I am only on Facebook to keep up with one nonprofit group I belong to. I unfriended everyone. Once a week or so I install the app, check for messages, then uninstall it. That way it does not distract me.
However I am on LinkedIn and expect I will be until I retire.
I am here.
i am also in an online hoarder support group that does not allow registration or logging in - you just post anon, it is up to you to ID yourself in your post so that people know who you are.
for a while I posted on a homesteading B.B.
And for years before Facebook I belonged to a B.B. of moms whom my family called my “imaginary friends”. We were a tight knit group and supported each other through a lot. We talked about how someday we would be posting about grandchildren and retirement homes, some of us met each other irl. And then Facebook happened, and people slowly drifted away. A Facebook group was started, I refused to go. Eventually there were only about 6 of us actively using the board. The others sent “we miss you” messages through people who were on both sites. They didn’t miss us enough to post or email. Finally the board was let go. I mourned it. One friend has stayed in touch.
i find Facebook a mile wide and an inch deep. My mother has an account that she graciously lets me log into now and then when my kids post a cute picture and forget to send it to me. Sometimes I check my cousin’s page as she no longer writes or calls. It has little real content beyond her profession (makes sense as her employer could check it)
my school uses uses Facebook exclusively for the school newsletter. So, I never get to read it (my mother is not a member of the group) this is sometimes a minor inconvenience.
i think facebook book has been responsible for more disconnection in my life than any other factor. Although, I also used to correspond with over a dozen individuals, and once we could “just email any time”! I found they slowly stopped emailing. Again - one friend continues, with about the frequency of the letters. That might also represent a Facebook shift though, as it got progressively worse.
I am not anti technology and certainly recognize the benefits of electronic mail, internet facilitated business and social networking but I find Facebook to be a #lookatme narcissistic endeavor primarily. That Zuckerberg became so wealthy with it is evidence to me of the addictive nature it was intentionally designed for. Having been sucked into the vortex of addiction in other areas of my life......I find it satisfying that I avoided the Facebook virus.
There have been times when I wished I could foster an actual handwritten letter exchange with a friend. To modify CLs catchphrase......I think that would be “an inch wide and a mile deep.”
A little positive Facebook story: 15-20 years ago I subscribed to several Usenet groups (for those who haven't experienced it, Usenet is kind of computer-bulletin-board-like and mostly text). There were groups for pretty much any interest/cause. Slowly the popularity of computers and the addition of people with no computer background (or interest in learning how to use them) caused Usenet to descend into a morass of repeated threads, spam, and flame wars. One international cooking group in which I participated was highly affected by this deterioration, to the point that it just wasn’t worth keeping up a kill file and wading through the hotheads for the gems that remained. I dropped out.
A few years ago, several core members of the group moved it to Facebook. Now that 1) administrators controlled who could join the group; and 2) people had to post under (what Fb will accept as) real names, the signal-to-noise ratio has increased tremendously. Now we also can have pictures with our questions/cooking results and it's far more real-time than Usenet could muster. I'm back in that group again and benefitting from the expertise of all these fellow cooks as well as the others who joined once it moved to Fb.
Maybe that could have happened if the group had moved to its own Web site. Or not. Thing is, many (most?) people know their way around Facebook. As the numbers show, they don't want to join twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. and learn how to navigate those sites. They're already on Fb for whatever, and their presence creates a critical mass that attracts even more special-interest groups. This is the same inertia that keeps Google on top despite their extraction of every user's privacy. Not saying that's good; just saying that most people are not computer-savvy and that once they know how to use a tool, they like to use it for as much as possible, even at some cost to the tool or what they're using it on.
By all means, if Fb isn't doing it for ya, keep away or leave. I'm simply positing that the sheer popularity of the platform results in a kind of "utility" status. Life does not require you to have an email address or a phone, either. But not having one (or both) has its price. If you want to pay that price, fine. But don't expect the rest of your world to bend to your (minority) preference. They've already voted.
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington
if I am too upset by someone posting things over and over, I just unfollow them.
FB allows me to keep in touch with so many people who share positive updates.
If they step over the line too far, just unfriend.
I am always interested in how people perceive and use Facebook. I'm on it and I like that I have built it to see what I want to see. I follow several artist groups where you can safely share your work and get constructive feedback. I follow a local news source and a couple of groups for specific medical issues. It is amazing how some people have done much more legwork on their conditions than their doctors ever do. I have picked up some very valuable information. I noticed that since Zuckerberg tweeked it there is less junk popping up. I'm satisfied with it.
I just unfollow or block the people who annoy or really peeve me. I'm part of several closed groups for divers that are much less snarky than another huge forum for diving. I connect with a lot of people and I too like the reduced number of business type posts since the tweaks.
My FB consists largely of diving involved stuff, Great Lakes shipwreck stuff, and there is nothing that could cause any possible employer issue (my page is locked down anyway).
Is LinkedIn really of any help? Potential employers may check it but I have yet to see any indication it impresses anyone. And you will get no more job offers from it than just posting a resume on a job board. I suppose it's sole use may be trying to network with strangers working in a company you would like to work in to try to get in to a company that way. But how many are really going to friend a stranger looking for a job I wonder. And if there is a way to communicate without first adding a connection I guess I'm not aware of it.
Seems mostly useless stuff promoted as somehow being useful.
Trees don't grow on money
I'm a passive LinkedIn participant, but I think it works. I know potential clients look me up. Because I'm a freelancer, I may benefit more from being on it than other people who are employed by corporations, but I would never NOT be on it. It gives me credibility and it opens doors. My bio is on there, endorsements and reviews.Originally Posted by ApatheticNoMore
And a photo I'm embarrassed about because my daughter took it. Even though it's only 4 years old, I look 20 years younger because she's a graphic designer/photographer, and I think she touched me up. But I'm constantly in fear that someone will sue me for bait-and-switch when they hire me and then find out I'm an old lady.
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
www.silententry.wordpress.com
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