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Should I join Facebook?

S

Steven Jackson

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 8, 2006
387
7
Lincoln, U.K.
Hello.

I've got a bit of time off work and I am considering joining Facebook. I have held out for a long time, mainly because I don't really want to be contacted by people I hated at school, etc, but it increasingly seems that I am the only person in the universe not to have an account.

So, should I take the plunge?

Steve.
 
Steven Jackson said:
If I join, can I control who sees my info without giving a pretty obvious slap in the face by rejecting friend requests?

Steve.
Click to expand...

You can control who sees things like pictures, videos and your info. Depending on how many friends the person has it might be hard to get away with ignoring the requests. I've added a few people who apparently don't like me but whatever. I've done the same myself.
 
I don't see the point in having one myself.

I hated everybody I went to high school with and have not made any good friends at university.

It's really up to you. I just keep in touch by phone with the few friends I do have. I had a facebook a few years ago but it sat untouched for weeks at a time.
 
Might as well. You only get back what you put in. When I first joined it was just to keep in touch with old university friends, but then I added family members and it became another communication branch.
Now I think I use it a little too much. Fans of my games have added me, I accepted invitations from random strangers and it's getting a bit messy.

You can have it totally private (so you don't even show up in search engines) or you can be completely open. S'up to you! But at first for me it was just an extension of email.
 
Do it!

Do it! Go ahead and join - if you get lots of requests from people you don't like, prove that you don't like them by rejecting them. Easy as!
 
was on it - added all my old chums from school, got invited to school reunion , went to reunion , now all i get is invites to play games.


account deactivated yesterday as got fed up with all spam and stuff ,
 
Should you join Facebook? Only if your friends are using it, otherwise it's a bit pointless. :p

If you do decide to join be sure to adjust your Privacy Settings and whatnot to your liking and it (Facebook) can be an extremely useful tool.
 
Steven Jackson said:
Hello.

I've got a bit of time off work and I am considering joining Facebook. I have held out for a long time, mainly because I don't really want to be contacted by people I hated at school, etc, but it increasingly seems that I am the only person in the universe not to have an account.

So, should I take the plunge?

Steve.
Click to expand...

My mom has always said she didn't want facebook, but because we may be moving soon I made her one.

We set up the privacy settings just right, and you can also do so to fit your liking. In other words you can create lists of people who are blocked from seeing things, and completely remove your self from search so you are the one finding your friends, not the other way around.

Now my mom loves facebook, she has learnt to use it and loves how its an easy form of communication with those that she can't see everyday. Its also a free photo hosting solution for her photography, which she actually knows how to use (she used to just mass email)

join facebookk. if you don't like it, quit!

P.s. you may want to set up an email filter for all those annoying facebook mails, and look up facebook etiquette.
 
Facebook starts out innocently enough but eventually it becomes a big beast that is hard to control. :) Deciding whether to friend people or not is a sensitive matter, and once you attain a critical mass of friends suddenly old, unflattering pictures start getting "tagged" of you.

I highly suggest making tagged photos and videos only visible to you otherwise your work friends will get to see all those funny drunken pics your buddies took of you last night.

Controlling your privacy on facebook is unnecessarily complicated IMO--its designed really to expose you as much as possible. Every event I go to there's some idiot with a camera who documents everything and tags everyone the next day. The last date I went on the guy took tons of pictures and videos they all ended up on facebook. I felt violated and just about everyone I knew started making comments about the date. lol Is there nothing private anymore? geez. It was at that point that I basically locked down my profile as much as possible--yet stuff *still* gets through. urgh. he he
 
yoyo5280 said:
My mom has always said she didn't want facebook, but because we may be moving soon I made her one.

We set up the privacy settings just right, and you can also do so to fit your liking. In other words you can create lists of people who are blocked from seeing things, and completely remove your self from search so you are the one finding your friends, not the other way around.

Now my mom loves facebook, she has learnt to use it and loves how its an easy form of communication with those that she can't see everyday. Its also a free photo hosting solution for her photography, which she actually knows how to use (she used to just mass email)

join facebookk. if you don't like it, quit!

P.s. you may want to set up an email filter for all those annoying facebook mails, and look up facebook etiquette.
Click to expand...


Some of the privacy settings become much harder once you get a lot of friends. In some cases you have to choose whether to create a huge list of people to exclude or include. You have to keep updating certain groups and everytime you make a new friend you have to set their "clearance" level. Pain in the a$$.
 
I've spent quite a bit of time on it since I joined over a year ago, and now I barely go on it at all. It's just pictures, updates, and stupid quiz results from 100's of people that I knew from school and haven't actually talked to in a few years. I don't really see the point of it anymore as the people that really matter have my cell # and I talk to them enough anyways. I'm thinking about deleting it soon. Just my 2 cents...
 
I don't know how old you are, but I've been out of high school for 32 years and college a little less than that. It's been fun for me to catch up on old high school, college and military friends that I haven't seen or heard from in so long.
Maybe its just the old fart in me, but I enjoy seeing what folks are up to without having to talk to them on the phone.
 
scotty96LSC said:
I don't know how old you are, but I've been out of high school for 32 years and college a little less than that. It's been fun for me to catch up on old high school, college and military friends that I haven't seen or heard from in so long.
Maybe its just the old fart in me, but I enjoy seeing what folks are up to without having to talk to them on the phone.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I've only been out of high school for 4 years, so I guess that changes thing as for me personally it gets boring seeing the same slackers either having kids already or getting hammered every weekend...or both. Although, 20 years from now, I'm sure I'll want back on when I wanna see how people are...whatever the social website rage is then at least.
 
I've been on it since it only included a few select colleges/universities in 2004. Plus, at the beginning of college, everyone joined to connect a bit before the semester started. It was also a good way to find out who was bringing what for the dorm suite at the beginning of the semester. It's really a good way to keep up with friends in a more consolidated and convenient setting. Whereas some people don't check their e-mail, there's a good chance they'll check their Facebook. I don't get spam or random invites because I limit it to people I actually know.

I don't mess with any of those ridiculous applications either. Privacy settings are a must. Tagged photos, I can only see. Certain photo albums are limited to the people in them.

With any social networking site, you shape your experience. If you have 38947233 random people on your friend's list, then of course, you'll be subjected to the application invites, the spam, the club flyers and all that other stuff. And then again, if you're one of those people who doesn't have any friends, I can understand why'd you see it as a pointless tool too.
 
My wife has been on my case to join facebook and thus far I've avoided it.
She complains that people spend too much time on it doing crap and posting crap. I ask how does she know they're online too much unless she's online too much ;)

I have little desire or need to join facebook, maybe I will but for now I'm content not too and for the OP if you don't have a need or an over whelming desire to do so, why bother.
 
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