Facebook: Your opinion....

[SacredCow]

Cool way to keep up with current friends, and/or rekindle friendships with people from your past?

Or, a creepy self-inflicted invasion of your privacy?

I lean to the latter- Lately, I'm being hounded by people who say I HAVE to get on Facebook to connect and chat and find old friends... Phooey on that, I say. I connect just fine IRL, and the vast majority of my "old" friends are "old" (or more accurately "former friends") for a REASON... Yeah, I know you can set it up to be private and all, and that you have to approve friends, but there are certain people out there whose names I don't even want to see...

I'll provide a few choices:

[Heidi]

1. I already maintain the meaningful relationships from my past.

I don't need or want to recruit additional relationships to maintain. :hi:

[SacredCow]

8. That's pretty much my take....

:hi:

[PeaceNikki]

2. I very much enjoy it.

I've re-connected with friends I likely would never have found elsewhere. I moved to another state during HS and then again in my late 20's - as a result I lost contact with people that I really liked. It's been really cool for me in that regard.

Your poll is missing an answer. I have it and I like it (though would hardly say "I can't get enough").

[SacredCow]

4. Yeah, I should have put something between the two...

Fixed it now, but I think it messed up the results of the poll.... Oh well- it's still early.

[bicentennial_baby]

3. I've reconnected with some awesome old friends, AND

have also reconciled with a few DUers that I didn't get along with. Win win, in my case.

[Midlodemocrat]

31. Oh, bullshit. You have always loved me.

:rofl:

[bicentennial_baby]

33. Nice post, Hitler

:loveya:

[Oeditpus Rex]

35. ...

:hug: :loveya:

[bicentennial_baby]

39. Were your ears burning?

:D

:loveya:

:hug:

[Oeditpus Rex]

40. Nah

My toes. ;)

[DS1]

5. I'm tired it asking what's on my mind

It's not like we just had sex :eyes:

[SacredCow]

6. I bet you don't cuddle with it, either.....

Just get your jollies and go, huh? Commitment-phobe!



:silly:

[Heidi]

7. Did it offer you a cigarette? (nt)

[MorningGlow]

9. I vote "meh"

It's a good idea, messed up by a LOUSY, nonintuitive interface and waayyyyy too many games, quizzes, and other crap, not to mention the whole Twitter thing. If I wanted Twitter-type updates, I woulda joined Twitter. I'm pleased to have reconnected with old friends and look forward to finding more out there on the intertubes, but heck, I don't really have the energy to keep up with all those "So and so has given you a lava lamp--give one back to her!!!!" thingies. Guilt-driven clicks, those are!
:rofl:

[SacredCow]

10. Holy crap- it has chain-email built in?!?!?!?

That settles it- I'll NEVER set up an account on that thing! I HATE those kinds of things!

[MorningGlow]

12. LOL I never thought of it that way!

But yeah, kinda, although there are no threats that you'll have bad luck if you don't go along. ;) But the guilt...it gets me...very clever actually--if a friend gives you a "present" you feel compelled to give one back, you know? And some of the things are supposed to help the rainforest and stuff like that.

[DS1]

11. Once a month I "select all" and ignore all requests

*flush*

[fight4my3sons]

13. As others have said, I've been able to reconnect with people that I wanted to.

Friends from high school and college that I would not have been able to other wise. I have moved to another state and so have they, so it was a nice place to be. Also for me it is easier to share information and pictures with my family, all of whom live in other states, on fb than it is through email.

My husband hates fb and refuses to join. He occasionally will sneak on through my page to leave a message on his sister's wall, but other than that he thinks it is ridiculous and said that he really does not want to hear from anyone from his past that he isn't already in contact with.

The application requests can get a little out of control.

[Lil Missy]

14. I don't have Facebook, nor an interest. I'm in the phonebook.

[bikebloke]

15. I'm reuniting with old friends through my vlog.

People from school, I'm not interested in. From my commie days on a kibbutz and moshav in Israel, there or old comrades I'd like to hear from again. I made some photo videos. Now when they're bored and google the kibbutz, they find me. Over the weekend, another found me.

Though I am in Facebook, too. And I even created a group especially for Kibbutz Hefzibah. But all the joiners are strangers from different time periods.

[blondeatlast]

16. Other: between meh and sort of regret it. I still have an account but a nasty mess in my life

was made all too public through it thanks to the teenybopper third party that caused the mess in the first place and her boasts of it through FB.

[SacredCow]

18. That's just totally....

fucked up. Another huge reason I wouldn't want it.

[Midlodemocrat]

30. Wow. That is beyond fucked up. I'm sorry.

[Iggo]

17. I may end up setting one up.

I used to think I was nervous that too many people I used to know and didn't want to talk to anymore would try to get back in touch with me. But now I'm starting to think I'm nervous that NO ONE would try to get in touch with me, that NO ONE would want to be my friend...know'm say'n?

[bif]

19. Supreme waste of time

I used it lot when I first signed up a month ago, but I hardy use it anymore. I really don't give a crap about what my "friends" are doing and thinking all day long.

[qb]

20. Yay! I have friends!!!

:sarcasm:

Seriously, though, it did get me in touch with some dear classmates from years ago.

[NightWatcher]

21. hate the new "twitter" look

[T_i_B]

52. I'm with you on that

The new layout sucks. If I wanted twitter I would join twitter.

That said, Facebook does have it's uses, not least of which is the DU Facebook group! And if anyone wants to friend me all you have to do is drop me a PM.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=2426871461

[Jimbo S]

22. I have been to connect with people I haven't seen in years.

So it's nice in that regard.

[johnnie]

23. I like it

I have "reconnected" with some old friends. I had just started talking to a friend of mine from years ago. We sort of went in separate ways, but I still considered him a good friend.

He was on Facebook and we had just started talking and he was going to be playing bagpipes at my father's 70th b-day party on the 5th.

He died Saturday.

[Auggie]

24. A fad

[GreenPartyVoter]

25. The only reason I have one is to get updates from a group I am interested in.

[Kali]

26. Other. I have an account and I sort of just don't get it.

Someone from here invited me and I set up an account - I check it once in a while but I don't really get all the gimicks and the few people I have searched for weren't there so I remain curious but unsatisfied, ya know?

Also I have no social life in real life so who would want to be e-friends with me?:rofl:

[wickerwoman]

38. It's worth spending some time browsing the applications

That's the best part of Facebook for me. Add a couple games you like to play and you can compete against your friends. There's one game that shows you what percentage of the planet you've traveled to, what your carbon footprint is, the political compass, you can get horoscopes, etc.

For me, the advantage of Facebook is customizing it with tons of cool little applications and games, not building up a massive friends list of thousands of people I barely know. You get a bonus in most games if you sign your friends up to but you can add the application and play most of them even if you don't have anybody on your friend list. Some of the games are a good way to meet new people too.

[Kali]

42. I'm on slow dial up, and I don't really play games much.

I waste too much time just on DU - heh, I don't need to get addicted to another computer activity.:blush:

[Blue Gardener]

51. I love the word games

I spend way too much time playing Pathwords and Scramble.

[Deja Q]

27. Computer viruses aplenty

:yoiks:

TGFL

(Thank Goodness For Linux :D )

[SacredCow]

32. Another reason to stay away....

But I'm Linux-Stupid, so.....

[Deja Q]

37. Linux is by and large user friendly these days (Ubuntu, wow!), but I understand...

Hell, thanks to certain software I still have to dual boot despite it all. But Linux is "there"; Ubuntu impressed the living daylights out of me.

Still, with Firefox and a solid a/v program (avoid McAfee and Norton), most of these nasties are stopped preemptively...

[Lucian]

28. I have it and it's "meh".

I don't really talk to anyone on it. I have it just to have it, if that makes sense.

[Midlodemocrat]

29. I use it in lieu of email mostly.

For that, it's okay.

[wickerwoman]

34. I use it pretty selectively

There's some great addictive games you can play (like Geoquiz, Text Twirler, etc.) and some silly feel good activities (like you give flowers to your friends and after a certain point it makes donations to different charities.) You can sign up to fan clubs to get updates on what's going on with your favorite authors, musicians, movie stars, politicians etc. Also it's a great free photo-sharing site.

I don't post a lot of information because my friends list is extremely schizophrenic. They seriously, badly, desperately need a feature that lets you compartmentalize your "friends" because there's a lot of stuff my coworkers, friends from high school, family, former students, future employers, and current friends don't *all* need to see all the time. I made "friends" with a total stranger who happened to have my same first name because I thought it would be fun and she posted porn all over my "wall" which was hard to monitor and remove all the time before other people could see it.

So I would say yes, get it for the games but don't (obviously) post a lot of personal stuff, use the privacy features they do have aggressively and don't be afraid to ignore friend requests. Just make your page visible only to your friends and tell anyone else you haven't updated your page for a long time.

[Oeditpus Rex]

36. The best aspect, by far:

I've gotten to know some DUers whom I never knew well via DU (or at all, in a couple of cases), and they're really terrific people. :)

[Blue Gardener]

47. I love my DU friends on Facebook

They're the best. I've re-connected with cousins I haven't seen in years, so that's been nice.

[JohnnyLib2]

41. Seems like the future to me.

With cousins all over the nation, it's kinda fun.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

43. I signed up with Facebook about a year ago and still haven't done anything with it.

Haven't even added a face to my facebook. I think I check it once a month and that's it.

I did a fairly detailed Myspace page but even that has been neglected in recent months. I think I'm past the whole social networking gig.

[MrSlayer]

44. Not interested. However, if someone wants to pay me I'm game.

Money talks.

[bigwillq]

45. I have one, and love it.

:)

[Witchy_Dem]

46. Took some getting used to since I had written off half the people

with which I'm now re-friended.

[carlyhippy]

48. facebook promotes "get in touch with your old classmates"

um, those people didn't talk to me years ago, why would I want to talk to them now?

[Lex]

50. actually how you use it is up to you

you don't have to use it to get in touch with classmates at all

[motely36]

49. i like it

Got to meet a lot of cool DU people there in a different setting.

Also, some college people that I have not talked to in years.

[zanne]

53. I can always get in touch with my friends by email.

Also, I'm an old fart and I find Facebook confusing to navigate.

[PassingFair]

54. My daughter left herself signed in on Facebook when she went to India ...

for 11 months.

It was my LIFELINE while she was gone.

Her host home had no internet connections, so
I could only hear about her and see her
(pictures and videos) on her friends Facebook
tags and on the occasions where she could log
on to her friend's connections.

I haven't visited Facebook at all since she's
been back.

If I want to connect with someone, I call them.