I prefer to talk to friends on the phone, email when busy or can't catch up, particularly with former coworkers. I have a smart phone but don't text. I am 50 and long ago divorced. I have a few close friends. I don't keep in touch with high school friend and have never attended a reunion. Part of that is avoiding contact with my ex, whom I graduated with. Both my parents are dead and I don't keep in touch with my relatives.

I know there are those who live for Facebook but I can't see the point. Twitter seems a diarrhea of inane thought best left in the cranium.

Are there any benefits to Facebook given my situation?

You're 50.

lulu Wrote:
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> You're 50.

Right. 50. Nearly dead. There are many people my age and older on Facebook. Get over your agist attitude.

and my back hurts today.

Lighten up.

I don't do facebook either. I have had many people tell me they have searched for me and I just tell them, "Not going there."

I talk to the people I want to talk to.

To me, facebook is a Christmas brag letter fest on a daily basis.

Facebook is also a place for people you never gave a shit about to be able to "reject" you by "unfriending" you.

Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7MuwPlOiNQ

Timothy

PERFECT!

It certainly does not take the place of getting together or talking on the phone, but I like it as a way of quickly sharing photos with all my friends, a tool to help organize informal social gatherings and sharing quick thoughts.

Some of the tools are far better than email, the "event" tool that lets you create an event, invite guests then tracks who has RSVPed and who has not is one of my favorite tools.

The thing is, I used to have a flickr account to share photos, an E-vite account to help organize events, then used Email for other stuff... facebook puts a lot of stuff together so I don't have to deal with as many different sites to do all the stuff I did on the internet.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2011 08:58AM by MJ.

I've found it interesting to see what people I lost track of years ago are up to today.

That extremely popular girl never got married! Who saw that coming?

One girl I had a crush on was a BIC generational Mormon then (though I didn't know it) and ditched Mormonism as soon as she had a chance.

One girl I had a crush on (this was high school ya know) was TBM than and is still TBM now.

No one seems to have become wildly successful though many seem to have settled into quiet mediocrity and some are just impoverished.

Way too many folks waste way too much time playing funny farm and all those other facebook time killers.

I also find it interesting to look up local movers and shakers of city politics and find out who's 'connected' to whom. Turns out things are as inbred as I suspected they were.

you may not.

If you are happy with your level of contact with friends and family then don't get facebook.

For me it allows me to maintain relationships with family and friends I might not otherwise talk to. I still maintain my personal relationships by phone and facetoface, but it's nice to know what's going on with other people too.. not just those that I call every week.

I do feel closer to people who are my friends on facebook. I actually have a cousin who I haven't seen in years and years but we have kept in touch on facebook. We've enjoyed each other's posts and photos so much that Dh and I are going to go out and visit her and her family.

I have an aquaintence who posts open invites to various activities around town "hey we're going swimming at x place anyone looking for something to do should meet me there" or "hey we're going to see x movie at x place anyone want to go and carpool-we have four empty seats" "hey I'm heading to the gym in an hour and have a guest pass, anyone want to go? I love it. I've joined her for some dance classes and at the gym a few times because of these general invites and we were able to get to know each other better.


This is my experience with facebook. I've never had a problem with it.. Maybe because I don't accept as friends anyone who I know will annoy me.. or if I do, I simply hide their comments and I don't have to worry about them.

After decades of self-imposed social seclusion, I felt the need to reach out a little. I'm not good on the phone. Something about the way my brain is wired makes it hard for me to take in information aurally. So writing works better.

With Facebook I've connected with the cooler, less boring, members of my extended family, learning along the way which ones don't think and act like Mormons anymore, and which ones went from cool to stodgy. I've developed new friendships with people that passed through my life years ago.

I don't live on Facebook. I check it a couple of times a day -- more if there's an interesting exchange going on. And during a family emergency it was a faster, easier way to keep people updated than dozens of phone calls or emails.

I move around a lot, so it's the only way I can keep in touch with my friends and family. I hate talking on the phone because
I tend to have about 3 or 4 projects going on and I can't talk on the phone and work on thise projects.

I also have Social Anxiety Disorder and am very cautious about meeting new people, but i still enjoy socializing with the people I'm comfortable with.

FB is not for everyone and there is a lot of bragging, drama, and self-patting on the back. It's not different than any party or other social gathering.

itzpapalotl Wrote:
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> FB is not for everyone and there is a lot of
> bragging, drama, and self-patting on the back.
> It's not different than any party or other social
> gathering.

I am staying with a friend right now and when I was using her computer she had her Facebook page up with the daily update with her cold. TMI. What a waste of time.

I am wondering if I should expand my social base. I have lost some good friends to death, depression and changes in life situations. There is not anyone from my past who I want to connect with but who knows? I took the path less traveled and never had kids so my life is very different from those who did.

If you really don't like it you can always delete your account. But if you don't give it a whirl, you'll never know.

I had to be dragged kicking and screaming onto it, but now I love it.

Otherwise you're like my mom who never wanted to give that "internet thingy" a try. lol

... still a kid at heart.

Facebook allows me to interact with folks of like mind:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/GI-Joe-Collectors-Club/7647037678

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Great-Texas-GI-Joe-Show/306492688654

Plus, I get to show-off:

http://www.facebook.com/v/1511313354881

Facebook is cool (except when they change the format which is, like, every other week).

Timothy

Neither the phone nor facebook is a replacement for face to face social interaction, but, as with the phone, facebook can be a good tool to use to help us in our social endeavors.

On the one hand, it's great to keep up with people that live across the country. On the other, it's not so great that Facebook takes your personal information and sells it to marketers.

I had a Facebook account, but decided it wasn't worth it.

I used it to get in touch with friends that I lost touch with and people I served with over 20 years ago. That part is cool.

I visit my facebook page occasionally and am shocked to see hundreds of people I do not know, who I suspect are the business friends of the attorney I used to work for, and they are all automatedly clamoring to be my friends. We don't know each other and I'm sure they don't know the system is pimping them out there.

It makes me uneasy. I wonder how many strangers are wondering why I want to be their friend when they don't know me.

On the good side, I was able to lumber over and post my email on a young woman's "wall" and she turned out to be my son's former stepchild. I was thrilled to reconnect with this step-grandchild and maybe be part of her life.

I wouldn't post anything much personal on the site because I have a persistent stalker from high school and wouldn't want him to know where I will be at a certain time. Isn't anybody concerned about screwballs being able to show up at a party you're announcing?

Anagrammy

anagrammy Wrote:
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> I visit my facebook page occasionally and am
> shocked to see hundreds of people I do not know,
> who I suspect are the business friends of the
> attorney I used to work for, and they are all
> automatedly clamoring to be my friends. We don't
> know each other and I'm sure they don't know the
> system is pimping them out there.
>
> It makes me uneasy. I wonder how many strangers
> are wondering why I want to be their friend when
> they don't know me.
>
> On the good side, I was able to lumber over and
> post my email on a young woman's "wall" and she
> turned out to be my son's former stepchild. I was
> thrilled to reconnect with this step-grandchild
> and maybe be part of her life.
>
> I wouldn't post anything much personal on the site
> because I have a persistent stalker from high
> school and wouldn't want him to know where I will
> be at a certain time. Isn't anybody concerned
> about screwballs being able to show up at a party
> you're announcing?
>
> Anagrammy

I thought you sent out friend requests but are you saying the system does it automatically? That seems dumb.k

Also, the more friends you have, the more Farmville crap you can get.

Block farmville and mafia wars and anything else you want. I have well over 200 friends and anytime I see a new one playing a game that updates a lot, I just block that application. No problem.

Also, Sometimes Facebook will suggest friends to you as "people you may know" it doesn't say you must be friends with them.. Also, mutual aquaintances can suggest friends to you. For example, when I saw a former schoolmate who just joined facebook, I suggested several of our mutual friends from highschool.. this saves her the trouble of having to look people up/not knowing married names/not recognizing people from their picturesetc

If someone sends you a friend request it's because they initiated it.

I love it in many ways because I see people I care. Great way to get in touch, say hello. You don't have to be there if you don't want to.

Just read about farmville. It sounds like an amazing waste of time.

I've connected with 3 exmo missionary friends and one exmo college buddy. that's been great.

On the negative side, I don't really care that you had a "yummy dinner" last night.

I'm weird and I try to keep my friends at around 150. I will actually go in and clean house and work to make sure I'm friends with people I have actually loved.

The best thing about facebook for me is keeping in a sort of contact with my family back in Oklahoma (we live in Southern Cal now). It's not like sitting down in the same room with them, but after a year or two of not seeing each other, it's as if we've been in touch the whole time.

It's also a good tool for communicating with my kids, especially my son who got out of the Army last summer and is living in Oklahoma. Sometimes when broaching difficult subjects with kids, it's best to start out with texts or facebook messages. FB is best because it will store messages with important information for them. Neither of my kids use email now, so FB is the only way we can really do that.

Drawbacks are that I have friends I honestly can't stand and they make stupid comments on my profile. But everyone usually understands. I don't care what they're doing on their own walls, unless they're praying or hoping that Obama dies. Then I unfriend them. That's my threshold.

I don't "Like" anything on FB because those are all apps and they store your information. I don't keep any private information on FB anymore. Not even the books or songs I like because they linked all of those to pages. And I block ALL games that my friends play.

I guess, for me, FB is a level of communication with people that I wouldn't really be in touch with on a regular basis and I really do enjoy that. And then I can communicate with my kids in their own medium. Both good!

I have a love/hate thing with it. I enjoy reading up on the lives of those I care about. I have family who live far away, so to see what fun trip my brother took, or where people went camping, or how their children have grown up is interesting. At the same time, I'm one of those Facebookers who have some offerings to the site about once a month. Other than that, I don't pop in much unless I'm prompted by an email that someone has said something about a pic of mine, or asking me a question. I don't play the games and try not to offend anyone with something I say.

And, at least 175 million other people log in every day. They estimate 500 million worldwide had Facebook.

I don't play games or do apps. I can "Hide" anything I'm not interested in that day to get through my page faster.

I enjoy the pictures, especially of family and friends I don't see as often as I would like.

It's a social network. I like one more way to keep in contact with people. I have met a lot of interesting people on Facebook. I enjoy it. It's fun. I can leave a message anytime of the day or night and they will get it.

Most of my friends and family are busy and a FB message or comment or email, is much easier then a phone call.

I have it set to get an email of some of the comments. I can check those and see if I want to add a comment, otherwise, I can delete them.

It has it's quirks and limitations like anything else.