I mean this seriously: What do you think of Facebook?

[originalpckelly]

I know a lot of DUers probably facebook. What do you think of it?

Do you really use it? Does it do what you think it should?

I'm curious about this, as today they started the whole IPO thing and they're in the news.

[gateley]

1. I really don't like it, but have a few friends who post there and I'm notified

by email if they do. I have to admit I'm glad to receive some of these emails, but the people who post "going to the store to get mayonnaise!" "back from the store -- got mayonnaise AND mustard!" are just narcissistic and stupid.

[sufrommich]

10. Ugh, agree. I think we all have a couple of facebook

friends like that.

[NYC_SKP]

2. People reply to Facebook messages more quickly than email.

I use Facebook for friendships, business, following news and promoting positive movements and events, and just plain keeping in touch.

Others hate it, and indeed it must be used correctly which can be hard for digital immigrants, oldsters, newbies, or technophobes).

[WCGreen]

67. I stop by once or twice a day to see what's up....

I have a lot of freinds that are not as political as I am so I touch base with a lot of them on the Facebook...

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. My family is scattered. It's an excellent way to see pics of my nieces and nephews.

That's about what I used it for. That and Bubble bursting games.

[L. Coyote]

4. It is a great tool for sharing good stuff on the web with your own circles

Who you friend makes all the difference!

[ZombieHorde]

5. It is not for me, but I don't look down on those who enjoy it.

Facebook has great practical uses for many people, but a lot of people seem to screw themselves over with it.

If I did join Facebook, I would probably use a fake name.

[tabbycat31]

6. I use it, mostly for work

And a few Zynga games that I am hopelessly addicted to.

It's a great way to keep in touch with people and my primary means of communication with many friends (the FB chat feature replaced AIM).

[originalpckelly]

7. Thanks everyone who has posted so far...

if you all could just keep going. I don't usually post a more benign thread like this, but sometimes I just like to read what other people think. It's interesting.

[elleng]

8. Pleased with it because its enabled me to contact lots of 'old' friends,

especially high school classmates.

[CTyankee]

83. originally, that was my idea...but...

I'm so old I think lots of those old friends are dead, already!

Also, there are reasons one "moves on" in life...

[elleng]

84. No, yank, they're not so old as to prevent us from connecting.

My 50th high school reunion in September, learned about it on FB!
As to moving on, I'm into moving 'back,' at least to old friends. One reason? BACK IN COURT!

[CTyankee]

86. OY, ellen! PM or email me ASAP!

I hope things are OK, kiddo...

[elleng]

87. You have mail!

Heading out to pick up car; back in a bit.

E

[sufrommich]

9. I have family spread out allover the place, I love

keeping in touch with everyone and sharing pictures on a daily basis on Facebook.

[flexnor]

11. mixed feelings about fb, personally I dont

on the positive, in a scattered society, a chance to reconnect with people you may never have otherwise

on the negative, you have a company that may be the largest IPO ever, with a company that charges no user fees - and has a privacy policy longer than the US constitution - you either get the implications of that or you dont

you're telling a corporation neary everything there is to know about you, you're telling them more than you even realize

......and you can never get it back

[arcane1]

12. For me, it's an overall usefull site, even though I hate much of it as well n/t

[originalpckelly]

15. I wonder why do you hate much of it?

What's so bad?

If you'd be so kind to elaborate.

[arcane1]

27. Well, the constant changes with little customization...

The fact that I find out about every little tweak in privacy though other sites instead of FB telling me directly. The sneaky way they loosen privacy with every change.

I don't use apps, play games, use the location feature, or the whatever-you-call-it feature that lets FB tell everyone what site you were just on, so these things don't affect me directly, but I still hate them I also don't like being added or tagged without permission.

I'm locked down on there as tight as I can be and yet still be find-able by people who might look for me. And it has been GREAT at reconnecting me with people from ages ago. During the workday, everyone is checking it during their down time, and it's nice to be able to casually connect with people I never get to see, and never would have been able to get in touch with them otherwise.

It has its pros and cons for me. I don't like the way the CEO always talks about how everyone wants to share more and more (however true that may be to the majority of users), and so I view FB with a watchful and suspicious eye

edited to add: I was born and raised on the east coast, now living on the west coast, so all my family and all friends from those days are all in one easy place

Edited again to add: and their search feature SUCKS! If I want to see if my old buddy John Smith is on there, I can only search on his name, resulting in a list of 14,697 people.

[originalpckelly]

29. Thanks!

I'm considering leaving the site myself.

I hardly ever use it.

[marlakay]

13. Good way to keep in touch with friends and family

Out of state. My kids post all the grand kid pics on it.

And I have a bunch of dem friends who post what's happening both locally and nationwide.

But that said...I wish we had another site that could do the same thing. Problem is every site once it gets big is all about money.

[renie408]

14. I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook.

Sometimes I love it. It allows me to keep up with my friends from Washington state to Manchester, England. It also helps me promote my small business.

But then sometimes I hate Facebook because who REALLY has 300 friends and I can never say anything remotely political or controversial because I don't want to offend anyone on my friend list who might be a potential customer and we live in the most conservative place on earth. Like, I think South Carolina is LITERALLY the most conservative place on earth. Tehran has nothing on us here in SC.

[HuckleB]

16. It's fine. It is what it is.

[Tikki]

17. Not for me...but others enjoy the experience.

I know friends who swear by the interactions with the long lost....


Tikki

[jimlup]

18. Hate it but I can see why it is a money maker...

Damn it!

[Old and In the Way]

19. My wife is all in with facebook.

I've got enough Internet time wasters (I'm especially talking to you, DU) that I don't need yet another one to grab whatever's left of a realtime life. But, I do appreciate the benefits of facebook...in fact, we connected with a couple we were great friends with 20 years ago and are getting together this summer...so there is some really good things about it...I guess.

[ecstatic]

20. I caved and joined in 2010 and I regret it

It's really awkward due to the wide range of people I'm "connected" with--from friends to family to aunts and uncles to strangers. I feel like I can't speak my mind or be myself. Not only that but sometimes I comment on pages and I'm sure some of the political stuff will come back to haunt me some day (harsh comments about Newt/Romney etc). At some point I'll probably delete it.

[bhikkhu]

21. It works for me, keeping up with extended family

and some friends who I don't see much otherwise.

As far as the privacy thing, if I had anything that needed to be kept private I certainly wouldn't post it on the internet, anywhere.

Some businesses and organizations use facebook, but I have no interest in using it for that.

[WilliamPitt]

22. I like it

[Terra Alta]

23. I enjoy Facebook

It's a great way to make new friends and connect with old ones. I'm on there every day.

[abelenkpe]

24. I mostly just use it

to keep up with relatives scattered across the globe. The relatives back east, in Ireland and Japan and friends in Africa and India want to see pics of the kiddos and such.

Friends make some pretty entertaining posts too.

It can be a pain tho, if you happen to have teanutty relatives who get in your face. I sadly had to un friend my own mother and brother over their constant offensive anti Obama conspiracy theory posts.

[Shankapotomus]

89. You defriended your Mother?

[abelenkpe]

90. Sadly yes

After asking her to please stop responding to every post with ugly birther nonsense, rants against affirmative action, evolution and climate change I had to un-friend her. She just couldn't stop and when I did she accused me of censoring her, so I just pulled the plug. Sucks tho. I love her. She's just gone bananas. Frequents Free Republic. Sad cause she was a democrat when I was growing up. Don't really know what happened....

[dogknob]

25. I post a lot of stuff I find here on Facebook

...for the benefit of folks who are too swamped by life (job, kids, health, etc...) to get into something like DU.

I keep my friend list limited to people who actually read what I post.

Mayonaise-buying posters tend to get culled from my list.

I convinced one friend to withdraw her money from BofA and put it into a CU.

I turned a lot of people onto the SOPA crisis who would have otherwise missed it.

I convinced a repug friend to take the "long-term" view of the Keystone XL issue.

What frequently happens is that, about 2 weeks after I post something, I'll get a note back thanking me for turning someone on to something they would have missed.

I probably have an FBI file by now, but what good citizen doesn't?

Many of the issues we discuss here have to get to everyone else somehow, or it will be just us discussing them.

[Brickbat]

26. As someone who works at home, I love it.

I've found people I thought I would never hear from again, I've developed new friendships, and I've found clients for my freelance work.

[Texasgal]

28. I am not bothered by it.

I am a member and have found some old friends. I like it okay. I do not spend alot of time on there like some people do. In the grand scheme, I just don't care.

[downwardly_mobile]

30. Thanks for the question. I'm an anti-facebooker; let me explain my particular beef with it.

I think it's a social minefield, far more trouble than it's worth, and ends up as a lot of unpaid clerical work.

The issue boils down to what I would call the "collision of worlds" problem or, for a Seinfeld reference, "You're killing independent George!"

People have a lot of different kinds of people in their lives: family, work associates, old friends, romantic interests, new friends, and neighbors.

Just about no one would want to share anything in particular with ALL of those groups -- or anything that we would be willing to share with ALL of those groups would be incredibly content-free and/or boring.

So what do people have to do? Be very careful about who they "friend", be willing to "de-friend" but even more time consumingly, they have to set different levels of privacy and constantly monitor and re-think who gets into what level of privacy AND what circle of privacy they want any particular share (post, picture, etc.) to go to.

Which is a lot of unpaid work, with a lot of opportunity for hurt feelings. A family member will wonder why they don't get as much access as a friend, or vice versa.

I really don't understand why people want to live so publicly 24-7. Funny thing is, in real life, I actually LIKE an open social arena -- one of my favorite things about my last neighborhood was the local bar where everyone knew everyone else, and everyone had a place. I have no issue with what some call "gossip" -- I call it public opinion; and public opinion is what eventually puts a crimp in the douchebags' style. And as I often said, "don't worry about what people are saying about you, it's when they STOP talking about you have to worry."

But you can LEAVE the bar, you can even leave the neighborhood if you want. And if you bring a parent or old friend to the bar, everyone there will be discreet and pleasant enough with that other person in your life that "collision of worlds" won't happen. But Facebook? Not for me!

[originalpckelly]

37. Great post!

Excellent!

Collision of worlds. That's what it really is, isn't it?

[downwardly_mobile]

42. Thanks! Yep, "collision of worlds"/"killing independent George" -- that's how I see it.

[Poll_Blind]

80. +1 Never got on FB or MySpace or any of that for that and other reasons.

It's not like I'm a terribly private person but I could never understand why people wanted to be "the star of the Me show" so badly that they would toss away their privacy and, in some sense, potentially become victimized by their own paper trail of words an opinions.

The thing I can't really grok is how so many people fall for the hook.

I look at some of the new Fuck You features like the one where FaceBook sort of aggregates your entire life.

LOL! Suckers...

Oh well. It's funny, too, because my girlfriend occasionally relays the "Hey, so and so asked why you weren't on FaceBook?" Oh, they'll figure it out given enough time.

PB

[CTyankee]

88. No, I think this is a LACK of personal worlds.

I am on Facebook but I am careful as to what I share and I am always thinking of someone else when I post. It is a conscious decision,made on my own psychological grounds. That means, what I want to share and not to share. And I am finding that people are really posting LESS about their habits with buying coffee or shopping for clothes to posting about intererpersonal experiences and interpersonal opportunities to shop or otherwise acquire.

There are also touching posts about kids and their young sporting events, which is fine (they include my granddaughters!). This is good, too!

I can't get too much into this, because I basically think it is frivillous, but that is me....

[richmwill]

31. It has advantages and disadvantages

It's great in that it allowed me to re-connect with many people I went to high school and middle school with, but unfortunately had lost contact with over the years. So it's cool to re-connect and see what they're all up to now. However, it's bad in the sense that it can also destroy what formerly were good friendships/memories of those people. I've had former high school friends add me in what I assumed was an attempt to get back in touch and renew our friendship, but instead they don't care to talk at all and just use Facebook as a game center and want you to "help them" in whatever Farmville or Cityville games they obsessively play. That was annoying.

[Ron Obvious]

32. Loathe it.

I deeply detest Facebook. Facebooks wants to become the Web, and reduce it to a walled garden monoculture. It encourages everybody to share as much personal details (and "likes&quot as possible for marketing purposes.

I also don't keep all my friends in a single bin, have different relationships with my old school chums than with my elderly aunt, and I don't want them all in as my 'friends'.

Additionally, there's always that one drunken picture of you at that one party, where you were wearing a lampshade on your head and vomiting into the goldfish bowl. I mean, who hasn't done that at some point? Usually, the embarrassment is short-lived. Thanks to Facebook, however, that picture, shared by your 'friends', will be around forever for future employers to find.

Facebook users are not the customers. They are the product. As soon as that realisation sets in, I suspect the bubble will deflate. I think it's already peaked.

[NRaleighLiberal]

33. I used it for a bit...but learned far too much horrible about some of my friends and family

when Obama won the election. It made me sick to see some of the hateful, bigoted, disgusting things posted or said by some of them.

So I completely stepped away from it...and haven't regretted it for a moment. My wife has an account to look at pictures that some family and friends share - so I actually don't need it.

I also came to realize that relationships are best formed with face to face - or at least phone - contact with people. The whole competition for "friends", the whole anonymity - post anything culture to me doesn't work - it leads to more, not less, loneliness.

Finally - I tend to NOT be a joiner - so will naturally move away from that which the masses seem to gravitate to.

So...A generation thing? Perhaps....and I will not judge people who use it, love it or need it.

But not me....don't use it, don't need it.

[XemaSab]

34. Love it

But I wish they would stop changing stuff. The way it was 2 years ago was fine.

[liberalmuse]

35. Not a huge fan, but...

I have a few DUer friends, and that keeps me sane, because it seems a lot of people I grew up with are now borderline intolerable conservatives. That doesn't say that much for my generation, but the Prez is one of us, so there's that.

And it's a good way to keep tabs on my daughter and nephew - there are the little details they fail to mention to the ol' mom/aunt that I can find out through Facebook.

I know nothing about this IPO thing.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

36. I like it.

It's a very convenient place for me to keep up with my family, my poetry friends, and my DU friends.



It does what I want it to do.

[jsmirman]

38. I second all those things, but like Google, hate the evil side of it

it's all about their desire to monetize things, which is not entirely unreasonable, but man, they go about making drastic changes in so many different evil ways - and it seems like they are clumsy about it just because they can be.

Google's new changes are so obviously bullshit. We're doing it for you! Fuck you. If you were, people would be able to choose between the new uber-linkages and not connecting all their accounts. And it is screamingly offensive that they're trying to soft-sell the changes by making their notice of changes links all "hip" and lingo-ey. Do they really think they're fooling anyone and that we don't realize that this is a supreme act of Corporate Dickism?

[renate]

39. I've been on it for a couple of years and have never posted a single thing

True, I've written private messages to friends and posted innocuous things like "happy birthday" on people's walls, but I would never post anything for a general audience. For one thing, I don't want to assume anybody cares about the minutiae of my life (although I enjoy reading other people's posts), and for another, I don't like the way you can't go back and edit.

I have always assumed that I have ZERO privacy on Facebook because of the way they're always changing the privacy settings and, as somebody else posted upthread, we always have to find out about these changes from other websites, not Facebook itself. I think that is WRONG and it really pisses me off but where else can I find friends from high school or overseas? They have us exactly where they want us. And to those who'd say that we shouldn't complain about a free service--OUR DATA are their real product. We don't owe them any gratitude whatsoever--it's a codependent relationship, yet they treat us with no respect. (Hmmm... I guess I feel more negatively about Facebook than I realized. )

I save one browser for Facebook and Facebook alone, because I read that even when you're logged out of Facebook they can still track where you surf. Maybe that's stupid and paranoid and incorrect, but I simply do not trust Facebook one little bit.

[high density]

40. I have an account but it's dormant

I log on literally twice a year or so. I really never liked the high school experience and some sort of virtual replica online doesn't interest me in the least. People who I am terrible at keeping in touch with in real life I am still terrible at keeping in touch with them on Facebook.

[SheilaT]

41. It's vastly overrated.

I have a Facebook account, and I have probably posted to it twice in the year or two that I've had it. I'm absolutely crazed by the way anything someone on my friend list posts something somewhere it shows up on my page. I actually turned off that thing for one acquaintance because that person posted "I'm going to the store to buy mayonnaise" kinds of things constantly.

What I do like is that I can tell if son number 2 is still alive when he hasn't answered his cell phone when I call for two weeks. Son number 1 more often answers the phone, and he almost never posts on his Facebook page either.

I think it's the kind of thing that made a lot of sense in college, but for most adults it isn't as useful. I'm not in college anymore. I really don't care if some acquaintance 800 miles away is attending a party.

Oh, and lucky me, I'm old enough that there were no cell phones or digital cameras when I might have been doing embarrassing things, so no photos exist.

[Dawson Leery]

43. Facebook is the latest fad. Before, it was Myspace.

Facebook is making money by selling your personal info which you foolishly posted on line. The bigwigs at Myspace never thought of selling their users info to marketers. Mark Zuckerberg did.

[ErikJ]

44. Political Movement

I use an anonymous name and no face pic. I'm just too reserved I guess. Mainly use it to gain quick access to so many things like newspaper comment pages etc.

I would like to start a political movement Facebook page though.

[Capitalocracy]

71. Turns out that's a TOS violation...

I have a friend who had her account closed for not using her real name on FB. Until they catch you it's not a problem, but apparently technically they can kick you for that.

[lacrew]

45. I Say No to the IPO

[ErikJ]

46. Warning IPO

I heard on the radio today that it may be highly inflated in price. Could LOSE money.

[PADemD]

47. Hate it

I don't post or give them any pictures or personal info. I only look for pictures of my family.

[eShirl]

48. Facebook is the next MySpace. n/t

[pipi_k]

49. I love it

It's the most efficient way for me to keep up with friends, relatives and old classmates.

I've found old friends. I've connected with cousins I never knew I had, and others I haven't seen in decades. I have joined various groups. I don't have to worry about keeping up with tons of emails or feel overwhelmed by them, then end up just not answering them at all.

A few lines on Facebook, and we're connected.

I share only what I want to share and provide only the information I want to provide. I hide my wall info from public view, so random people can't see it.

So yeah...for me, it works well and I enjoy it.

[patrice]

50. I like it. It has expanded my social context to people I would not normally have associated with.

[donheld]

51. Facebook is what you make it to be

You can use it for wonderful things. You can use it to reconnect or stay in touch with people. You can put as much or as little personal information on your profile as you want. You can use your real name or you can make up a name. If you want you can use it for bad things. It's all up to you.

[sinkingfeeling]

52. Wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole.

[City Lights]

53. I don't like it,

but use it to keep in touch with people I don't see on a regular basis. I used to play some games, but they became too time consuming. I have since removed all apps. Now I just use it to read my friends' posts and view their pictures. I also use it to stay updated about things I "Like." It's nice to get updates for my interests from one place.

[treestar]

54. I like it to a point

It really does help me keep in touch with people I would not have otherwise. The birthday thing lets you say Happy Birthday on someone's wall - don't have to remember to send a card.

I would not use it as some do to put my every thought on the Wall though. It's amusing, but one never knows what can come back and bite you in the ass.

[dionysus]

55. i basically use it to chat with long distance friends, after everyone dropped the much better AIM

chat program. I don't bother with much else of it.

[Jennicut]

56. I don't like it and won't use it.

I don't want to "talk" to people I haven't seen since high school when I didn't like them to begin with. I don't want people to look at picture of me, my kids or my cat. This sums up all I feel about Facebook: http://www.cracked.com/funny-2631-why-facebook-sucks/.
Plus, they sell use the information you post about yourself to sell you crap online with instant ads. No thanks.

[shanti]

72. exactly

from the start i didn't want to join fb, but i got sucked in a few years ago by a cousin who was hooked on playing farmtown. then it got boring and like you, i was besieged by hs classmates from almost 40 years ago that i didn't give a flip about in the first place. i started feeling uncomfortable with all the targeted advertising and the voyeuristic quality to fb, so i deleted it totally. you really do have to go cold turkey. if you even log in once within the two week grace period following the deletion of your account, you have to start the whole process over again.

FB can take a flying leap...

[bluedigger]

57. I like it.

I'm pretty much a loner and professional vagabond, and it has allowed me to keep in touch with, and reconnect with, far-flung friends. I've realized that there are a lot of different users. Some "friend" me and I never hear from them again - I guess they are networking. Others are power users and update me with every bar whose door they darken, or every picture of their kids they ever took with their iphone. After a while you learn how to manage it. Last week one friend posted looking for access to a research journal for a project. I shared her request, and another friend saw it and provided the article within 20 minutes. Overall, I find it to be positive.

[LanternWaste]

58. I enjoy it. It's allowed me a very convenient way to

I enjoy it. It's allowed me a very convenient way to re-establish and then maintain friendships with people I haven't seen in 30+ years, and do so on a daily basis.


And I suppose if everything I & my friends write are stored in a super-duper secret Government storage server, then they alone are to blame for eavesdropping in on military-critical poop jokes and security-breaching recipes for meat loaf.

[skypilot]

59. I'm registered on FB but...

...I don't really use it much, and now, after seeing the report on the news about FBs IPO I kinda want to see the whole damned thing crash and burn. According to the report I saw, FB is putting its tentacles out there in such a way that you will HAVE to be a member in order to access other online services. NO!!!!

[Swede]

60. It's a useful tool.

I use it to stay in contact with family and friends,find interesting music and links etc.

[raouldukelives]

61. Not a fan.

But I don't begrudge anyone the use of it. It's just not my cup of tea. Now with the IPO even more so. The last thing I want is someone else owning a piece of me. If others want to be owned, as usual, it's up to them.

[Whisp]

62. I tried it for a while but just don't 'get' it,

I don't get the appeal but different strokes.

I don't have a cell phone either, maybe that's related. Had my day of phones and emails and passwords and messaging systems and all that shit - seemed there was nowhere to escape and be alone and unreachable for a part of my life there = so I like being a Luddite now.

[GodlessBiker]

63. I use it often. A good way to keep up with friends. Seems to be sluggish today.

[CJCRANE]

64. DU is my facebook.

I've been posting little comments here at DU for the last ten years and I don't really need another venue.

[OKNancy]

65. I enjoy it very much. As someone wrote, it's all in who you "friend"

Also now you can pick how much of a particular person's posts you want to see. So, if you have an annoying friend who posts stupid stuff, you can choose to not see their posts or just some of them.

My rule: if anyone of my Facebook friends posts even one thing remotely right-wing... boom, they are gone.
As of now, I don't get right-wing posts. I've removed them all. LOL

[Capitalocracy]

66. I have a Facebook account, but I have yet to determine what it's for.

It has spawned an occasional conversation with my old friends in the U.S. that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

[shanti]

68. i deleted my account over a year ago

and haven't looked back.

[backtoblue]

81. Me too!

Here's to our escape!!!!!!!!

[Avalux]

69. I hate it. n/t

[Arkansas Granny]

70. I don't do Facebook. My kids are after me to sign up, but I've heard a lot of

people, whose opinions I trust, that have misgivings about privacy on Facebook. If someone wants to contact me, I'm not that hard to find.

[girl gone mad]

73. Don't use it much anymore.

I used to log in almost daily. Found it to be a huge waste of time.

I think it's amusing that my teenage son and basically all of his teenage friends absolutely loathe facebook. I can't think of an analog for my generation.

[ieoeja]

74. Hate It

As noted by an earlier poster, I have different people in different circles. They shouldn't meet, but in Facebook they do.

As also noted by a different earlier poster, if I wanted to contact high school classmates, I could have done so at any time. Suddenly, I have politely become friends with scores of people in whom I have no interest whatsoever.

But what I most hate about it is that my friends seem to use it 24x7. I was probably getting invited to a get together every few weeks before Facebook. Not that the get togethers stopped. But they now post it on their Facebook page. They then make a couple dozen more postings in the next two hours pushing the notice off the page. Occasionally, I get the "hey, where were you," message to which I continually respond, "I wasn't on Facebook when you posted it."

[yellowcanine]

75. I use it very infrequently, mostly just to share photos with friends and family.

I find the constant "chatter" and "updating" that some do to be really annoying.

[flexnor]

76. Choosing your words for your audience is one of life's most important skills

(sayng something anonymously is different, it doesnt come back on you)

when you say something on the internet with you real name attached, if someone takes something 'the wrong way', you dont know it (unless they send you a message). you cant read their face

it can be on the internet forever, even after you've changed your mind, learned new information about the topic, even when you're dead

i remember on my first job after college, being around new people from different backgrounds, how just a stray offhand comment that was really nothing more than chit chat, could really bite you in the rear, be taken out of context, or blown out of proportion and follow you around forever - it could be a faily innocent remark, but just the wrong thing to the wrong person who had a little power and a bug up their you-know-what. the person you most have to watch your step around in the future, may be someone you havent even met yet - so how can you possibly know what topics to avoid?

for instance, even on this forum, you hear the term 'dog whistle', which means someone says A, but they 'really mean' B. and anyone who says B is an X. Therefore, someone who says A is an X

But what if you really meant A? How do you prove it? How do you prove you didnt mean B and you're not an X? What if you didnt know about this particular 'dog whistle', OR, if it became a dog whistle long after you wrote it, but most people dont know exactly when it came into being?

People can think someone looks fine in a picture, but the person might think they look bad in the photo - you're already hearing about people getting mad about pics on facebook. whenever you mention another person publicly without their permission, you may be violating their privacy

I think there's a zillion ways being on facebook can come back to bite you socially and career wise, plus, it exposes you to identity theft

'we had a great time at the Anderson family reunion!'

you last name not anderson? well, you may have just given out 'mother's maiden name'

'Really loved my XYZ high school reunion!'

you may have just given out your high school, graduation year and place of birth, all security questions

'this was my favorite dog, Fluffy! I miss him soo much!'

you may have just given a good guess of your passwords

this is all stuff that just a very short time ago, was hard to find out about a stranger, that's why they were good passwords and security questions

police are already using things young people say or post on facebook against them, and rest assured lawyers will be looking for things on facebook to twist against people they are involved in lawsuits with

and to go out even farther, can you really be certain of the political future of the United States?

In the 1930s, some casual aquantence might invite a person minding their own business to some meeting named something like 'Students for a Democratic Society', it bores them and they never go back, and 15-20 years later they are on the ropes to 'name names' and a accused of being communists - do you know EVERYTHING about everything you 'like' on facebook?

society has evolved over thousands of years, and social compartmentalization is an important and healthy adaption to society. it allows you to live your life without explaining and defending every aspect of your life to everyone in the world

Joe Friday on Dragnet told you all you need to know 'You have the right to remain silent - anything you say can and will be used against you'

[The Genealogist]

77. I hate it

I haven't even logged into it since 2009. If I want to communicate with my friends or family, I'll give them a call or e-mail them.

[backtoblue]

78. Not a fan for several reasons.

First of all it is a free site, right? Well, no.

You are volunteering very, very private and personal information about yourself, your friends, and your family. People post when they'll be on vacation, where they're going, what surgeries they have, where they work, where they live, who the associate with, --- on and on...

Think about how much money corporations would pay for that information and to what ends it could be used for.

[CTyankee]

85. I never share sensitive information like you reference. Mostly, it's about political stuff

and while that can be somewhat sensitive I am too old to care. I don't believe the thought police will descend on my house in the dead of night and drag me off to a gulag because I heart Obama or Elizabeth Warren.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

79. It's been very useful ever since I fixed it

Awhile back, I went through and deleted the most egregious of right-wingers, with the exception of a couple of RW family members I didn't want to delete. I hid lots of other people, whose messages I didn't want to see, but I might wish to get in touch with one day. Most importantly, I deleted all of the causes and artists and performers I had "liked" in the past. It's not that I don't like them any longer--I just don't want to see updates all the time. As a result, I have a Facebook feed consisting of messages from people I like, people I'm interested in. Facebook moves slower this way, but that's only because all the clutter is gone.

[stevenleser]

82. Big fan. The ability to network and share info blows anything else away. nt

[adigal]

91. It's great for dog rescue, for getting the word out about dogs in kill shelters

As for kids, however, it does promote ridiculous narcissism. I can't stand photos of kids taken by themselves, with boobs hanging out.

[Evasporque]

92. Mostly useless.....nt

[kentuck]

93. I signed on Facebook...

..After my Mom passed away and all my brothers and sisters and cousins and friends wanted some way to stay in touch. My niece created a page just for the Family so that we can stay as close as possible with some of us scattered to the four winds.

I don't really trust Facebook and all the information they collect. Of course, information is knowledge and knowledge is money.