Is Facebook dead yet?

reply to post by AnteBellum


This topic made me nostalgic to a time when I drifted away from msn messenger, running a guild in Everquest, keeping up with emails, and holding down a job! It really was full-time activity, but I don't think it should be counted as "worthless times spent" as so many like-minded people appreciate the time you spend, the company you spend with them, and the quality of all that, no matter the distance. So despite moving, upgrading interests, switching jobs, switching games or whatever life may consist of, those long-distance friends were always there, and could keep up with your changes. It adds an element to life which rarely has a mirror in non-virtual life.

I've never been on Facebook, although four or five friends have requested I do. I don't chat any longer, although my fingers used to fly, keeping up four or five conversations at once. No, not the same four or five I also rarely get involved with emails these days, but, I had a girlfriend from Atlanta whom I used to exchange 20 printed page emails with. It was meaningful upon a time to share so much via the net. Now the dangers are more glaring, I've studied up on the disinfo/government backing to transfers, and hope they get drowned in the volume for the time being.

I don't think decent people have much to worry about, but fascist rules-lawyers have jobs to do, and the rule-books keep swelling and taking on more autonomous power. We're corralled towards steeper penalties, and opening up more on public mediums is entirely encouraged. My last public emergence on the net was Livejournal perhaps eight years ago, almost nothing since besides posts - I had a growing bad sense of it despite not investigating the mess. It's a slippery slope towards jailing people for smaller and draconian "crimes", people they could never reach without some heavy finger into their lives. It also threatens privacy and safety on the local front.

I've read quite a few comments about keeping in touch with family and/or friends. There are other online ways to do so. I ran a bbs (Bulletin Board System for you younger folk) from 1986 until 1996, and had a private area there for family. My family is scattered all over the United States, and this was a way to share things between our family.

Bbs's have pretty much gone away, but I now have a blog running from a server at my house, and it is private and dedicated for family use. Video's and picture's get uploaded there for all of my family to see, and I now even have an area for friends. It has been working well for 25 years, and we keep the crap of FB (we have other words for those letters, but I cannot put them here) off of our site.

There is an interesting article, not too long, about 'social networking sites', its a good read.

social networking info

Thanks for reading,
SnrRog

I have friends and family in multiple states as does almost everyone - there is a car, a phone, a letter or even a text that all rate higher than a facebook, quasi-communication chat/post. Facebook is relegated to people you dont really want to talk to but maybe are just curious how they are. That is why everyone you knew in highschool is your FB friend. I happen to agree with the OP on disconnecting from the silliness. As far as comparing FB to ATS...ATS for me is learning, FB for me is childish entertainment that I too, have grown tiresome of. I have countless friends that have all done the same thing, hell half of them made it thier new years resolution this year. Maybe I sound like an old grandmother here but pick up the phone once in a while if you really want to talk to someone.

Originally posted by octotom
reply to post by ButterCookie

 

Ya know, I have NEVER, not even when I first opened the Facebook account, EVER, typed stupidity like that. i have ALWAYS only wanted to share knowledge, gain knowledge, or have an open discussion about things like religion, philosophy, space exploration, NWO.....ya know, like on here.

Why don't you actually meet with people too discuss things like that? People typically don't want to go onto a social site, where they want to just unwind for a few minutes, to be hit with conspiracy theories and philosophy. Besides, Facebook is probably the worst place to discuss religion, philosophy, and other such things.

I can agree.

However, I just felt that when people have an opportunity to communicate something with the entire world, it should be more than, "Waking up, bout to brush my teeth.'

29 likes
16 comments

Originally posted by dyllels
When people say they only use facebook to stay in contact with friends, i giggle.
For me, that doesn't make sense.

I keep in contact with everyone I need to through e-mail. No problems, no drama.

When someone wants to invite me on facebook, I rather ask them for their email address. Then one of three things happen:

1. They say they don't have an email, in which case I wonder how they log in to facebook at all.
2. They say they never check their email, in which case they actually don't want to keep in contact unless it's on their terms. This doesn't seem to be someone who really want to keep in contact at all.
3. They give me their email, and we keep in contact.

Facebook it seems, is just a kind of 'open email' account where you are linked to every photo, note etc. and everything you say is broadcast for others to see.

When I phone someone for something, I don't phone everyone else i know to make sure they heard too. That seems silly to me. When people say that I must change privacy settings or only send private messages, I giggle again while they recommend ways to transform facebook into a secure email. I have one of those already.

The invention of e-mail was perfectly fine for me. I can use it to do everything people do on facebook and more, it's just a whole lot easier.
My rant over

I agree. Facebook 'friends' never email me, call or text. Not really friends, huh? just a social clique

Originally posted by TriForce
reply to post by dyllels

 

When someone wants to invite me on facebook, I rather ask them for their email address. Then one of three things happen:

Yea its weird, there still seems to be a stigma about giving out an email address but have no problem giving out all their personal information on a public and open website like facebook.

You might as well create a dedicated web page, put all your families names, friends names, your phone number, address, pics of yourself, your kids, what you drive, what times youre home, what times youre gone and while youre at it, post your ALARM SYSTEM CODE.
Then ask google to make youre site come up first in search results.

edit on 5-4-2011 by TriForce because: (no reason given)

LOL!!! I agree.

Too many times on FB I see " Headed to work" "On lunch break"...."at home, chillin"....."good sermon at church" "Picking kids up from basketball practice" etc

FB is a thief's paradise

Originally posted by tarifa37
Just deactivated my account on the strength of this thread. I questioned my self why I need it as only a few of my friends on face book were real friends the rest were people who knew me from my past and distant relatives etc that don't interest me and I don't interest them. In fact most of my real close friends aren't even on it or never update their profile anyway. Unfortunately there wasn't a " I think its S@@@" reason so I had to use a "don't find it useful" reason.

Yeah!! I'm doing the same thing TODAY.

I do admit I may need a little advice as to how to contact my Marine Corps buddies (in case of a future reunion) and to save the pics that I have on there (one Marine Corps buddy finds pics of us in bootcamp and they are priceless).

After that, I'm disconnecting

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere

Originally posted by camouflaged
oh look ive got 1000+ friends, then when you need them "friends" for something in a real life situation they dont exist,

I wonder, has there ever been a "help me move" flashmob?

Or a "finalizing a horrible divorce, can I crash on your couch for a few weeks?" event.

Perhaps a "home just burned to the ground and dont want to go to a shelter, can you put me and the wife and kids and dog up until we get things squared away?" event.

Who says they arent real friends?

LOL!!! I agree!

These people aren't your friends....they are your virtual cliques who still don't give a ______

Originally posted by PoopDawg

Originally posted by XelNaga
reply to post by brindle

 

You can actually learn something on ats, nothing to learn on facebook unless you plan on being a virtual farmer one day. My point, there is a big difference.
I only spend an hour online anyway.

If this is what I come here to learn that people have nothing better to do with their time then complain and judge what other people do with their lives, then I have to really evaluate the reasons I use this site. Who cares if people like using facebook, I mean come on people let's talk about something that really matters

Facebook drives me crazy with all the STUPID invites to join groups for and against moastly stupid things.People pestering you by saying "you're never on facebook". To me facebook is something I check once a week to check comments and mail. Facebook is also being used to do some great things such as fighting net metering in canada finding long lost friends.Uniting large protest groups. Well i find face book mostly annoying but it has been used to do a lot of good as well. I guess it's how you use the medium i guess.

i may be on facebook, an average of an hour or 2 a week.I(If that).

Anyways periodically every few month i just go down my wall, i just straight up delete everything, anything myself, FB friends or FB itself posted my wall.

Did not go through the whole thread but i do have a Question to everyone.

Would what i described above make a difference in anything? concerning facebook. I.E. data mining, etc.....

i would also think after a year or so some people would quit requesting me to play farmville or some other game.

They still keep coming, some even from the same people over and over.

I don't hardly post anything, on fb and if i do, key major details are left out, for may reasons.

Originally posted by randomname
facebook is just a massive spy network. it's used by people to keep tabs on other people. from jealous ex-girlfriends to degenerate perverts who whack off to profile pictures.

it is completely useless. at the end of the day your still sitting alone on your computer. even if you have 1,354 "friends".

some people have friends and don't even know how their voice sounds. it's massively impersonal and it's just another divide and conquer technique.

maybe it's just the progression of the species. maybe that's why advanced alien races have no vocal chords and use telepathy.

if this keeps up, human to human contact will die, our vocals chords would cease to function because of lack of use and we'll all be communicating with each other with electronic devices.

or atleast until someone figures out a way to transfer electronically our thoughts to each other.

edit on 6-4-2011 by randomname because: (no reason given)

VERY interesting and accurate point

KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!

Well if you have the internet & email & skype or whatever why do you really need it ?
I have an account , which I use to post anti facebook material lol .......I got it at first because everyone else did then
when I realized all the info everyone posts & how dumb it is I turned against it...

Originally posted by Farnhold
KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!

I believe this is what you were looking for.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/bad1b2ff6284.gif[/atsimg]

It's very useful for people who travel, if it weren't for that i would have ditched mine long ago, very handy for travelers, whats your name???

I have an idea. How about we just accept that some people like using facebook and some people don't. Problem solved.

I notice that everytime i am out with my friends.. 100% of the time i see them glued to their phones. Its like to the point where we are out having a good time and everyone is always on their phones looking at face book. We would socialize for a minute and then everyone pulls out their phones and gets quiet because everyone is stuck on it for a few minutes. But yeah i did notice i was doing the same thing a few years ago and so i dropped the habit of having to check my phone every 1 minute. When ever you are out somewhere public a certain spots just sit back and observe the scene.

Can we delete this stupid #ing topic already? 9 pages. Are you guys #ing serious? 9 pages of people spewing nonsense. A social network and human ego aren't really new ideas people. wake the FVCK UP.

I was one of those people who had literally just started college when facebook began to gain popularity and no one considered it a "friend making tool", it was and still is a good way to keep in touch with people.

Am I on facebook a lot? Yup, its always open in a browser tab as I sit here at work. It helps me chat with my friends, connect with some of my customers (which in turn drives business as everyone loves to be asked about their kids and vacations), create events such as my friends birthday celebrations or my BBQ's without having to find out 45 people's emails or cell phone numbers, it let's my family know what I'm up to as I don't get to see them very often and since I follow some of my favorite musical acts on facebook I get alerts when they're coming to town, ticket promo's, shwag giveaways, etc.

What's the big deal? Please, name me one other site that can allow you to do all of those things which is as mainstream and as frequently used as facebook.

To answer your next question, no I'm not obsessed with facebook, I just find it a useful tool just like some people choose linkedin, friendster, etc.

No, facebook isn't for everyone, and that's just fine, connect with people the way you most feel comfortable. But to sit here for 9 pages and bash people who use and have a facebook account? Grow up