Giving the social media (Facebook) the boot

[chicowoodduck]

After a few years, have finally pulled the plug on my Facebook account. ?

Was spending far too much time dealing with all the kooks and knuckleheads of the world and the constant attempted hacks into my account even with all the restrictions I had in place.

Time to get back to the real world and get my face off the screen.....?

[starky]

Never had it, never wanted it complete waste of time. Congratulations welcome back to the real world where if you want to know what your real friends are doing you can just catch up or even just call them.

[kannot]

its ok until folk spend every minute of the day on it, I dont have one i use the Wifes and see some UK friends posting minute by minute sometimes..........get a real life

[HooHaa]

it is what it is.

I find it useful, you may not.

[nikmar]

I can do without it , but its a good point of contact to friends far away. It's also a good point of contact with my wife who lives an alternative life on faceache.

I could do without seeing what people have for any meal inc. snacks and all the narcissistic b/s that goes with it though.

[CharlieH]

Something that never really took my interest, neither did Twitter. I use "line" for family only, cheaper than the phone.

[Guest]

I have been using less and less Facebook. One of the reasons is the filtered algorithm, which decides what I see and what not. I'm not very keen to live in an bubble where an AI provide me stuff to like. I like controversies, different type of opinions, as those are often the fastest way to learn how others might think.

Twitter on the other hand, I'm addicted to it. Absolutely great way to get information around the world, by all kind of people. Sometimes really fun and witty, sometimes informative and more serious. A bit like good old IRC at the time it was the way to communicate with the rest of the world.

If Twitter decides to add mandatory filtering, I'm likely to go back to IRC or to some other system, which provides unfiltered information feed.

[Rayk]

it is what it is.

I find it useful, you may not.

Please do explain its usefulness. Does it make you breakfast in the morning?

How about bringing you your slippers?

Does it do you taxes?

Maybe it cuddles you when you're sad.

Or is it that you can watch your friends post ridiculous photos of their food or even worse themselves.

Yes, very useful.

[SoiBiker]

it is what it is.

I find it useful, you may not.

Please do explain its usefulness. Does it make you breakfast in the morning?

How about bringing you your slippers?

Does it do you taxes?

Maybe it cuddles you when you're sad.

Or is it that you can watch your friends post ridiculous photos of their food or even worse themselves.

Yes, very useful.

It's a social network. People that enjoy being sociable will find it useful. Others, well, not so much.

[Rayk]

it is what it is.

I find it useful, you may not.

Please do explain its usefulness. Does it make you breakfast in the morning?

How about bringing you your slippers?

Does it do you taxes?

Maybe it cuddles you when you're sad.

Or is it that you can watch your friends post ridiculous photos of their food or even worse themselves.

Yes, very useful.

Open your eyes mon ami....

Few weeks back I was thinking about a friend I had half a century back....Looked on FB for his name...Nothing. Searched FB surnames for anyone in the area he may still be....Found a lady in that area with the same name.

Sent a message...."Is this guy your family".....She replied..."Yes it is my dad"..

Wow.....Her dad, my old friend, he does not have an iPhone or PC, so she went to his house and showed him my stuff on her iPhone.....It was my chum, we now talk when she visits.........Brilliant.....

I could do the exact same thing utilizing about a million other sites on the internet in about the same amount of time.

[bermondburi]

it is what it is.

I find it useful, you may not.

Please do explain its usefulness. Does it make you breakfast in the morning?

How about bringing you your slippers?

Does it do you taxes?

Maybe it cuddles you when you're sad.

Or is it that you can watch your friends post ridiculous photos of their food or even worse themselves.

Yes, very useful.

Good way of staying in touch with people a long way away. Also, messenger is free for calls.

[crabdog]

I found it okay after I unfriended everyone that was not a close friend and changed settings so I don't get notified every time someone scratches their a$s.

[thaiduncankk]

I found some long lost teenage friends on it, also folk l had lost contact with during my life. Am really pleased about that....

I did the same, got their details, then cancelled the account again.

It served it's purpose in enabling contact again, but I very much doubt I will ever use it again.

[thaiduncankk]

it is what it is.

I find it useful, you may not.

Please do explain its usefulness. Does it make you breakfast in the morning?

How about bringing you your slippers?

Does it do you taxes?

Maybe it cuddles you when you're sad.

Or is it that you can watch your friends post ridiculous photos of their food or even worse themselves.

Yes, very useful.

It's a social network. People that enjoy being sociable will find it useful. Others, well, not so much.

I enjoy being sociable, although I prefer socialising with people in person, as opposed to being behind a keyboard.

I went through many years without social networks, so I am quite sure I can see the remainder of my years out in a similar fashion.

[SoiBiker]

it is what it is.

I find it useful, you may not.

Please do explain its usefulness. Does it make you breakfast in the morning?

How about bringing you your slippers?

Does it do you taxes?

Maybe it cuddles you when you're sad.

Or is it that you can watch your friends post ridiculous photos of their food or even worse themselves.

Yes, very useful.

It's a social network. People that enjoy being sociable will find it useful. Others, well, not so much.

I enjoy being sociable, although I prefer socialising with people in person, as opposed to being behind a keyboard.

I went through many years without social networks, so I am quite sure I can see the remainder of my years out in a similar fashion.

Fair enough. But the world moves on, regardless of whether you choose to keep up or not.

[White Christmas13]

Well I just came back from my holiday in Thailand ( lived there for many years )

and I wasn't very happy about smart phones, I got one now because I have been

forced by the phone company to update but never mind about technologies

Why do people have to search on face book, twitter, line or anything else for that

matter for pictures of food or anything else. Had for dinner the last night

on my birthday when we had plenty of food on our table I had 12 guest and 11

were searching on the smart phones for some thing this included my wife

Nobody talked, I sat there nobody said a word to me but they all had to take

a picture of the food and then left ( after posting it on what ever )

Don't wan't to post more or I will get abused by smart phone lovers

Cheers

[Guest]

Using smartphones is like smoking cigars. There are times and places to use those items, but it's not the dinner tables.

I'd recommend, if that happens again, you'll light up a cigar, right there at the dinner table. When the others will wonder what you are doing, redirect the same question to them and ask what they are doing.

[White Christmas13]

Using smartphones is like smoking cigars. There are times and places to use those items, but it's not the dinner tables.

I'd recommend, if that happens again, you'll light up a cigar, right there at the dinner table. When the others will wonder what you are doing, redirect the same question to them and ask what they are doing.

Even this is a good idea but I have not seen any cigars for sale in the area where I lived

but I appreciate your reply maybe I try a whole pack of cigarettes next time

[Guest]

Please do it. Sometimes it's worth of doing something, which makes people think.

After that dinner, when the guests come for a visit for the next time, you can offer them a box where they can put their phones when they come in. At that point they all understand why you do it. Most likely they will enjoy your real life interactive dinners more than dinners in other places. Who knows, they might even copy the habit.

The social media and internet, overall, is pretty amazing tool to be connected to the people around the world. It can be used as a communication between friends and family members, but it also gives the possibility to connect to much more people. Even in personal level.

As I'm not a big fan of FB, I'll use Skype as an example.

Skype offers, for few dollars per month prices, to call everywhere in the world. People use this mostly to either connect their loved ones, or while trying to sell something to others. What if we would use it in a different way.

We could, for example, select a random number in South America. If the person, who answers, is not too busy, we could use these calls as a tool to learn Spanish as well as share information and ideas. After all, one could make the receiver to feel happy and special, after the initial weird feeling is gone.

That's what the social medias is all about. Ability to get outside of our bubbles and connect to the folks who we did not know existed, yet could matter to our lives. It has nothing to do with the baby, dog or food photos. Funny cat videos are naturally alway welcome.

[SoiBiker]

Please do it. Sometimes it's worth of doing something, which makes people think.

After that dinner, when the guests come for a visit for the next time, you can offer them a box where they can put their phones when they come in. At that point they all understand why you do it. Most likely they will enjoy your real life interactive dinners more than dinners in other places. Who knows, they might even copy the habit.

The social media and internet, overall, is pretty amazing tool to be connected to the people around the world. It can be used as a communication between friends and family members, but it also gives the possibility to connect to much more people. Even in personal level.

As I'm not a big fan of FB, I'll use Skype as an example.

Skype offers, for few dollars per month prices, to call everywhere in the world. People use this mostly to either connect their loved ones, or while trying to sell something to others. What if we would use it in a different way.

We could, for example, select a random number in South America. If the person, who answers, is not too busy, we could use these calls as a tool to learn Spanish as well as share information and ideas. After all, one could make the receiver to feel happy and special, after the initial weird feeling is gone.

That's what the social medias is all about. Ability to get outside of our bubbles and connect to the folks who we did not know existed, yet could matter to our lives. It has nothing to do with the baby, dog or food photos. Funny cat videos are naturally alway welcome.

So you want to confiscate your friend's phones, and make nuisance calls to random people in South America?

I don't think either of those things is quite as good as idea as you imagine.

[fiddlehead]

It's an age (or generation thing)

Most people age 15-40 are on it.
Most over 60 are not.

Out of 100 from my high school class, 3 are on it.

It's useful for me to see pics of my nephews and nieces: kids, vacations, and keep in touch with them as I now have about 20 and don't want to write to each one everytime I have a great picture of my kid rock climbing or playing football etc.

I never click on the political shit, and don't really care what their dog looks like, or how it looks comfortable on the couch.

But, if I didn't have it, it wouldn't bother me so much.
It can be a useful tool.
Depends how you use it.

[gerry1011]

Funny to see people addicted to a forum criticize social media

Personally, I could live without tv, but not without Facebook.

And besides this, I see on my Facebook timeline far far far more positive and enjoyable content than what I can read on this forum.

Both are entertaining in their own way though...

Edited March 4, 2016 by gerry1011

[Guest]

So you want to confiscate your friend's phones, and make nuisance calls to random people in South America?

I don't think either of those things is quite as good as idea as you imagine.

Why do you imagine so?

[Guest]

Do explain, really. Do explain the both cases.

Edited March 4, 2016 by Guest
Quote hidden post

[musiclover]

Using smartphones is like smoking cigars. There are times and places to use those items, but it's not the dinner tables.

I'd recommend, if that happens again, you'll light up a cigar, right there at the dinner table. When the others will wonder what you are doing, redirect the same question to them and ask what they are doing.

From my past life, smoking a cigar at the end of a meal was acceptable, the ladies shuffled off somewhere while we smoked and had a little banter....

Hmmm......I hope you passed the Dow '55 or perhaps the '63 (better I think ..from memory of a past life) round the table the correct way ...lol

[Guest]

For real?

You need it explaining to you how your guests would find it obnoxious when you insist on confiscating their possessions on arrival? Or why being interrupted by a random , pointless phone call from someone who doesn't even speak their language wouldn't exactly someone them feel 'happy and special'?

You're a long way detached from reality.

Maybe you did not understood what I said.

I said: The internet and the social media is pretty damn great possibility to be able to interact with people around the world.

I said: We should not be afraid of communicating with other people, we should embrace it.

I said: It's wonderful to be able to meet and interact with people who don't share our cultural background and thus can teach us something new, which we could never have thought of.

When it comes to the everyday interaction, I'm one of those people who talk to others while waiting for a bus. I'm one of those people who learn a new language to make a girl laugh. I'm one of those people who simply want to learn, what others thing and why they think the way they do.

I want to expand my bubble, far beyond what my cultural background expects. How about you? Do yo really wish to keep within your little bubble, for the whole of your life? Do you really wish that?

Btw. When it comes to the languages, the languages are moderately easy to learn. I'm sure you have already learned several. Anyway the reason for the suggested calls was not just the language, the reason was to get connected with people from different backgrounds.

[SoiBiker]

For real?

You need it explaining to you how your guests would find it obnoxious when you insist on confiscating their possessions on arrival? Or why being interrupted by a random , pointless phone call from someone who doesn't even speak their language wouldn't exactly someone them feel 'happy and special'?

You're a long way detached from reality.

Maybe you did not understood what I said.

I said: The internet and the social media is pretty damn great possibility to be able to interact with people around the world.

I said: We should not be afraid of communicating with other people, we should embrace it.

I said: It's wonderful to be able to meet and interact with people who don't share our cultural background and thus can teach us something new, which we could never have thought of.

When it comes to the everyday interaction, I'm one of those people who talk to others while waiting for a bus. I'm one of those people who learn a new language to make a girl laugh. I'm one of those people who simply want to learn, what others thing and why they think the way they do.

I want to expand my bubble, far beyond what my cultural background expects. How about you? Do yo really wish to keep within your little bubble, for the whole of your life? Do you really wish that?

Btw. When it comes to the languages, the languages are moderately easy to learn. I'm sure you have already learned several. Anyway the reason for the suggested calls was not just the language, the reason was to get connected with people from different backgrounds.

You've clearly completely misunderstood both Facebook and Skype. They're not things you use to approach strangers - they're ways of keeping in touch with people you already know.

[SoiBiker]

What on earth are you talking about?

Facebook has, according to recent figures, 1.59 billion regular users. Are you suggesting that all those people are somehow lacking in social skills?

You're not interested in social media? That's your decision. But don't kid yourself that there's anything wrong with the huge numbers of people that are.

DELETED

Edited March 4, 2016 by seedy
troll / flaming

[SoiBiker]

I'm sure a hundred years ago people who neither used or understood the telephone were telling each other how stupid it was.

Meanwhile, the world continued to move on without them.

[AZBill]

Don't have Facebook. If I want to look at other people's kids, cats and dogs, I'll ....... Never mind I don't ever want to look at such things.