People Without Facebook Accounts Are Deemed 'Suspicious' -- Forbes
[font size="3"]Beware, Tech Abandoners. People Without Facebook Accounts Are 'Suspicious'[/font]-- Kashmir Hill, Forbes
The sudden and dramatic advent of social-media-enabling technologies into our lives seems to be causing some mid-digital-life crises. Not only has Silicon Valley developed a guilty conscience about addicting us to screens, we the users are starting to question how technology is changing us: making us fat, making us unhealthy, making us depressed, making us lonely... That’s leading some users to consider abandoning the whole enterprise. My colleague Haydn Shaughnessy gave up his smartphone last year. Now, inspired by the example of former Facebooker Katherine Losse, he’s considering giving up Facebook.
I am writing with some words of caution. I used to say that "if you're not on Facebook, it's possible you don't actually exist." I think it’s time to update that, courtesy of Slashdot: Facebook abstainers will be labeled suspicious.
Slashdot flagged a German news story in which an expert noted that mass murderers Anders Breivik and James Holmes both lacked much of a social media presence, leading to the conclusion, in Slashdot’s phrasing, that “not having a Facebook account could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer.”
I’m seeing the suggestion more and more often that a missing Facebook account raises red flags. After a woman found out via Facebook that a man who’d ‘poked’ her in real life had a long term girlfriend, she turned to digital manners advice givers Farhad Manjoo and Emily Yoffe of Slate to ask whether she should tell the girlfriend. They said she should and then went on a digression about transparent romances in the age of Facebook:
Emily: Wait a minute. You may have mentioned that.
Farhad: I think I’ve recommended that. You know why, though? Imagine if this guy didn’t have a Facebook profile. That’s why. You should be suspicious of someone who is not making your relationship known publicly on a site like Facebook. I’m going to go on record with that.
Emily: I’m fine with people not having a Facebook page if they don’t want one. However, I think you’re right. If you’re of a certain age and you meet someone who you are about to go to bed with, and that person doesn’t have a Facebook page, you may be getting a false name. It could be some kind of red flag.
via Transcript : Facebook stalker - "Should I tell a cheating guy's girlfriend that we hooked up?" -- Slate Magazine
The idea that a Facebook resister is a potential mass murderer, flaky employee, and/or person who struggles with fidelity is obviously flawed. There are people who choose not to be Facebookers for myriad non-psychopathic reasons: because they find it too addictive, or because they hold their privacy dear, or because they don’t actually want to know what their old high school buddies are up to.
Anecdotally, I’ve heard both job seekers and employers wonder aloud about what it means if a job candidate doesn’t have a Facebook account. Does it mean they deactivated it because it was full of red flags? Are they hiding something?
But it does seem that increasingly, it’s expected that everyone is on Facebook in some capacity, and that a negative assumption is starting to arise about those who reject the Big Blue Giant’s siren call. Continuing to navigate life without having this digital form of identification may be like trying to get into a bar without a driver’s license.
“You can’t get away from it. It’s everything. It’s everywhere,” she told the Washington Post. “The moment we’re in now is about trying to deal with all this technology rather than rejecting it, because obviously we can’t reject it entirely.” Well, you can, but it might lead to your being rejected down the line too. **Updated to include some reasons why a person might choose not to be on Facebook, beyond being too busy planning commando attacks.
* Craigslist Ad: 'You're Only Real If You Have A Facebook Account'
* Another update: Haydn responds (and critiques)!
* A follow-up story: You Don't Need A Facebook Account To Be Considered 'Normal' (But It Helps)
* Also, check out the replies...
It’s very “popular” nowadays to hate Facebook among the counterculture,
[font color="green"]counterculture[/font]
but just because [font color="green"]your friends[/font] are useless on Facebook doesn’t mean that Facebook is not a big part of peoples’ lives in this day and age, especially among the younger crowd that uses this networking.
-If you want to ask someone out, you can know immediately if they’re already with someone or available using Facebook.
-Many people don’t have time to keep up with many people at once, or have multiple social circles that are all completely disconnected. For example, [font color="green"]I’ve moved 20+ times in my life,[/font] so I have social circles from each of these places I lived and I don’t have time to call each and every one of these people individually to make sure we still have a relationship. However, a relationship is maintained by comments on statuses and by being aware of what’s going on in the others’ life.
-Facebook has become an incredibly easy way to plan events. Free to invite, can easily get the information out about an event you would like people to go to, and instant so you can know who’s coming to your party or other event immediately. It can be used to contact hundreds of people at once. One of my friends just made a status a few days ago about having an extra ticket to a concert, and wanting to go with someone. Without Facebook, she would have had to contact each person she was willing to go with, see if they enjoyed the band, was free, and wanted to hang out. Instead she opened the opportunity to reconnect with old friends that she hadn’t talked to in a while...
[font color="green"]Maybe you’re just too…old for Facebook, honestly.[/font] This is coming from the point of view of a [font color="green"]19 year old college student at a top 20 university,[/font] (and) I recognize that within my age group [font color="green"]Facebook is nearly essential to socializing.[/font] I do know a few people that don’t use Facebook. I also know that [font color="green"]I would like to contact them,[/font] but considering I didn’t assume they don’t use Facebook when I met them I don’t have their phone numbers and [font color="green"]because they reject Facebook I have no way to contact them.[/font] People I would like to see I end up never seeing because they don’t use Facebook. [font color="green"]I also end up having to recount my entire life[/font] every time I see someone who doesn’t use it, [font color="green"]because they don’t see status updates[/font] or changes...
Keep in mind that Facebook is only as good as your friends. If you have crappy friends that only post useless things, then you would have a bad Facebook experience. If you have [font color="green"]higher quality friends[/font] who use Facebook as a social networking tool, then your experience is far improved [font color="green"]and it becomes more essential to your life.[/font]
To refer to facebook as an “essential” part of Life is really kind of sad. Yes, it is a large part of many people’s lives. Guess what though, it doesn’t need to be! it wasn’t an “essential” part of anyone’s life pre-myspace, if you wanted to see what your friends were up to, you’d call them up and they’d call up other friends and they would call up others and you would all meet up somewhere and hang out and INTERACT PHYSICALLY with one another.
Also pointing out the fact that you are coming from the point of view of a 19yo is about as pointless as anything. You were born into technology. You are practically Borg. You have no history of life BEFORE the internet. Only Vague memories of phones with cords on them and Cellular phones you could kill a horse with. This is coming from a 35yo Network Administrator, who, btw, does have a facebook page but thinks updating my status every 15minutes is just plain retarded. I have managed to reconnect with a few friends from my past, but mostly I use it for the fact that it has a single signon function for many pages that I visit regularly. I, in fact, have NEVER updated a status on my Facebrik page.. even once.
Simply put, pull your head out of the facebook cloud and actually go an interact with people! “soanso is now doing something retarded!” is not interaction.. Try Shaking someone’s hand, or talking to them without using your thumbs. you may find it pretty rewarding!
Milx replies:
I understand that people drop Facebook for various reasons. What you don’t understand is that that makes no difference to my point whatsoever. It doesn’t make a difference to the point that in my age bracket, using Facebook makes everything a million times easier and more convenient. When people around my age don’t have a Facebook it usually ends up with them becoming more socially isolated, due to all the easy ways to keep in contact through Facebook. Either that, or they’re already socially isolated so see no need for it. I know why the few friends I have that don’t have Facebooks don’t have them, and none of them were citing business practices as their reason... That was the point I was making, that for people around my age, not having Facebook is a serious decision that actually has a lasting effect on your social life.
I’m not speaking for your age bracket, or your social group. I’m speaking for mine, and expressing the flip side of “FACEBOOK IS DUMB EVERYONE ON IT IS STUPID HURR”
schmoe replies:
This is hilarious. I’m in your age bracket and I remember being very young and very fond of computers and especially the internet before it gained critical mass. It was an absolute nightmare trying to convince anyone that this stuff wasn’t “just for nerds”. Things like IRC where you could have actual, immediate conversations were looked at as weird and creepy. People don’t even remember the older social sites like xanga, bolt or friendster. What was popular? Ad plastered AIM and MSN. Same damn thing as ICQ, which they would’ve never touched.
Now the same people that were confused and wary of technology are calling other people creepy for not using the same technologies they once labeled nerdy. I guess this is because of the general culture shift to elevating prepackaged nerdiness as defined by TV shows. Now you can be a nerd too by just pressing big icons on a smartphone. Ain’t life grand?
Some people have moved on, some people want privacy, and some people just don’t give a damn about you waiting in line for a burger.
Lao Tsu writes:
I do believe you’re one of the sanest people, I’ve encountered on the net.
Thank you for seeing this stuff in context of reality, not in context of internet hype.
Leaving FB isn’t a cry for help, it’s a choice to use time better and lose petty schoolyard, drama queens and stalkers.
The funny thing is the increased social acceptability of very creepy behaviour by people and companies on social networks.
Despite all the additional political correctness in the world, the lack of social correctness and sociopathic behaviour of people on the web is amazing….not trolls, ordinary people.
Related:
Facebook, Smart Phones An Unprecedented Tool For Law Enforcement Data Collection
Using Twitter To Help Expose Psychopaths
Is Facebook Making You Lonely?
Facebook Can Tell You If A Person Is Worth Hiring
= new reply since forum marked as read
K/R
...establishing a FB group.
I've done this with DU members, with daily exchanges among our 26 (or more) members.
It's a private group so I can't expand on the details, but it is more immediate.
So is Twitter. Have we tried Twitter?
Keep in mind, FaceBook members often don't know how to keep two identities, Family and Political, same with Twitter, but FaceBook seems to elicit greater enrollment and participation.
Last edited Tue Nov 27, 2012, 06:15 PM - Edit history (5)
Well... I AM on FB...
I'm not very active... for the reasons so expertly and hilariously stated by TwilightGardener... nevertheless...
I would be interested.
[font size="3"]GOD WHY DID IT[/font]
[font face="Times" color="blue"]"Anything but the butterflies.png"[/font]
[font size="3"]HAVE TO BE [/font][font size="5"]FB[/font]
Part of my issue is my reluctance to use FB for substantive discussions, which even aside from the data-mining can then be viewed by any, say, distant Republican relative that is logged on to wish me happy birthday (although I suppose one could create an alternate account). For the average sheeple who are raised to not speak out about politics since independent thought is intensely unpopular, this is not a problem for them... Admittedly there is a certain degree of publicity in posting on any blog, but not really because everything we say about politics on DU is meant to be a) public and b) pseudonymous or, if we're posting under our name, the equivalent of public comment in a public soiree, I guess. Why can't there be a model for an alternative to FB that is more like traditional online discussion boards and groups. Nevertheless, I would be interested...
I'm one of those non-existent people mentioned. 
The date AOL subscribers were unleashed upon the Internet. 
Entire nations of assholes are converging on your location!
Fortunately, you know who these people are,
and it's not too late to institute the master plan...
OR IS IT?
What does the data that Facebook collects after about 1 year of "membership" look like?
Austrian student takes on Facebook over privacy
In this photo taken Monday, Oct. 10, 2011, Austrian student Max Schrems holds files about his activities on his Facebook account that Facebook handed over to him, in Vienna, Austria. Schrems wasn't quite sure what information about himself Facebook would send him after he filed a request with the social networking giant to receive his personal data, as is required under European law.
It certainly wasn't the stack of 1,222 pages worth on a CD that inspired him to launch an online campaign aimed at forcing the social media behemoth to abide by European data privacy laws _ something the Palo Alto, California-based company insists it already does. Since August, some 350,000 people have visited the site, dubbed "Europe vs. Facebook," and flooded Facebook's European branch, based in Ireland, with requests for their personal data. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)
One of Schrems' main complaints with Facebook, he says, is that company retains information far longer than allowed under European law, which it most cases is limited to a few months.
"I wondered, what are they doing with my data?" Schrems said, sitting with his laptop in a Viennese coffee house. "I thought through everything that one can do with that amount of information, all the marketing that is possible."
Under European law, consumers have the right to request a record of the personal information held by a company. The law further stipulates that to retain data beyond the limit of several months, a company must have a reason to do so...(more)
http://phys.org/news/2011-10-austrian-student-facebook-privacy.html
see the exact data collected
http://www.europe-v-facebook.org/EN/Data_Pool/data_pool.html
Front page
http://www.europe-v-facebook.org/EN/en.html
Facebook is a fad anyway, it will fall as fast as it has risen. F Facecrook! Delete your account!
Cause I do not have a facebook page, never had a myspace page either. I do design websites and have been doing so since 1996. I've post on mailing lists, message boards, irc channels, user groups, you name it I have done it expect for facebook, myspace and that linkwhatevrlog.
facebook is a huge waste of time and brains.
Nice!
I don't have a Facebook account. And, less face it, I *am* kind of suspicious.
I was going to read it all, but I need to be out mass murdering. Bookmarking for later if I don't get caught. Wish me luck.
How can you not be a real person? I don't get it.
....and I really don't shive a git what stink'in society thinks about that. I mean, talk about Big Brother. You Face Palm people fell right in to the slave regime, and you did so voluntarily of your own accord.
You crave the support of whatever your "friends" think, and there isn't a thing about you that every person on this planet doesn't know. And you gave all of that up while making some total nerd named Zukerdude one of the most wealthy people on the planet.
Your stoolie "profile" is linked to your hard drive, your telephone number, your credit report, your job information, your resume, your social life, your religious beliefs (or non beliefs) and the list goes on and on.
Remember the droids sitting in the theater and listening to the words of Big Brother from the Apple ad of not so long ago?
everyone knows Nikes are awesome, if you don't have them there's something wrong with you. 
