since no one probably saw the thing I put up for 5 minutes ).