How many of you actively use facebook?

[Deleted]

NPR did a story about new technology throughout history and how people thought they were going to ruin the next generation.

All the way from the printing press, to newspapers, to the telephone, to TV, to the computer, to facebook.

[MN-Investor]

I'm one of the FB users who mostly uses it to see news and photos of relatives. My mom is a member for the same reason.

I did friend a former co-worker who I have now blocked on my News Feed page. I do like occasionally checking his FB page to see what he's doing. He's a really nice man. But he has very strong religious and political opinions which I don't share and I got tired of seeing his opinions.

[illinicheme]

I'm on Facebook. I probably spend ~10 minutes per day checking it. I think it's a great way to keep in touch with folks. The thing I like most is that I can put content out there, and everyone can choose how much of it to digest. I can post pictures of my vacation, and old high school friends can look at one or two photos, and my mom can look at all 30. Sending an email seems like forcing content down people's throats. With Facebook, I can maintain different levels of interaction depending on the relationship (coordinate events/photos/jokes/links with current local friends, keep in touch with recent good friends who now live 3000 miles away, keep my mother happy by providing updates even though I'm not much of a phone person, keep in occasional contact with old college/high school friends whom I adore, but no longer have much in common with)

[thyme4change]

My Dad is on facebook. He joined because my neice was traveling internationally for 4 months, and would give updates and post pictures on Facebook - so it was a great way to get the news from her. The unfortunate part is he only has a dozen friends, so I know that even if he only logs on once a month, he will see every single post I make. His other "friends" aren't heavy posters (at least not the 6 I know - maybe the other 6 are ridiculous, but I doubt it. They are all on facebook for the same reason he is.)

Two months after I posted a video of me doing something silly in my halloween costume, he brought it up.

My Mom called me weeks after I made a joke to tell me she was laughing at that joke. (Granted - it was a hilarious joke. I still laugh when I think abou it.)

[Deleted]

If someone was posting about their lunch and bowel movements every day, i'd just hide them... (or that lady i somehow got friended by a friend who kept talking about God 4 times a day...) But i actually like to know that someone's kid is sick (especially if i she was hanging out with my daughter on monday)... and that some community activity is going on, or someone got a new puppy... I don't mind that stuff...

My prior foreign exchange students are easy to keep up with on fb too...

[swamp]

when I was first asked to join FB, I thought it was stupid. I now love it. I've caught up with some friends from HS, college, law school, summer camp, and various other places, have become friends with people I went to HS with but didn't know that well, get the specials from some of my favorite restaurants, get dance class updates, and read some pretty humorous stuff. yeah, there's some annoying people who talk about their bowl of oatmeal, how much Jesus loves them, and various other stuff, but I ignore them.

[zibazinski]

I joined reluctantly but am so glad. DF found me on it and I keep in touch with people and see what they are up to. Touch base with family that are scattered all over as well.

[doxieluvr]

Jan 27, 2011 7:12:18 GMT -5 @daphne87 said:

I am always on FB. It's a problem....

Me too. I love it for all the reasons Cronewitch mentioned.

[tcu2003]

I use it - just started about a year ago, and was a pretty quick convert. I travel a fair amount (work and fun), and it's easy and quick for me to get suggestions about places to eat, things to do, and make plans to meet up with friends. I've also gotten back in touch with a few friends I'd lost touch with over the years, which was so fun. We can't access it at work, but I can from my phone, so I check it several times a day. I don't post updates all that often, but do comment regularly on friends' postings.

And I definitely use the block/ignore friend request feature. If you couldn't give me the time of day when I face-to-face interacted with you, or I don't like you, or whatever the case may be, I'm not going to friend you. I also don't play games - I waste enough time on the internet without adding that in to the mix.

[thyme4change]

Oh also another thing I get to do on facebook is live vicariously through a friend from college that is livin' the dream!

And, even more importantly, I get to judge people and feel superior because their life choices are different. I don't actually have to spend time with them - just facebook-friend them and watch the magic.

[TrixAre4Kids]

I use FB but get irritated every time they make changes to it. I keep in touch with old high school friends, former co-workers, and family across the country.

[Deleted]

They just made changes to Meet-up today, and i don't like them... and its been glitchy lately... sigh...

[telephus44]

I use it a lot, check it 3-4 times a day. Mostly to keep up with friends and family. I always find it neat to see that some of my college friends moved halfway across the world, high school friends have finally gotten married and have kids.

Personally, I hate using the phone - so I never call people. I still hang out with the same people as usual in person.

And - I love using the party planning feature. So many of my friends are on it, so while I wouldn't use it for a wedding, it's great for DS's birthday, etc. just to get a head count and see who's coming. Way easier than mailing or calling and waiting for a reply.

[Deleted]

Jan 27, 2011 10:10:27 GMT -5 schildi said:

So most people actively use it. Hmmm.
It seems to me that this entire new generation shows some signs of autism: the inability to look somebody in the face while talking or addressing a problem. It always seems easier to bully somebody online (incl. FB), right?
I don't know, some of this seems just so odd, this feeling of importance, like the whole world cares what somebody had for lunch, or did in the afternoon. I can even see see that trend here on YM: people used to actually read threads and then reply to what others have said. Lately it seems that most just reply to the OP with their opinion and don't bother to read any of the replies.

In my life it has not replaced any of my real life contact. It replaces letter writing, which I never did anyway. I don't tweet and I don't post what I had for breakfast (unless it was REALLY good) In some ways it has made me MORE social.

[dianartemis]

Most people I know don't really respond to letters or e-mail any more. I use it to keep track of family and friends. I'm not a prolific poster, but it's nice to see what's going on w/ the people around me. I'm also not someone who has 300+ friends. I have around 50 and some of them are people I met as either an exchange student or they were the exchange student.

[dragon2008]

This is really interesting. Guess I was a bit of an anti-FB snob (I see), focusing more on those who tend to highlight every personal moment rather than on those who use it how I think I would. Thanks for giving me something to think about!

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I'm on Facebook ALL the time. (And I administrate a Facebook Group, too .... sort of like a forum)

[Deleted]

I'm on FB a few times a week. I joined because my friends wanted to know where I was going while I was here in Europe. I stay in better contact with my friends rather than just sending the Christmas letter.

I like the fact that if I post pictures of a trip my friends can decide how many pix they want to look at.( Does everyone really want to see the 100 pix I took on my trip to the Swiss Alps?) I also got some wonderful tips when my friends send pix, for example for our upcoming trip to Turkey. I had no idea how many friends had gone and completely forgot that some good friends went last year!

[souldoubt]

Every time I think about joining I hear some story about someone who either posted something or one of their friends did and comes back to somehow bite them in the ***. To each their own and I realize you can change settings to block what people see but it just isn't worth it to me. Add in the fact that I'm on a computer ~40 hours a week at work and I want a FB page even less.

[Anne_in_VA]

Both DH and I have FB accounts. He uses his all the time but I rarely even go on there. He asked me to friend all his family members and I got really annoyed with all the posts from people I've met once or twice. Some of the people I've never even met.

There is one person who found me and keeps wanting to friend me, but he's one of the most annoying people I've ever met so I ignore him. He also sends emails to my email account, but I ignore them too. In the past week, he's sent at least 10 emails to me with the subject "hey Anne". Go away already!

[debtheaven]

I got on FB because my DS1 has travelled extensively for years and it was easier to stalk him that way, um, I mean know he's safe. He is the only one of my four kids to be my FB friend, for that reason. It was funny, because when he left for college (about seven years ago) he said, hey, you're not going to be one of those pathetic moms who tries to friend their kids on FB, right?! I said, unlikely, given that I don't have a FB account. Then when he was in grad school he asked me to get on FB so he could friend me and I could keep track of his travels and see his photos.

It was a revelation. I got back in touch with several friends from my past that I had lost touch with. Only a few, I agree that if I haven't spoken to you in 30 years, I don't want / need to, but there have been some notable exceptions! I'd been trying to find a childhood friend via classmates dot com for YEARS, and finally found her through FB. I was in NY visiting my sister, she was living in the next town, we caught up and spend an afternoon together and now we're happily back in touch.

FB also allows me to keep up more actively with my nieces in NY and see their photos, and their kids' photos.

I am a college ESL teacher and the most successful debate I run is inevitably "For or Against FB". Inevitably, the kids always ask me if I am on FB. I don't lie, but I certainly have to keep abreast of the privacy settings! LOL I find that to be a royal PITA, I hate how they keep changing things. DS1 comes home every three months, he used to systematically check my settings, but I've finally gotten the hang of it.

ETA: Being in France, it is also a precious resource for my closest friends and I to keep up with each other. And, I used to play a game, pretty intensively, but I stopped.

And I have NO compunction with either unfriending or hiding people who are PITAs. I'm not interested in your repeated political or religious rants, especially when you are on disability.

[formerexpat]

My wife half manages my facebook page. We shared one and then she made me get my own so she could show as "married" to me. The uploads and tags me in all of my photo's and even goes in sometimes and sets my profile pic.

I'm on there but not too much. I don't have access from work [not that I even have time while at work] and I check it sparingly during the week.

It is nice to keep up with or see how some people are doing though.

[debtheaven]

I'm tempted to start a new thread, your strangest FB story. Or should we keep it here?

[debtheaven]

There was a FABULOUS NYT column on keeping up with technology a few years ago. My favorite was a mom of three kids, two in college, who absolutely wanted to be FB friends with her kids, they kept refusing. It was a few years ago, about the same time my DS1 was telling me that I wouldn't be one of those "pathetic" moms ...

Long story short, they finally friended her (guess they ran out of steam). She saw them sending each other inflatable dolls. So she sent her two DDs inflatable dolls too. Of course they were horrified, told their mom she was a perv, etc. And promptly threatened to de-friend her unless she promised to NEVER EVER post on their FB pages again.

As a writer / columnist / mom I thought she was hysterical!

[debtheaven]

OMGoodness -- the FB fights I've seen! I can only imagine what others might come up with!


Read more: notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=finance&thread=2390&page=2#ixzz1CH6hYxqk

This is very intriguing LOL! I don't have many FB friends (by choice) so I have never witnessed a FB fight. But I am definitely intrigued!

[debtheaven]

Daphne, if I start a new thread will you post your story? Or would you prefer to keep it here?

[debtheaven]

Daphne, sorry, I take it back, I don't want to start a new thread.

[debtheaven]

So here is my strange FB story. My HS is celebrating a milestone reunion this year. Somebody started a FB group for that, and a friend from HS (that I have always kept in touch with) added me to the group. About two months after the group started, my HS boyfriend asked me to be his FB friend. I accepted. We had kept in touch over the years, very occasionally (via classmates dot com).

A few days later, I get a friend request from his wife. WTH?! I made her sit it out for 48 hours. I felt both irritated and empathetic. Visibly he was no more faithful to her married than he had been to me in HS. So I accepted her request, and then wrote her a message asking her to please explain why she wanted to be friends with me, a total stranger. That as far as I knew I had never ever met her, but please correct me if I'm mistaken. And that I only accepted her request because her DH and I go back a long way, he was my "first love" and that if they ever came over this way I would love for all of us to meet up, but that I don't generally accept friends requests from people I don't know from Adam.

So, she wrote back telling me she suffers from insomnia, and that she had had a very sleepless night and must have accidentally clicked on the wrong "button", and sent me that friend request by mistake.

Yeah right!

[thyme4change]

I have two friends who have their sister and another friend "blocked" from their home page because they're PITA's

Do you mean hidden? Or is there an actual block feature? What does block do? Hidden means that unbenowst to them, I can't read any of their statuses or any other posts (links, pictures, etc.) unless I search them out. Easily, the single best feature of facebook.

[thyme4change]

I used "hide" for the 20 year old friend of the family who is so ridiculously in love with her boyfriend, she must let all 500+ of her facebook friends know - 12 times a day.

I also used it for the gal who gives us a daily bible verse, and a daily Christian inspirational message. I could handle the bible verse. But coupled with the non-bible message - blech.

My husband hid a guy who was going through a divorce and having all sorts of grief - and shared his emotional pain in very disturbing ways via facebook. He felt guilty, but really - he hadn't seen the guy in 20 years. They played on the same rec team in high school, but weren't really that close. And they live on opposite sides of the country. He decided it wasn't his job to counsel him.