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Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 8:27 pm

What are the pitfalls with joining Facebook.

Do the benefits out way the pitfalls.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

I don't have an account, but I have read that there are some security concerns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook

Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 9:03 pm

Aside the security issues as PF has pointed out the social features of it are actually quite good.

I never used to use it but now I use it a lot.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

I had an account for half an hour.
In that time I decided I didn't want to know what my kids were up to.
I also didn't want to be "friends" with various relatives that I wouldn't talk to in RL.
I also found out more than I needed to know about a relative's ex

I may add that my kids all use nicknames on Facebook, someone has been teaching them some internet safety Wink

Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 11:12 pm

Fo'andles wrote:

Do the benefits outweigh the pitfalls.

What benefits exactly are you alluding to? Confused

I've only ever found a single use for Facebook, and that is creating a fake account to infiltrate lad groups. Beyond that, it - and all other "social networking" sites - seem to have no real use for account-holders.

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 2:17 am

I have an account and it's a mixed bag. I keep in touch with friends who are scattered literally all over the globe (from Macedonia to Japan). On the other hand some "friends" see it as a forum to post their political rants. And then there is the sister-in-law who has the compulsion to post whenever she leaves her house.

And like Nanny Ogg, I don't want to see anything by or about my kids on Facebook.

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 7:57 am

Fortunately my kids are too young to use it. But we moved to a new area a few years ago and people we met were using it, so I joined and it has been good.

There are serial posters, who are unaware that they are really post whores Laughing

Fortunately there is a facility to hide posts from some people if they are continually updating you on what they have for dinner... Thinking back, my nephew did add me as a friend at the beginning, and he was/is at that difficult age 16 or 17, and after a few of his boring rants and endless teen bullshit, I removed him.

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 8:26 am

Mafia Wars is great (but yet another a time pit), if you don't mind rabid squirrels declaring war on you from time to time.

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 9:23 am

I swore off Mafia Wars. It wasn't reliable... and it took time away from important things, like baiting the hell out of lads. And posting the hell out of this forum.

I use facebook to keep in touch with friends around the world for free.
Before I got an account, I didn't keep in touch with them.
I suppose, I don't really need to keep in touch with them, so Facebook does not fill any necessity in my life.
However, it does have utility, so I can't call it without use.
The utility is allowing me to keep in touch with friends around the world for free.

Dissect that if you'd like NTC!
I will accept your friend invitation whenever you come around. Wink

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 9:34 am

I have a personal FB account and I am now systematically blocking ALL apps. I don't care about the sad ducky or the lost whatever you found on your farm. Enough!

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:16 am

I do have a (real) facebook account, on which I haven't got a single friend that lives in my country. It's used solely to keep contact with foreign friends. I have the principle that if I would want updates from you and you live around, I'll meet you in person.

The hypochrisy of some people that add 'friends' they haven't seen in 10 years just to be able to say 'look at me, I have 200 friends' is something that irritates me.

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:28 am

I find facebook is handy for keeping up with a certain subset of friends and family - those who are far away from me, and have small kids & little time to chat regularly. It's nice to see their photos and what they're up to.
For me it's also handy in finding out information about interesting small music events that may not be publicised any way other than word of mouth - I have a number of local friends who are pretty well informed and do a good job of spreading the word about things that might interest me.

I found it an interesting exercise to see which of my "friends" have facebook habits that are unacceptable to me (mainly the facebook postwhores and attention-seekers who I hide or remove from my friends list, and all the application junk that's now, fortunately easy enough to block). And also people who I didn't know so well who turn out to have a lot in common.

I'm probably a boring fb user because I don't post anything that could get me in trouble at work or at home.....

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 4:56 pm

I have a real and "eater nom de plume" account. My post whoring side comes out sometimes but otherwise take it or leave it I have met a lot of interesting people on facebook who I would have never met in RL, much like here. Beware there appear to be lads about there as well. Not sure if I have seen a tutorial on that aspect yet. Smile

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 5:36 pm

I have a Facebook account, some trusted members here are on my friend's list. I play MW and a couple other games but I'm very careful about keeping my profile hidden from the general public.

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 6:39 pm

I'm not on Facebook and never will be. I'm definitely a Luddite.

Interestingly enough there is a front page article in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning about people starting to back off due to ongoing privacy concerns.

I have one friend who is seriously addicted to FB, updating her page 20-30 times a day (literally). Who wants to know what she's having for lunch, as she's having it (with pictures!)??? Rolling Eyes

Anyway, she announced last week that she was quitting out of anger over the privacy changes, but she only lasted one day before capitulating. In her case it is truly a pathological addiction. Sad

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 8:22 pm

mr.scissorkick wrote:

Dissect that if you'd like NTC!
I will accept your friend invitation whenever you come around. Wink

Aww, bless. Smile

Still, though, the way I've always seen it is: If I'm not bothering to keep in touch with old out-of-state friends over the telephone, then there's probably a reason for that.

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 8:56 pm

firehouse5 wrote:

I don't post anything that could get me in trouble at work or at home.....

This is a much smaller problem if you don't just accept every friend request that comes along. I will never understand why people add their bosses/teachers as friends.

I do have a real life account, but haven't touched it in months. It exists solely so I get messages that are sent out from friends who otherwise would forget that I'm not getting their mass mails. I hate it to the point that whenever someone tells me to look at a picture they post on Facebook I insist that they repost it on imageshack/tinypic for me so I don't have to go through all that crap.

... Thank God it's starting to become less popular.

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 9:07 pm

foo123 wrote:

I will never understand why people add their bosses/teachers as friends.

My former boss' dog is one of my FB friends. Rolling Eyes

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

It seems some of my pets have their own page Rolling Eyes

I have a bebo

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:28 pm

For me Bebo was full of teens and perverts.

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:46 pm

@ Nick: You're right, you're a crappy friend. I can tell you, as a crappy friend, that facebook is the equivalent of calling a friend while you're watching TV. They are telling you what they had for lunch, and you are in a new tab, watching the crap out of http://leekspin.com
And your friend considers this a reasonable amount of friendly contact.
It's a perfect system. Though I do recommend learning all about the block/ignore features.

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 11:41 pm

mr.scissorkick wrote:

facebook is the equivalent of calling a friend while you're watching TV.

Wow, I can actually relate to that. Laughing

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 2:10 am

This article tells a bit of the pitfalls. The Secret Cost of Using Facebook. Confused

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 3:11 am

I am like my GF, Nanny! Wink

Quote:

I had an account for half an hour.
In that time I decided I didn't want to know what my kids were up to.
I also didn't want to be "friends" with various relatives that I wouldn't talk to in RL.
I also found out more than I needed to know about a relative's ex

I may add that my kids all use nicknames on Facebook, someone has been teaching them some internet safety

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 4:46 am

Is anybody here named Jim Mitchell in RL? I have a friend request from somebody with that name and I have no clue who he could be.

And if there is a Jim Mitchell reading this . . . how in the hell did you get MY RL info? Maybe those concerns over FB privacy are well founded.

Mad