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Old 10-06-2014, 01:13 PM   #61
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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.
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Old 10-06-2014, 01:32 PM   #62
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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.)
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Old 10-06-2014, 01:57 PM   #63
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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.
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Old 10-06-2014, 04:09 PM   #64
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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.
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Old 10-06-2014, 04:46 PM   #65
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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.
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Old 10-06-2014, 06:54 PM   #66
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[QUOTE=aja8888;1500540]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.
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Old 10-06-2014, 07:03 PM   #67
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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.
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Old 10-06-2014, 07:15 PM   #68
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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. )
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Old 10-06-2014, 07:16 PM   #69
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[QUOTE=splitwdw;1500990]
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Originally Posted by aja8888 View Post
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.
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Old 10-06-2014, 09:40 PM   #70
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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!
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Old 10-07-2014, 02:55 AM   #71
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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!
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Old 10-07-2014, 03:17 AM   #72
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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.


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Old 10-07-2014, 05:08 AM   #73
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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.
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Old 10-07-2014, 05:49 AM   #74
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Not on a Social Network? You've Still Got a Privacy Problem | WIRED

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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.
Quote:
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."
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"It's tough to make predictions, especially when it involves the future." ~Attributed to many
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." ~(perhaps by) Yogi Berra
"Those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge."~ Lau tzu
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Old 10-07-2014, 06:41 AM   #75
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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."
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Old 10-07-2014, 07:10 AM   #76
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There are a couple of ways to make Facebook more user-friendly. One is to "unfollow" all the posters who annoy you, and the other is to set-up a "close friends" group with only those you care to see.
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Old 10-07-2014, 12:05 PM   #77
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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.
Sounds a lot like me. This site is the most social I've ever been online.

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Facebook assumes that you as a user want to seek out others and have others seek out you. ... I don't want people looking for me and I have no real desire to seek out others.
I completely agree. I've always thought that many social media platforms like FB fit better with folks that have more exhibitionist tendencies.

I have no desire to participate in platforms like FB, though if others want to do so, have at it, just don't expect me to be there. It is kind of annoying though to find businesses that only have a FB presence and not a website. I tend not to work with businesses that don't have a useful website.

My only real use for FB has been as a stock. Bought some when it dipped to 19 a while after the IPO. (Of course, now I wish I had bought more.)
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Old 10-07-2014, 02:30 PM   #78
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I read FB once or twice a week, devoting five minutes to it (no more).
I post something two or three times a year.

OTOH, DW usually spends up to an hour a day on it, occasionally much more.

I like the analogy of FB as the "AOL of the 21st century." 😝
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Old 10-07-2014, 04:44 PM   #79
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Like the OP, I find Facebook useful for staying connected with people, both local friends and long-lost cousins. I do limit my time on it to one session per day, usually spending 10-15 minutes there. I don't post my own stuff very often, but I do "like" and comment on other posts pretty regularly.

One example: the very small town where I grew up has a FB page and recently someone posted the HS class picture from 1928, mentioning in the comments a great uncle's name. The next person posting mentioned a great aunt's name as also being in the picture. So I now have a picture of two relatives that I would never have had otherwise.

Another example: I'm not close friends with any of my HS classmates, but did friend a couple of them on FB several years ago. As a result, I got a friend request from my best friend in elementary school, who had moved away in 7th grade and we had completely lost touch. Come to find out we are both NASCAR fans and Jeff Gordon is our favorite driver. Who'da thunk?
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Old 10-07-2014, 05:37 PM   #80
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I've been on it for 6 years. I joined when a bunch of high school friends began organizing a reunion. Facebook was invaluable to finding many missing classmates. Now it's a great way to keep up with all these friends I reconnected with, as well as my kids, all their friends, and former co-workers across the country. I can't imagine giving it up. However, I really regret talking DH into joining. He's totally obsessed.
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