What are your thoughts on Facebook?

[CensoredAlso]

Facebook never truly completely deletes your account anyway, they sort of just "close it". It's like, "Just in case you change your mind, we'll keep your profile on hold for you when you decide to comeback."

Exactly, and we're all so sure nothing bad will come of this down the line.

 

[frogboy4]

One of the goodies on my Facebook.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Uncle Deadly is so cool frogboy

Wow. It's been a long time since I checked this thread out. But to make sure you are all aware I have had a FB account for about 3 or 4 weeks and I like it.

But I only accept friend requests from people I know and I don't try to communicate with strangers either. You certainly need to be careful.

 

[D'Snowth]

I still need to delete my MySpace profile, I just have to make sure I've salvaged everything that needs to be before I do so (like photos and such).

It's just so stinkin' sad though... I really enjoyed MySpace, I never really was one for jumping on bandwagons and such, but MySpace used to be really cool for a lot of things, including blogging and photo sharing and such... they just suffered when Facebook and Twitter came into focus. Now it's been completely changed for the worse to make it more like a Facebook knock-off, and it's just not of any good use.

So again, yeah, for blogging and such, I stick with Blogger now.

 

[MartyMuppets]

I cannot emphasize strongly enough how careful you need to be.

Yes Snowth there are sick people such as this out there and if anybody I connect to on FB turns out to be bad news I will be reporting them to the police myself.

Did you guys hear the disturbing story on the news last night about this lady who accepted a friend invite from a guy she didn't really know that well from high school? She accepted his invite, assuming he was reaching out to her and was wanting to reconnect, and suddenly he started sending her disturbing messages all the time about how back in high school, he wanted to have kids with her, and telling her things like he could've chopped her up and no one would know it, he could've slit her throat and drank her blood, etc. Her mother, who happened to be a cop, found out about it, and told her to contact the police, and he's been arrested and faces I forget how many years in prison, without bail, for planning her death.

 

[Kiki]

There is one thing I really dislike about facebook. wait... but it sort of applies to any social networking site, and I guess it moreso comes down to the person: the phony-ness. I've mentioned this probably a gazillion times, I'm aware that I repeat myself. xD But it's the fact that people add eachother when they wouldn't be caught talking to eachother In Real Life. For example, from what I've seen people have added people that they hate (yes, hate's a strong word, and I personally don't hate many people if not any. Their words, not mine). I'm not saying that they should hold a grudge but at the same time it's so... argh. It's like someone who was overtly rude and unkind to you writing in your... I don't know, highschool yearbook saying how great you are, and yet in the past they've gotten out of their way to make your school life unpleasant. You know? Yes, I'm ranting, and because I don't have a facebook myself maybe it's hard for me to understand that when someone you know adds you it's hard to ignore it, but hey.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I've mentioned this probably a gazillion times, I'm aware that I repeat myself. xD But it's the fact that people add eachother when they wouldn't be caught talking to eachother In Real Life.

Maybe sometimes they're trying to keep track of what that person might be saying about them, heh. Or find ways of using something against them. Typical clique nonesense, you know?

 

[frogboy4]

I don't what to get all Holden Caulfield here, but phonies are everywhere. It's not a facebook problem. We live in a society that loves to allocate blame for what we don't like and I find most of this finger-pointing unfair.

Parents demonize music videos for the way their children act, Steve Jobs blames the Flash plug-in for smart phone battery-wasting download speeds, users blame social media for causing depression and so on. We could just as well blame the construction of every crummy house on the hammer. It's not the tool - it's the intent behind it.

Facebook can be a fantastic resource to reconnect with people that would otherwise be left behind. We can keep in touch with so many people in our lives with very little effort. Once you have a full time job and responsibilities such relationships are difficult to maintain. We have to choose the few we wish to focus on. With facebook that's not necessary.

On the other side of the coin, people can use social media to reinvent themselves in fictitious ways or use it in a power-wielding manner that alienates or bullies others. That's not right and, even though there are safeguards in place, nothing is fool proof. Human beings have an etiquette honor system online and in real life. Some people live up to it, others don't.

 

[D'Snowth]

****... with as slow as My[____] is now, it took me over an hour just to send a mass e-mail out to all my friends letting them know I'm closing my account, and that they can either reach me on Y!M if they want to, or they can follow updates on Steve D'Monster and such on my new site/blog.

Plus, I see some of my friends already closed their accounts, so there's no need to keep mine open... my friends list is always dwindling.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I don't what to get all Holden Caulfield here, but phonies are everywhere. It's not a facebook problem. We live in a society that loves to allocate blame for what we don't like and I find most of this finger-pointing unfair.

You're absolutely right that Facebook did not invent clique behavior, hehe. Bullies are always on the look out for new tools to hurt people with and the Internet is just the latest.

Though I am still wary of Facebook and it's calice attitude towards privacy.