Facebook

[Stillhomewardbound]

I'm wondering how many of us on here are signed up to Facebook.

Do you consider it a good thing / bad thing?

Would you allow tagging on your pcitures?

Is it merely a social tool or a business furtherance app?

Did you understand the last questions?!


SHB

[ahinton]

I'm wondering how many of us on here are signed up to Facebook.

Do you consider it a good thing / bad thing?

Would you allow tagging on your pcitures?

Is it merely a social tool or a business furtherance app?

Did you understand the last questions?!


SHB

Well, I'm not, for starters; to me, it less of a good or bad thing and an unnecessary one. I have a face and quite a few books and that, together with email and a website, is good enough for me.

At least no one can rightly accuse me of inciting any riots using Facebook...

[Norfolk Born]

Well, I'm not, for starters; to me, it less of a good or bad thing and an unnecessary one. I have a face and quite a few books and that, together with email and a website, is good enough for me.

At least no one can rightly accuse me of inciting any riots using Facebook...

That goes for me too (except that I don't have a website either).

[Serial_Apologist]

A friend of mine quite recently went on Facebook, in order to communicate with someone who was already on it. Within a short time she found herself bombarded with unwanted and unwarranted posts from people purporting to be her "friends". I myself have been offered the ultimatum of Facebook communication being the precondition of any further correspondence. I have dropped that person as a contact. I'd say, keep well clear of it.

S-A

[Panjandrum]

It is, like many things, a tool. Neither more nor less. It can be put to good uses or abused, in equal measure. The key, as ever, is responsible usage; and effective and commensurate and proportionate policing (in every sense).

I have found Facebook useful to communicate with people, some of with whom I would undoubtedly not have been able to do so otherwise. Some of its features (eg Wall; Info) can be extremely informative and act as a de facto website for those unwilling or unable to go to the expense of setting up and maintaining a website.

[Don Basilio]

That's my experience, panjandrum.

[Mr Pee]

I'm signed up to Facebook and I have re-established contact with many old friends through it, right back to my days at music college in the 1760s. It's also a handy way of getting in touch with people if I don't have their email or phone number, since I can message themm directly through the site.

Of course, it's also an amazing way to waste time. And unlike some on the site, I don't have 4,000 friends and I haven't uploaded thousands of photographs for complete strangers to gawp at.

And here's a glimpse of Facebook in the 1970s, courtesy of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnBtqCaZ1pY&feature=related

[amateur51]

I'm signed up to Facebook and I have re-established contact with many old friends through it, right back to my days at music college in the 1760s.

So did you actually get to meet Haydn then, Mr Pee?

[BBMmk2]

I am in Facebook. It certainly has advantages and disadvantages. Through this, I have reestablished contact with friends who have moved to other side of the world, which is always very nice and also some music friends in the US.

[Pianorak]

I was curious and decided to sign up to Facebook. Within seconds my screen filled with email addresses from people I hadn't been in touch with and been avoiding for years. What horrified me was that Facebook had all these email addresses from a very distant past and from computers which had packed up and been taken to the skip years ago. Needless to say I cancelled within seconds of those revelations! Absolutely shuddersome!

[Chris Newman]

I am in Facebook. It certainly has advantages and disadvantages. Through this, I have reestablished contact with friends who have moved to other side of the world, which is always very nice and also some music friends in the US.

Much the same experience as mine. I just ignore the dross and cuty poo games.

[Anna]

I'm not on Facebook , but I do wonder, how many here are on Twitter? You don't have to join it order to follow Tweets

[cavatina]

I have a Facebook account, but never post pictures or give details about my life...I really don't have the time. I mainly use it passively to read what everyone else in my network is up to; I suppose you could say I'm in "wallflower at the party" mode. If I don't like a photo someone else has taken of me, I strip the tags as quickly as possible.

I signed up for Twitter just to subscribe to Jon Jacob. I occasionally put up referral links to interesting psychology and science articles thanks to the "forward this link to twitter" button which makes it easy, but other than that, haven't really bothered with my own content at all. Another drawback is it's such a pain to sign out of-- I'm terrified I'll accidentally click a "forward this link" button on something I'm reading nobody needs to know about. Which in itself is enough to put me off social media entirely.

One of my good friends is very active in a Facebook network of animal rescuers who find homes for cats and dogs on the NYC animal shelter's "Death Row" euthanasia list. She specializes in finding homes for abandoned cats: my other good friend does the driving for her, and I take pictures and let them use my apartment as a "halfway house". Last year, we personally saved a lot of lives...very satisfying.

Here's a Youtube introduction to the group:
PETS ON DEATH ROW

And here's the Facebook link. Warning: depressing.

http://www.facebook.com/PetsOnDeathRow

[MickyD]

I was curious and decided to sign up to Facebook. Within seconds my screen filled with email addresses from people I hadn't been in touch with and been avoiding for years. What horrified me was that Facebook had all these email addresses from a very distant past and from computers which had packed up and been taken to the skip years ago. Needless to say I cancelled within seconds of those revelations! Absolutely shuddersome!

My own experience exactly, Pianorak. I couldn't unsubscribe quickly enough. Incidentally, should anyone have difficulties doing this (and Facebook make it difficult to do so), I provide here a useful link from last year's Telegraph which shows you in easy stages how to unsubscribe:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7724359/How-to-delete-your-Facebook-account.html

[Stillhomewardbound]

It is all of a mixed blessing. I belong to two groups by which it is excellent for keeping in touch, as well as my further family group. However, it is very much based on an American model of sociability which is apparently obligatory, hence all the rubbish with 'friends' and 'buddys' and increasingly options for which members are automatically linked into.

It also begs a question: do people no longer value their privacy? And has discretion, once considered a virtue been cast aside altogether. Certainly one would have to assume given the full-voiced mobile phone conversations one has to endure on the train.