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Opinions on Facebook?

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I joined FaceBook with great reluctance, only because a lot of my old cronies were there and I wanted to (re)connect with them. Mohammed had to go the mountain, instead of the reverse.

I haven't joined any groups, nor have I started playing those game (e.g. "Farmville") that would suck any remaining life I have away if I let them.

But it is nice to keep in touch with my buddies.

Regarding privacy issues: anything you don't want to get out on the web, don't put it up. Simple.
 
spillproof said:
I don't hate Facebook for what it does (connect people [which is a good thing]), I hate Facebook for what it has done (depersonalized a lot of relationships and communication; farmville, fired from jobs).

I have one to be polite, as steviem has mentioned. I usually only go on to reply or participate in something a YouTuber is doing. I did however, delete my Myspace years ago.

I have better things to waste my time on, like MacRumors ;)
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Don't hate Facebook because you got canned by a creepy lurker of a boss technically that is still your fault for posting something that concerned your employers that could be linked directly back to you (and their companies reputation) in the real world.

On the addictive nature of Facebook, the addict shouldn't blame the needle the needle has no consciousness it is the person sticking the needle in their arm that needs to take responsibility. But blame something else if it makes you feel better.
 
ethical said:
I like Facebook. Use it a lot.

All you people complaining about the abundance of wannabe prom queens and douchebags here's an idea....don't add them! The crappy games....don't install them, and block the updates from appearing on your home screen. Tired of updates from groups and pages that you've joined? Don't join the flipping group! Or the next time one of their updates comes up block it.

It's not hard to set it to only show the stuff you want to look at.
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Yeah, this. If you are seriously complaining that all Facebook is, is a place for douchebags and sorostitutes to post meaningless drivel, then it's because you have those types of people as your friends. So, who's the one with the problem here?

I've blocked every farm, cafe, mafia, aquarium, horoscope, house, city...whatever app. They are all blocked, so I only see posts, photos, and links that my friends post. And since I don't generally befriend wannabe douchebags and prom queens, or people I meet in a bar once, I rarely get any of that crap. Sometimes, I do get crap, but it's really like once every few days.

Most of my Facebook friends are people I have known for many, many years. I know what to expect out of them. One started to post endless status messages related to some crap called "Swag Bucks". I'm talking 10 posts a day minimum...sometimes 20 an hour. I told her to cut it out or I'm blocking her. So she made her settings so I don't see it.

Facebook is great if you want to keep up with friends and family who might be all over the country and world. 95% of my friends don't live in town, as I don't live where I went to college, and my job for many years involved touring theater/arena shows and the cast/crew came from everywhere. I don't see these people on a regular basis, but it's nice to keep up with them.

As has been said...Facebook will be what you make of it. If you have crappy friends, you'll have a crappy Facebook.

On the addictive nature of Facebook, the addict shouldn't blame the needle the needle has no consciousness it is the person sticking the needle in their arm that needs to take responsibility. But blame something else if it makes you feel better.
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And this too. If someone is getting fired from their job for spending too much time on Facebook, that's their own problem, not Facebook's. Facebook is interesting...it's not THAT interesting. Every post will be there in perpetuity...if you don't see it right when it gets posted, you will see it after work. You won't die. Your life will not become meaningless. And your friends MIGHT actually still like you if you don't comment within 32 seconds.
 
I don't particularly care for FaceBook, but that is just me and the way I like to interact with people. But for me it has been a great site to keep up with a few very good friends and their family--and they use it a lot--so I am glad it is out there.
 
CaptMurdock said:
Regarding privacy issues: anything you don't want to get out on the web, don't put it up. Simple.
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Absolutely true. No matter how private you make your settings once it is posted on Facebook it's public.

First, Facebook changes privacy settings and the defaults are usually less private than you had previously set thus making a loophole for at least a short amount of time.

Secondly, you never know what friend of a friend will divulge something you thought was private in your account.

Beware.
 
Facebook is good for keeping up with friends and people in your networks. If you get into the games and things, it's a time waster. I spend about 30 mins a day on facebook. For me it's kind of like a combination of email and postcards. If you are in any kind of work that requires networking, it's great. Actually, Twitter is better but it hasn't caught on in the same way yet.
 
Never really bothered with Facebook, even when I had an account. I deactivated my account last week, so probably by now it's been deleted. I don't really miss it.
 
I use it frequently (read: everyday) but I can't say I'm addicted. I read people's posts and see their new pics but that's it, I rarely post anything. It's a handy tool to get to know someone you don't know so well because people accept friend requests quite easily and it's not as huge step as asking a phone number or MSN. I used to play those games when I joined about a year ago but not anymore. Also, I rarely use the chat because it sucks. I usually talk via MSN as that's better.

It's okay but I could live without it. MR is more addictive :D
 
samiwas said:
Facebook will be what you make of it. If you have crappy friends, you'll have a crappy Facebook.
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This.

I was dragged kicking and screaming into opening an account with Facebook. However, once I started using it, I find it really convenient. All of my Facebook friends are actual friends that I know personally, not online personas, or people I met for 5 minutes at the party last weekend. Some of these people were childhood friends that I lost touch with and was finally able to reconnect with. Some of them are cousins and other relatives who live halfway across the world.

I turn off all the stupid game notifications, vampires, farms, mafia, all of that crap is disabled. It's easy, just click on "Hide" as soon as you see an annoying notification, and you'll get the choice to stop receiving updates from that app, or that friend (if he/she is particularly annoying).

I would have argued, before using Facebook, that it's not necessary because I can do everything Facebook can through email, Flickr web albums, and so on. Which is true. But let's be honest, when was the last time you emailed cousin Frank, or aunt Mabel, or Joe from high school, to say hello? Do you even remember what city Jill lives in now? Your buddy has a birthday coming up in September -- at least, you think so? What adventures have your nieces/nephews/grandkids been up to lately? Facebook lets me look up, or keep track, of all this stuff pretty effortlessly.

So, used the right way, I think it's a great tool.
 
i love facebook, it lets me communicate with my family since im never home ( im in the canadian forces) also i have reunited with a lot of my high school buddies :D
 
R94N said:
Never really bothered with Facebook, even when I had an account. I deactivated my account last week, so probably by now it's been deleted. I don't really miss it.
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I don't know how to break this to you, but FaceBook is still mining info from your account.

The Canadian Government is currently playing hard-ball with FaceBook, for not actually deleting profiles from their database, when people delete their account.
 
iJohnHenry said:
I don't know how to break this to you, but FaceBook is still mining info from your account.

The Canadian Government is currently playing hard-ball with FaceBook, for not actually deleting profiles from their database, when people delete their account.
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Mining? You make it sound like they're digging through his life, pulling out new information. What you put on facebook you choose to allow facebook to access. If some chump lists every detail about his life then that's his problem!
 
It's lame. I just use it to talk to friends from my old schools and keep people semi-updated. It's also a great way to get hacked, scammed, or phished.
 
ozzyman500 said:
Every now and then I feel the urge to sign up for Facebook. I haven't really been social lately and deleted my MySpace due to the fact I don't really use it and don't have the original email I signed for with it. I would feel pretty ****** if my friends changed numbers on me and I didn't keep up with them to know about it and have no way of getting in contact with them. On the other hand I am so sick of seeing Facebook everywhere and on every TV commercial. Should I sign up and just check regularly or what should I do? What are your opinions about it?
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Facebook can be (and is) extremely useful to me. I actually got in touch with a couple of friends of mine from high school friends whom otherwise I would have never ever been able to get in touch with nor find.

I also use it on a regular basis to organize outings with my friends etc via events.

Overall facebook is something for people you personally know and meet in real life. It can be quite time consuming though. So just like any other tool, use it wisely and spend sometime adjusting your privacy and notifications settings.
 
Give it a try, it's not a paid service. Be careful what you post.
I prefer voice to text or picture, so I just use a phone.
 
I hate Facebook these days. It's so spammy! People are so nosey on it. I had 540ish friends and now I have 213...I deleted **** loads :D My motto was, if I avoid you in the street - why do you need to know my relationship status, where I work, what I'm doing?!

I'm much more of a Tweeter these days. I love it - and you don't have the hassle of all those stupid notifications about nothing!

I still keep Facebook though, just because hardly any of my friends have Twitter so it's for events and such.
 
JsR said:
I'm much more of a Tweeter these days. I love it - and you don't have the hassle of all those stupid notifications about nothing!

I still keep Facebook though, just because hardly any of my friends have Twitter so it's for events and such.
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Funnily enough, I am exactly the same!


ethical said:
Mining? You make it sound like they're digging through his life, pulling out new information. What you put on facebook you choose to allow facebook to access. If some chump lists every detail about his life then that's his problem!
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Old(er) post but that is true. I add actually very little info to my account, just my picture, name and town really, not like some of my friends.

I also came crawling back to Facebook :( I use it to post on pages really.
 
Xavier said:
I am coming to this realization as well.

It seems I get to see more pointless updates on what page you just became a fan of, and all these stupid videos and photos of some semi-attractive girl in a car. Also the STUPID duck face peace sign photo.

The main reason I keep facebook is to stay in contact with friends who have moved away/graduated.
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Same here, although I got tired of the constant Farmville/Vampire/Werewolf whatnot invitations coming up on the feed. Deleted my account, and honestly, not missing it that much. While it was pretty convenient to keep in touch with friends who aren't around anymore (geographically speaking) between Skype, email and texts, its not really that much of a difference.

But speaking of Facebook, just saw the theatrical trailer for the movie that's coming out based on Zuckerberg and his creation, seems pretty interesting.
 
Well I think for me Facebook is really helpful. It helps people connect with the people they haven't seen for ages. Plus I like playing Bejeweled. =D
 
Facebook is okay. I just see it as a MSN replacement to be honest, because all I do is occasionally change my status and chat to people. Neither a big fan or a hater.
 
I use FB, mostly to stay in touch with friends and family that aren't close by.

Its getting over-saturated with crap that wants to be liked. Contests that allege you can win a MacBookPro or iPad make you like the product they're adverrtising like rayovac batteries. I stay away from all that liking crap, though I'd like to win a MBP :)
 
All of my friends and family have, in various combinations, my home address, phone number, skype name and email address. I don't have a reason to pretend to be friends with someone who is unwilling to contact me in one of these ways.
 
I steer clear of the games and "aps." All that stuff annoys me. I would prefer it if Facebook stayed/goes back to just being a place to post pictures/videos/statuses and to chat with friends and family. There's currently no other site on the net that does this as well as Facebook. I just wish all the extra junk would go away (or get toned down more).

Twitter....gah! now that is something I really hate. Twitter is one of the most useless and annoying things currently on the net.
 
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