The Why I Don'T Use Facebook Poll!

[Jingthing]

This PC magazine opinion piece resonated with me.

Facebook is basically AOL with a different layout and all the same retro problems.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375715,00.asp

Plus of course the privacy issues. Also, apparently, the big growth area for FB accounts is OLD people. That says something. Thus the age categories in this poll.

Feel free to comment on why you do or don't have a FB account.

Edited January 15, 2011 by Jingthing

[villagefarang]

If you know how to use it then it is just another tool and not inherently evil in and of itself. I started off with a blog and now I have Village Farang registered in a multitude of places, including FB and Twitter.

As with all social media, some can find a use for it and others, maybe not. I find it useful but don’t use my real name or personal information.

[Travel2003]

Voted yes, but I will soon close my profile/account there.

The whole Facebook experience is getting a bit too silly I think.

Just a personal opinion.

[MAJIC]

Voted yes, but I will soon close my profile/account there.

The whole Facebook experience is getting a bit too silly I think.

Just a personal opinion.

Agreed

last time I went on, there was about 400 invitations to be friends with,its like a pyramid scheme that spreads out, if I said yes to them all,next time I would get thousands of invites, and all to people I dont know and have no wish to.

It also invades privacy,and if someone puts your photo on,you cant delete it.

Someone once asked me to play a stupid game,and feed his animals,while he was on holiday,otherwise the game would end with dead animals.

Overated and stupid,in my opinion.

Not forgetting the stalking and pedo element .

Edited January 15, 2011 by MAJIC

[smokie36]

I use it to keep in touch with family mainly who are spread around the globe......I don't post pics there though.

[bkkjames]

The latest stats I saw on friday there are 5.4 million people in th on facebook, 70 percent within a 50km radius of bangkok.

A year ago it was 3.4 million.

[DP25]

Don't have one for a lot of the reasons in the article, and never will have one. Just don't get the big deal, can't stand that site or it's online culture. Wish I'd made it though

[villagefarang]

Simply set everything to ‘friends only’ and say no to people you don’t actually know. It is a nice way to eavesdrop on family and friends. Helps people stay in touch in this spread out world we live in. Helps to have a browser that blocks all those annoying adds, as well.

[pjclark1]

I find it a really good way to keep in touch with friends around the world and share photos.

Do I care if the whole world sees my photos? Why would I?

I have never had invites from strangers, I would suggest some of you don't set your privacy options correctly.

Edited January 16, 2011 by pjclark1

[bangkokcitylimits]

Facebook has an identity problem. Too serious and boring for young people, too stupid for serious people.

I really don't care who became friends with who, who updated his profile photo or whatever nonsense data. It's annoyingly polluting the Wall and when you switch it off you also switch of the 'more interesting' posts. When I block someone from peeping the ladies in my contacts list he still can see this people when they post on my Wall. The newer functions are even more stupid, totally useless message notification for every message in an active chat. Somehow I don't want to delete the account -although I did few times before- but also not understand why not. Facebook's functioning is totally annoying why they don't wanna see it, they are too sneaky in reaching their own goals in stead of making is useful for the people, because people are not important for Facebook.

[KhaoNiaw]

Facebook's not for old people in Thailand.

It's the easiest way for me to get in touch with my students now, much more effective than using their official student email addresses, which they rarely check.

[whybother]

I find it a really good way to keep in touch with friends around the world and share photos.

Do I care if the whole world sees my photos? Why would I?

I have never had invites from strangers, I would suggest some of you don't set your privacy options correctly.

Agreed.

[IanForbes]

At this point in the game I have nothing to sell. I can contact my children by phone or e-mail and it's the same with my friends in Canada. So, there is nothing in it for me. I already have enough lady friends and couldn't find time to fit more into my life. I ALREADY waste too much time on internet forums. Anybody who needs to contact me knows just how to do so. I don't hide from anyone.

[maxman71]

I agree with Ian Forbes. I am very busy with my business and spend a huge amount of time on the net as it is. I also do not obtain much satisfaction with reading about what someone having a latte and crossaint on a warm sun day somewhere. And, as I have grown older (52 this Wed), I have come to value my privacy and solitude more than ever before. I also have an inherent mistrust of big corpo internet schemes and I do not perceive FB as honoring personal privacy enough.

I did have a FB account until several months ago when I fully deleted it. It is quite a multi-step process to do so, and even after one has executed those steps, it takes 14 days for the final account deletion to take place. FB does not let go of you easily. Another reason for my suspicions.

Just because I am a bit paranoid does not mean people are not after me. It could be worse; I could be a paranoid with low self-esteem and afraid that no one is after me...

[Travel2003]

I use it to keep in touch with family mainly who are spread around the globe......I don't post pics there though.

Just like a good old Instant messenger?

[ExpatJ]

Im considering closing my FB account. Why?

Firstly- i dont want to share the same info about me necessarily with my work colleagues/friends/family- those are 3 groups that i think are better kept separate not grouped into one category of FB 'friends'. I hate that pics taken by others of me can be tagged and suddenly appear in all my friends FB pages (yes after hunting around you can turn this feature off- but what other types of info will be shared by FB with my friends before i have to figure how to stop it???).

Secondly, i cant stand all the stupid games/questions/pokes/kisses/prods/cheers/beers etc etc that people send to each other and me

Thirdly- the FB pages are a mess and a pain to navigate around.

Fourth- FB is trying to be all things to all people- it can do many things OK but none very well- i think people will drift away to more spcialised websites..

Fifth- it depresses me somehow that many of my friends lives seem to revolve around their FB pages with endlessly perky wall postings "Couldn't sleep last night, so two coffees for me this morning!" Why oh why my friend, arghhhhhh!!!!

Edited January 17, 2011 by ExpatJ

[bangkokcitylimits]

The fastest and most effective way to get rid of your Facebook account (and other useless social networks) is the Suicide Machine.

http://www.suicidemachine.org/

[Langsuan Man]

My opinion is that if you want to know what is happening with me SEND ME AN EMAIL

This whole BS of keeping up with friends is just that BS, you should be able to keep up with friends via email, phone, or god forbid "snail" mail, otherwise THEY or YOU are not worth keeping up with

Edited January 18, 2011 by Langsuan Man

[NaaLak]

Its nice to stay in touch with my friends back in Europe and see what they up to and play Poker with them.

[PhilHarries]

My opinion is that if you want to know what is happening with me SEND ME AN EMAIL

This whole BS of keeping up with friends is just that BS, you should be able to keep up with friends via email, phone, or god forbid "snail" mail, otherwise THEY or YOU are not worth keeping up with

That pretty well sums up my views on it as well.

Plus I find all this virtual schoolyard "will you be my friend?" stuff between people who don't know each other, have never met and probably never will a little bit creepy.

And like others I have absolutley no interest in the day to day minutae of peoples' lives. Hence I also have nothing to do with the Twittering classes.

[deejah]

big brother IS watching

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMWz3G_gPhU