Do you use Facebook ?

[Mr. Paul]

In a county of 6500 and a town of 700, our community page on Facebook has about 800 members. It's a great place to share pics and let other folks know about events.

Facebook is exactly what you make it. Ads come up, use the option to "hide all posts" from the perpetrator. Don't accept friend requests from someone you don't want contact with. I know there are ads in the margins but I never "see" them.

I understand not wanting to use Facebook. My wife has zero interest. What I don't understand is bitching about things that are easily under your control.

 

[RonBoyd]

I think if my FB page had a moderator that put up the "Bacon Cartoon", I'd be much happier on FB. That's what we have here that FB doesn't.

Okay, I need to clarify my position. The "Groups" in Facebook are exactly like this Forum -- there is a Moderator and Membership is by Application/Acceptance. Everything the same as here.

For instance, if you were a Photographer (Pro or Hobbyist), you would be doing yourself a great disservice by not joining a Group like this simply because you "just don't like Facebook": https://www.facebook.com/groups/lightroomhelpgroup. (Yes, you have to "Join" in order to look them over. However, if you did, you would find a select group of individuals interested only in a single subject.)

Now, I am coming to the realization that everyone here is looking at their own personal "Timeline" as THE definition of FB. In any event, I have no problem with that aspect of FB either since I have restricted my "Friends" to around 100 -- consisting of close friends, aunts/uncles, children, nieces/nephews, and cousins of all variety. It is pretty easy to keep those rascals under control although there are a few (as there is in any group) who feel compelled to share every single thought with everyone they can.

 

[RonBoyd]

In a county of 6500 and a town of 700, our community page on Facebook has about 800 members. It's a great place to share pics and let other folks know about events.

Facebook is exactly what you make it. Ads come up, use the option to "hide all posts" from the perpetrator. Don't accept friend requests from someone you don't want contact with. I know there are ads in the margins but I never "see" them.

I understand not wanting to use Facebook. My wife has zero interest. What I don't understand is bitching about things that are easily under your control.

+1

 

[imoldernu]

Our Florida community has a very active web page (not facebook), that has about 300 members, and which sees about 100 "hits" per day. It keeps everyone in the mix, and is the clue to keeping the friendships and the activities going strong.

That said, in the past four years, my correspondence thru email has dropped from about 30 messages/day from friends and neighbors, to almost none except for our kids and a few local neighbors.

Life has become too short to keep up correspondence with the hundreds of neighbors and friends that we accumulated over 22 complete household moves.
We'll never see any of them again, and even when we were in contact, the exchange became stilted and forced.

Now, except for several websites similar to ER (friendly discussion) neither DW nor I work to keep in contact with others. Even the few closest relatives that remain, live far away... too difficult to maintain personal contact.

And so, no facebook... but... What MichaelB said... and I'd add this one thought about identity....

Posting on a forum allows for the anonymity of developing a personna... a strawman to present thought and congenial argument, and in the end, a salve for the ego. In fact, perhaps 50% to share and trade knowledge, while the other half is the love of being recognized... the unspoken goal of writers, politicians, movie idols, and everyone who is in the public arena.

Anonymous is much easier than assuming the responsibility for something that one might post on a website that is open to the world.

my opinion only..

edit: to note that this was written at the same time RonBoyd and Mr.Paul were posting similar thoughts. +1, what they said.

 

[RonBoyd]

That said, in the past four years, my correspondence thru email has dropped from about 30 messages/day from friends and neighbors, to almost none except for our kids and a few local neighbors.

Yeah, the major problem with e-mail as a social medium has always been the requirement to respond to every one -- a necessity for business correspondence, however. Whose social (personal time) life has time for that?

The advantage that FB brings to the table is the ability for one to keep up-to-date without the mandate to add comment.

 

[ls99]

Don't do Facebook. I consider it an evil enterprise along with a few other mainstream outfits.

I think if one reads their terms of service it becomes pretty obious why.

 

[target2019]

Yikes! Now I am really out-of-the-loop. I don't know what that means. (Particularly as it relates to the animosity shown by some.)

A Web 2.0 site may allow users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to Web sites where people are limited to the passive viewing of content. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, folksonomies, video sharing sites, hosted services, Web applications, and mashups.

Web 2.0 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Why is FB the next generation, meaning Web 3.0?

In Web 1.0, I could publish animosity on static pages, and my bros and me would IM each other and give virtual high-fives.
In Web 2.0, I start with a easy topic, and watch it morph into 100's of political rants. Reminds me of missiles flying over the demilitarized zone.
In Web 3.0, I post on FB that I like tarts, and supplement that with a picture of apple tarts fresh from my oven. People comment, and FB is tracking the activity, placing me on lists for advertisers to serve up commercials I don't want. But those same commercials are popping up in Twitter, on CNN, etc. And groups start following me, thinking I'm into young English tarts. Amazon sends me email which has coupons for $$ off my next order of lawn darts. Local house cleaning maid service shows up at my door (found GPS coords in the jpeg I posted) and offers to clean the oven and other obviously unkempt parts of the house (seen in my kitchen picture of tarts).
It's sorta like that, ya know?

 

[Car-Guy]

No, never really found any use for it.

 

[JoeWras]

Okay, I need to clarify my position. The "Groups" in Facebook are exactly like this Forum -- there is a Moderator and Membership is by Application/Acceptance. Everything the same as here.

For instance, if you were a Photographer (Pro or Hobbyist), you would be doing yourself a great disservice by not joining a Group like this simply because you "just don't like Facebook": https://www.facebook.com/groups/lightroomhelpgroup. (Yes, you have to "Join" in order to look them over. However, if you did, you would find a select group of individuals interested only in a single subject.)

Now, I am coming to the realization that everyone here is looking at their own personal "Timeline" as THE definition of FB. In any event, I have no problem with that aspect of FB either since I have restricted my "Friends" to around 100 -- consisting of close friends, aunts/uncles, children, nieces/nephews, and cousins of all variety. It is pretty easy to keep those rascals under control although there are a few (as there is in any group) who feel compelled to share every single thought with everyone they can.

Ah, yes. Sorry. That's what I mean. My "own page" or "timeline" needs a moderator to cut the crap out. But that's me, and it is tiring. Or, I just need to put a bunch of my friends in a penalty box (I can hide them).

You are correct. FB groups are different from our personal timelines. I actually moderate a FB group. Easy work since it only gets 1 post per week. FB groups and personal timelines are very different.

 

[RonBoyd]

... and FB is tracking the activity, placing me on lists for advertisers to serve up commercials I don't want. But those same commercials are popping up in Twitter, on CNN, etc. And groups start following me, thinking I'm into young English tarts. Amazon sends me email which has coupons for $$ off my next order of lawn darts. Local house cleaning maid service shows up at my door (found GPS coords in the jpeg I posted) and offers to clean the oven and other obviously unkempt parts of the house (seen in my kitchen picture of tarts).

Oh! Now I am upset. I have never gotten any of that. Tell me what I am forgetting to do so I can get in on the fun.

 

[travelover]

Oh! Now I am upset. I have never gotten any of that. Tell me what I am forgetting to do so I can get in on the fun.

I use Firefox with AdBlocker, but I briefly switched to Chrome and my screen was going crazy with targeted ads. Some of it is eerie.

 

[RonBoyd]

I use Firefox with AdBlocker, but I briefly switched to Chrome and my screen was going crazy with targeted ads. Some of it is eerie.

Well, that explains it. I only use Internet Explorer.

(Well, there are exceptions when a specific website requires something else. Then I use Chrome... the last time was about a year ago.)

 

[target2019]

Oh! Now I am upset. I have never gotten any of that. Tell me what I am forgetting to do so I can get in on the fun.

Just sit there. They'll find you.

 

[RonBoyd]

Just sit there. They'll find you.

After thirty years being online (was a charter member of CompuServe), I am not going to hold my breath.

 

[Sue J]

I have a FB page but I only use it to follow a few sites and "like" a company or TV station so I can get coupons or enter a contest. I have just a few friends.

DH has a FB and uses it to keep in touch with his siblings. I don't "friend" any of the relatives because I don't want to have to think about things like if my very politically conservative SIL sees my post congratulating the Beekman Boys on their gay marriage, or that I follow an atheist site.

I'm very private and don't like my identity spread all over the intertubes. I know that everything I read online is tracked by someone somewhere but I just don't like being public. I express myself the most right here on ER.org.

I know FB has all kinds of controls and settings to control how public your posts and pics are, I just don't want to bother.

My son sent me a friend request. I denied it because he's friends with all the relatives and I just don't want the whole family tree reading about what I'm interested in. Don't worry, it's mostly the Cornell bird nest web cams and silly cat pics. I just prefer to be private.

 

[splitwdw]

You might not believe this, but the younger generation seems to be using e-mail less and less. My 20 year old granddaughter in college prefers text messaging over e-mail. She says that her friends communicate the same way. I don't believe she has a Facebook account anymore (she deleted it a while back).QUOTE]

I use email for family and friends groups because some of the older ones in their 50's & 60's don't text. The older ones that do text, send texts that look like emails. They don't seem to understand the text concept and don't understand the abbreviations. I kept getting calls wanting to know what brb, ttyl, b4yki or they'd tell me I made a lot of typos.

 

[steelyman]

I use email for family and friends groups because some of the older ones in their 50's & 60's don't text. The older ones that do text, send texts that look like emails. They don't seem to understand the text concept and don't understand the abbreviations. I kept getting calls wanting to know what brb, ttyl, b4yki or they'd tell me I made a lot of typos.

It's not a matter of age. It's paying some attention to how you communicate.

 

[Chuckanut]

There are several groups in areas of interest to me that use Facebook to post information. I use Facebook for that. Also, a few good friend and relatives us it to pass along information, so I use it to read that.

However, I am very suspicious of Facebook and its effect on personal privacy. I rarely post anything on my Facebook stream, and when I do it's never stuff I would not want seen on the front page of the newspapers. (Not that anything I post is worth even a 1/2 inch of newspaper column. )

 

[aja8888]

You might not believe this, but the younger generation seems to be using e-mail less and less. My 20 year old granddaughter in college prefers text messaging over e-mail. She says that her friends communicate the same way. I don't believe she has a Facebook account anymore (she deleted it a while back).QUOTE]

I use email for family and friends groups because some of the older ones in their 50's & 60's don't text. The older ones that do text, send texts that look like emails. They don't seem to understand the text concept and don't understand the abbreviations. I kept getting calls wanting to know what brb, ttyl, b4yki or they'd tell me I made a lot of typos.

I have found voice to text as being very easy and accurate. That's how I send texts 90% of the time. I do have a SIL who sends very long texts this way (paragraphs). Crazy.

 

[scrabbler1]

Facebook assumes that you as a user want to seek out others and have others seek out you. I am single and childfree and a bit of a loner so I don't want people looking for me and I have no real desire to seek out others. I have my ladyfriend and I don't need FB to find her. Same for my best (male) friend and my 83-year-old dad (who is not on FB and can barely check his email and reply to it). My brother is on FB but if he has anything important for me to view he can send me a link to it on Youtube. The rest of my relatives (who are scattered all around the country) I have no real interest in. I have no desire to see pictures about their latest vacations or pictures of their kids or what they are doing at work. I am retired so every day is like a vacation, or "staycation" LOL and I have no kids and I don't work (and I have no cell phone which is also just fine with me). It is hard for me to give a damn about much of anything any more which is just fine with me!

 

[Major Tom]

In the wake of Paul Revere's death, one of my old bosses, with whom I am not connected on Facebook, posted a photo of our small group with Paul Revere, taken back in the late 80's, and tagged me. I have a vague recollection of that photo but were it not for the internet and Facebook, would never have seen it again. To sweeten things even more, I was standing right next to Bill Medley, an event of which I have no recollection!

I am a huge recluse in real life but do enjoy connection online with those that I know, or have known, in person. These little nuggets from the past are fun when they pop up. The sight of a 25 year-old me with Paul Revere and Bill Medley gave me quite a chuckle!

 

[EastWest Gal]

I have friended coworkers and some relatives, as well as several friends from the group I hung out with in high school. Since I now live 3000 miles away, the reconnection with those who were my dearest friends has been fantastic. FB will make it easy and comfortable to get together again, now that I and one of my old friends are both ER.

DH belongs to a FB group that is linked by their work in musical theater. Much if that group's purpose is to post jobs for musicians, especially if there is an emergency opening. I keep hoping there will be one of those openings on Broadway.

For me, it helps people keep in contact across long distances without long one on one conversations, which can be hard when people are busy.

I use FB less and less as the ads get more and more frequent.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[RonBoyd]

I use FB less and less as the ads get more and more frequent.

I am not sure if this is the cure but several (8-9?) months ago, I kept getting lots of Advertising-type entries in my Timeline (the 2nd column from the left). At first, I ignored them but they became more and more frequent. Finally, I would click on the little down arrow in the upper right corner of each one and choose something like "I don't want to see this." At first, I answered the question(s) as to why I didn't but the occurrences only slowed down. However, after I stopped answering the question(s), the Ads stopped. I haven't seen one in quite some time.

My conclusion was that the program "learns" and my answering the questions only encourage it to try different approaches. When I stopped giving it input (beyond the "stop doing this" instruction), it had nothing to go forward with. I, also, suspect that ignoring the ads would imply acceptance and encourage more such action.

Of course, there are still lots of Ads in the 3rd column over but there is nothing in that column that is very interesting anyway so it is easy to ignore.

 

[RonBoyd]

Not on a Social Network? You've Still Got a Privacy Problem | WIRED

We already know that if you use an online social network, you give up a serious slice of your privacy thanks to the omnivorous way companies like Google and Facebook gather your personal data. But new academic research offers a glimpse of what these companies may be learning about people who don’t use their massive web services.

The problem Garcia identifies lies in something called “shadow profiles,” and as a consequence, we all could be intimately profiled by the Facebooks and Googles and LinkedIns of the world—whether we agree to it or not.

Garcia says this kind of statistical analysis—essentially using machine learning to study the known tastes and relationships of one person’s contacts, and making a guess about who they are likely to be—could be used to build disturbingly detailed profiles of people who do not even use the social network.

More proof that we all live in a "small town."

 

[Midpack]

I use FB in 'read only' mode almost daily, it's the best way to keep up with many local small businesses, and some larger ones too where FB pages have replaced websites. If not for Twitter (where I am an active member), I'd probably have to join FB but I haven't because I don't need another firm sharing/selling our personal info.

Google and some others are bad enough, I am trying to get away from Google but I'm not sure it's even possible (plan to give DuckDuckGo a whirl). I used to like Google until we got Android phones and saw how heavy handed and pervasive they are! Like many others, we've been duped by getting something for "free."