Let's talk about Facebook
 

I have a FB account and pretty much check the news feed page daily, usually for $h!ts and giggles and just because I have nothing better to look at online. I rarely post any updates but will respond to friends' posts or sometimes post on their wall.

I don't want to bash FB or sound like I'm above it. I have an account! But sometimes I can't help thinking that FB is full of narcissist, self-absorbed people who seek attention. And I think that's why I rarely post on my own wall. It's like who gives a crap what I'm doing, where I went, what I bought, or what I think. Every once in a while I'll post something, but after doing it I feel like why did I do that? Am I trying to seek approval, validation? I feel like I want attention and want people to respond or "like" my post. The only real thing I have posted is about my car and the 55+mpg I get. I can't post any pics of myself on the wall without feeling like I have low self-esteem or something. I do have profile pics, but most were uploaded when I created the account. If I post any self pics, I won't publish them on my page. I dunno, it's silly and approval-seeking.

And what's up with people not replying to a private message you sent? I mean it's obvious you were recently on FB.

So anyway, anyone have a FB account? Not looking to add anyone, as I only add people I personally know or met in real life, with very few exceptions. That's another thing, why do people have 500+ friends?

Because some people have 500+ friends in real life? I like it because it keeps you in touch with family you might not otherwise be in touch with because they live halfway around the world. I like it when people post their dinner menus because I get new ideas on what to cook.
In one instance, I posted a picture of my Fuso Expedition Camper. As a result, when i was driving it 3000 miles away from home, a friend who lived 3000 miles in a different direction passed me and recognized me and we had a chance to meet up.

It's a medium of communication. Any medium is a tool. All tools have parameters of use. It is the users responsibility to learn the proper use and maintenance thereof.

Bot

Okay, maybe I'm not very poopular, so I don't even have over 50 friends in real life. The thing is when people add me or I add them, I like to at least acknowledge the person, either by adding a comment in the friend request or later sending a private message to say what's up. There is no point in adding someone and not even bothering to say even a simple hi on the person's wall or in private. If you're my friend I want to at least have some dialogue, even if it's a simple "Hey, what's up" and a reply of "Nothing much, you?" I actually removed a person I added and never really talked to him, so one day I sent a private message and never got a reply back. I deleted him from my friends list. We went to middle/junior high school together, then 20 years passed and I found him on FB, added him and it was like he was just an avatar on my friends list. I mean it wasn't like we had anything in common now, and since middle school we never talked or perhaps forgot about that the other existed. Why reconnect with people that really have no significance in your life?

Kerry, I don't mind food pics or even self pics...I meant that when I post a pic or a comment, I feel like I need valifdation. It's just me, I'm sure.

Yeah, I have friends and I don't even know who they are. I was visiting family 2000 miles away a few weeks ago and recognized a guy in the grocey store who had friended me on Facebook but I didn't know him. I got out of there quick before he had a chance to recognize me.

I have 260 or so friends on my profile but I actually know every one or at least have a connection with them.

I post things that I think will be of interest to everyone. Pictures, famous movie quotes, fun stuff.

It changes the common definition of friend only if you allow it to do so. It's like blaming the air and language if we have a misunderstanding.

FaceBook is a medium, not a mediator.

I find it useful in the sense that I have 3 brothers, 2 sisters and a ton of nieces and nephews...and they are starting to have their own little pile of critters...

And, I found out that I have at least 3 nephs and one of the nieces involved in overseas actions...one in Afganistan, two in Iraq and one on the USS Carl Vinson.

As Bot said, it's a tool. If you want to expose yourself, there's plenty of ways of losing your identity...start playing all those "Farmville/MafiaWars" games...or watch out for the "Can we dig in your home page?" pop-ups.

I delete and keep the personal security at a fairly high level.

Don't *click!* on anything you didn't ask for or recognize. If a "friend" sent you something...call said "friend" to see if it's true. If not, delete it, but don't *click!* it and go there...

Just a warning... :rolleyes:

Growing up, I was told, " If you have as many true friends as you have finger, consider yourself very lucky."
I value that as a truth.
FB causes us to redefine what "friend" really means.
Could you freely borrow money from your FB "friends"?

I know every person I'm friended with on Facebook, though a few I've never met in person which is mostly fellow forum members.

I might post on a wall once or twice a month and its just to share something I found amusing.

A 12 yr old cousin of mine posts once or twice an hour. She can't brush her teeth without posting it on her wall.

Matthias08 is friends with me on facebook and wall posts ALOT. :D Maybe you can ask him.

I'm not there but my kids and siblings are mostly there I think. I have enough ways already to waste time.;)

I am with you here. I have long lost cousins-or what not asking to befriend me..and when I agree..and they just sit there and marinate ie: 'Fail to respond to an IM'..I send them a short note/and explain politely why I am deleteing them.

I have noticed that some people have what I consider to be a 'fan-Club/Following', and it never ceases to amaze me how no matter what they post..no matter how silly it is- the fans clap like a bunch of trained seals.

The only thing I post is pictures of my over-sea's travels-so my family/freinds can keep track of my movements/know that I am still alive and well/observe some locations on earth that they have only seen in Nat Geo mags.

We dont have a profile but one of our dogs does. Every one important to us knows its us. I see those with all the "friends", I guess 200 FB friends are equivalent to 1 real friend !!
Kind of sad really, with the social isolation that develops with the violent society of today, its not surprising that people develop these types of friendships. A bit like the pet rock fad years ago.

FB induced divorce rate is climbing, for me there are many people from high school I would rather not meet again and they are much better left in the past......

I have a phone and an email address as well as a blog related to what we're up to here on the homestead. That's enough.

Bot has been reading a lot of instruction manuals as of late. :)

You'll get to meet quite a few of them this Saturday, including Matthias08.:cool:

+1.

I assume there are controls, so that not everyone becomes your friend and not everyone can post on your wall, right?

I have a Twitter account that I use for news feeds, it's a passive source for me.

For active news sent to me on topics of interest, I use Minerva.

Somehow facebook was the first site I noticed that defied blocking with the HOSTS file. I found out how to make it work but it really rubs me the wrong way the that systems are designed to allow facebook on your computer even if you make the effort to sever the connection. Am I misunderstanding something about this?

Why does facebook use a secure connection with their add-ons on other sites? Please don't try to tell me it is for my protection.

Friend -> someone who's been to hell with you and gone to hell for you when you weren't able to make it.

Blocking www.facebook.com, facebook.com and the language FB sites (en-gb.facebook.com) via HOSTS worked fine for me. Are you sure that the HOSTS file is actually being read? Windows 7 sometimes ignores the thing entirely:

http://www.tweaksforgeeks.com/windows7/2011/02/windows-7-hosts-file-ignored

You can do pings to test it. Yes it was being read and it was working for other sites but not for facebook.

I had to login to the "unknown", built in administrator account to get it to work.

That rubbed me the wrong way too. An account on your computer that they don't want you to know about. Who owns this computer anyway? Time for LINUX maybe?

I set up my account a few years ago when i had to move to Utah...1700 miles away from my kids. Through FB, I've been able to keep tabs on my kids, seeing what they're up to and who they're talking to.

Since then, I've reconnected with a number of friends from high school, junior high, and elementary that I haven't seen in 20+ years.

My class is coming up on it's 20 reunion next month, and I'll finally be able to see many of them in person...it should be a good time.

Don't like it? Don't sign up.

You don't have to sign up or even go to their site. They put their tracking stuff on web sites everywhere. You go to another site and it opens a secure connection to facebook as a third party to the transaction. That was one of my questions, I am not sure why they use a secure connection. Something they want is not available through a regular connection. I don't care enough to sleuth my way into it, I just blocked them. Will block twitter, myspace, etc as they draw my attention.

I did notice some time back that some people on social sites adopted my login from here, twitchkitty is no longer just me on this site.

Ah, now I get it. Thanks for the patience.

And now you have aroused my curiosity, too. That seems like something you could post on a usenet site of some sort. Are they still out there? I haven't looked since the WWW destroyed archie.

Usenet might have become part of the Yahoo empire.

I tried to ask about some of this on a Win7 forum and they froze my login. Can you imagine that? ME? :) I don't think they like questions that would call attention to the "man behind the curtain". Facebook and Microsoft have some kind of arrangement for inbreeding.

I like FB because there are people with whom I like maintaining a connection, but have no burning desire to be close to. FB is perfect for that. I've reconnected with friends I had in HS and haven't seen in forty years. I won't go to a HS reunion or anything like that, but I like communicating with them on this level.

Like Bot said, it's a tool. How you use it is up to you.

I was reluctant to create an account for a long time but got over it. Don't get into employer, schools, etc. Its amazing how old friends search you out. I went to over 500 in a years time. The best part is getting to know my eastern Eurpoean part of the family that I had never been exposed to.

Article today about flashmobs.

Haha, lolol. That was a good one! :D

I couldn't be bothered. I have a phone and email. If you can't find the time for either, you're no real friend of mine.

I have people who are '' friendly '' towards me on some eb sites that I'm on. That doesn't mean that they're a friend, they're someone I know via the net. In most cases I wouldn't even know what they look like.

Today, that's all that kids do. In the future, people might well look back and say that our generation ( baby boomers ) was the most healthy in history. Ever notice how heavy high school kids are getting? At least their fingers are in good shape.

As for real friends, I only have a few. I have many aquaintances because I'm in a business that requires me to know a lot of people. Some of them are friends of sorts - they help me and no money changes hands. It's not like we hang out together or make over night visits. I might be friends with someone but our wives have never met, does that count? The definition has been blurred from any standpoint other than that of a tween.