What is facebook

[dextercf]

Thread de-railed.. is now about "what is facebook"..
 

[MaineEvent]

Let's keep facebook polls on facebook

[Samstag]

What's a facebook?

[SavannahLion]

What's a facebook?

A place where modern teenagers go when they're too much of a ---Bad words, bad words, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when saint censors you?--- to breakup with their boyfriend or girlfriend, commit suicide, and watch videos of cute little puppies.

[Dervacumen]

You might as well show your family jewels there.  That would be a good avatar.  Just a pic of your jewels, 'cause any attempt at privacy is immediately lost.  I think I'll add it to my resume when I apply for my next job....

[Howard_Casto]

I think what annoys me about FaceBook the most is that it seems like the service gets a lot of cool games developed for it. 

I refuse to join out of principal.....  I don't want my entire life on display and it sickens me that other people not only would, but somehow think that anybody else is going to be interested in their daily habbits. 


Facebook reminds me of second life, all the uncool businesses are jumping all over it atm.  Eventually it will die out though.  At least I hope it does... the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

[jamesjones626]

I refused to use the whole myspace and facebook thing.............but after many years i gave in, only to see mostly whiney post about "oh why is life so hard?" o "why is the world so bad to me when i do no wrong" kinda posts.  Kinda sickens me.  I don't really post to many pesonal things, maby funny stuff that may happen to me, but for the most part, my wall is nothing but troll thread and utter stupidity.  I personally know eveyrone i friend, and i don't go looking around for "hot chicks" or whatever to friend, I don't have 19,000 friends but only really know, like 10.  It is what you make of it like everything else in life.  Everyone gets a real kick outta my post and pics, and usually tells me about it and how much they laughed when they seen it.  I think thats the real purpous of my account is really to put a smile on my friends and co workers face.

[yotsuya]

Honestly, there's nothing wrong with Facebook. It's a great communication tool for adults.

[fallacy]

[DillonFoulds]

I have facebook, I'm probably on it once a day, or more. It's a great too for staying in touch with people I can't see that often due to life situations.

I have a son (<1 year old), and for my father-in-law it's a great way to see videos and pictures of my son, so he can at least follow a lot of my son's growth.

Personally, I'm not concerned about privacy. I trust everyone on my facebook, and have my privacy settings set to very restricted. Anything I post of my son I set to only allow very certain people to see. This is two-parted, one for my privacy, but also out of courtesy for those on my list that don't want to be inundated with posts about my son. I don't have geo-tagging enabled on any of my devices, for what I feel are obvious concerns.

TL;DR - Facebook is a great tool, when used properly. Not the First World Problems, but actual real life networking.

[yotsuya]

TL;DR - Facebook is a great tool, when used properly. Not the First World Problems, but actual real life networking.

Exactly.

[Blanka]

Research showed that woman have 3-5 real friends, and men have 1-3.
I don't know why I should drown them in 300 fake friends and 200 pieces of family I never see....

[dextercf]

Facebook for me is socialising from my couch.
It's allso a communications tool, inspiration and everyday chitchat I seldom get to do IRL cos of work+kids+household.
In addition to facebook, I guess I use my computer as other people use a TV. Only better, I entertain myself with the content I want to be entertained with. Allthough facebook kinda spams with a bunch of crap because my "friends" likes other topics than I do, that might go both ways (or more) as I tend to spam with stuff  I find cool. Like arcade related stuff 

[knohbody]

What's a facebook?

A miserable little pile of secrets?

[Thenasty]

there are security settings such as letting only Family or certain users see what you put up there.

Nice to see some pic of family if they are out of country.

[Samstag]

What's a facebook?

A miserable little pile of secrets?

My understanding was that Facebook is the polar opposite of "secrets".

[knave]

Facebook is what you put into it. I resisted for years...finally I was convinced to at least have a page...I don't put much up there but it has allowed quite a few old friends to find me. For that it's worth it.

Lock it down and it is less annoying.

[Ginsu Victim]

what is facebook

[Vigo]

I mostly hate reading facebook. I read stuff about old friends and classmates that I never wanted to know, don't care about, or just get irritated by. I am sorry, but I hate seeing junk like my friend from 4th grade who links I should support X candidate in the next election, or how the girl who lived down the street from me when I was 10 just got drunk last night and vomited on her own shoes.

On the flip side, I like getting a bit of news from my HS and college friends. Who is married, has kids, working where, etc. It is also been great for my wife to connect to her family and friends back in her home country. It has been priceless in that regard.

I guess I take the good with the bad. I use a generic photo and leave out my personal info, and I don't really post anything or play any games. I check in every couple days at work, but that is about it.

[SavannahLion]

I don't really care much for Facebook. Partly because the people who I really want to stay in touch with generally aren't on FB. It did allow me to get in touch with a couple of cousins whom I had a Hell of a time tracking down otherwise. However, in retrospect it probably was better not to find them since they turned out well... troubled. 

Facebook causes a lot of superficial problems. I got a nasty email from my brother's fiance about me fussing on her wall. Seems FB was showing my wall posts on her wall and she thought I was posting them directly.  I have a fairly lax stand on language when it comes to cursing as long as it's not overly gratuitous. But she wanted zero cursing. I told her to block me and to read my wifes posts instead. She didn't like that. Oh well. Not like I read her wall about how many months she's been sober.

[ark_ader]

Its like this article I read about racist trolls on Facebook.

How does a person you do not know get in your facebook page in the first place?

If you add the troll in then you are responsible for their content, right?

I don't really care much for Facebook. Partly because the people who I really want to stay in touch with generally aren't on FB. It did allow me to get in touch with a couple of cousins whom I had a Hell of a time tracking down otherwise. However, in retrospect it probably was better not to find them since they turned out well... troubled. 

Facebook causes a lot of superficial problems. I got a nasty email from my brother's fiance about me fussing on her wall. Seems FB was showing my wall posts on her wall and she thought I was posting them directly.  I have a fairly lax stand on language when it comes to cursing as long as it's not overly gratuitous. But she wanted zero cursing. I told her to block me and to read my wifes posts instead. She didn't like that. Oh well. Not like I read her wall about how many months she's been sober.

I had the same problem with a relative, with regard to the Sherry Hackett "We noticed".  That person's personal views (which were incorrect at the time) were visible to my other friends.  Really embarrassing.  I would be nice to have a feature where you can censor someones response if it causes your grief.  I do not curse of facebook, but I do like the odd (PC) joke.

[CheffoJeffo]

I mostly hate reading facebook.

So ... don't ... not rocket science.

If you don't like the crazy "FakeBook" postings of some of your "friends", then just exclude them from your feed. I know folks who post the most inane, and untrue, things and I just opt to have their posts excluded. Problem solved.

[yotsuya]

I mostly hate reading facebook.

So ... don't ... not rocket science.

If you don't like the crazy "FakeBook" postings of some of your "friends", then just exclude them from your feed. I know folks who post the most inane, and untrue, things and I just opt to have their posts excluded. Problem solved.

Exactly. I don't unfriend them, I just remove them from my feed or block their game requests.

[dextercf]

I know folks who post the most inane, and untrue, things and I just opt to have their posts excluded. Problem solved.

+1

[Vigo]

I mostly hate reading facebook.

So ... don't ... not rocket science.

If you don't like the crazy "FakeBook" postings of some of your "friends", then just exclude them from your feed. I know folks who post the most inane, and untrue, things and I just opt to have their posts excluded. Problem solved.

I kinda went on to explain why i do read facebook even though I hate it.   

I actually do exclude a few "regretted friends" from my feed. Works great, but most everyone I friend, I do actually care about their bigger goings on in their life, so I need to keep the info. I don't accept too many friends on FB, maybe 250ish people, so I put up with the good and the bad as-is.

[quintinbiker]

If i may throw my 5 cents in too.

Well I've got facebook, but hardly use it, just go on, see what everyone's upto then go off again, I'll rather spend my time on youtube.

[dextercf]

...(cut)...just go on, see what everyone's upto then go off again...(cut)...

This is what everyone else does also.. but regurarly.
I check on avarage ever other hour or so of my awaken time, to be fair.

[BadMouth]

[DillonFoulds]

Sounds like a viable back story for you. I won't take those odds.

[Green Giant]

Facebook is an ingenious advertising scheme where you actually trick foolish users into providing detailed information free of charge to Facebook who then sales it to companies looking to target them with ads.


Everything else you guys have said is wrong.

[Vigo]

Facebook is an ingenious advertising scheme where you actually trick foolish users into providing detailed information free of charge to Facebook who then sales it to companies looking to target them with ads.


Everything else you guys have said is wrong.

I think that describes most the internet in general. That is definitely google's business model.

[Turambar]

what is facebook

I came here for this.  Ginsu did not disappoint.

[dextercf]

Facebook is an ingenious advertising scheme where you actually trick foolish users into providing detailed information free of charge to Facebook who then sales it to companies looking to target them with ads.

Which does not bother me. It's kinda just a service to me, as I get spammed with products and stuff that fits my habits/needs and whatnot.. Better than getting spam about discount on shoes, skirts and barbie dolls..?

[shmokes]

Twitter is so much worse. Twitter is just facebook minus every potentially useful feature. I don't get it.

[Samstag]

Twitter is fine.  Just don't bother following any real people.  You might like this one: @bluthquotes

I use it mainly to follow a few news feeds relevant to my interests.  I haven't seen feeds from any individual people that were anything but a whole lot of noise.

[Howard_Casto]

Twitter is so much worse. Twitter is just facebook minus every potentially useful feature. I don't get it.

Here is social networking as I see it in a nutshell shmokes....  There are people like you and me, who prefer to actually talk to people one on one either in person, on the phone, or in a forum like this one.  These people want to converse, exchange ideas and have a legitmate discussion.

Then there are other people who only want to communicate on a very superficial level....  they want to give the illusion of having many interpersonal connections without all the pesky interaction and meaningful conversation.

 Twitter is the pan-ultimate expression of this.  Someone can post a tweet about an event in their life as if they are talking to someone but in reality they aren't talking to anyone in particular.  It's the real world equivelent of going to the top of a building in the middle of the night and screaming "I LOVE _____!"
On the flip side people that have no relationship with you at all can wander in and post comments as if you wanted their opinion, they know the poster enough to give a valid opinion or anyone cares.  It's the equivelent of yelling back to our rooftop screamer "NOBODY CARES!  SHUT UP!"

If you read some actual twitter feeds, be they from famous people or not, you'll notice that my examples aren't much of an exaggeration in terms of the content of a typical tweet.

I think it's a fairly good observation, but of course that's just my opinion. 

[knave]

On occasion I get a tweet from some local businesses that they are hosting a cool event I may want to attend. that is the only use I have found for Twitter.

[dextercf]

About twitter.. I used it to calm my curious side today.
As I was riding the bus on my way home, we where "pushed aside" by 4 firetrucks and a ambulance. I was of course curious as to what had happen, so I grabbed my phone and logged on to the local newspapers website. Nothing.
Sendt a quick text to my brother in law, who are working as a supervisor on the emergency center (911).
Checked facebook and posted a question if somebody knew something, then logged on twitter and there I was informed by the local police departments twitterfeed (to which I subscribe, or follow as is the twitter lingo).
Even before my brother in law replied, I have gotten the information through twitter.

Twitter was also quite usefull, alongside facebook, when we had the now called "22. July event" which you might have hurd about (link here). Communications, vital, was supplied to the people involved. Also used twitter and facebook to recruite blood donations and other kinds of help that was needed.

But yeah, aside from this. Twitter is kinda rubish in the daily.
There are quite a few people here in Norway worth following, and about 90% of them are everyday people giving jokes and random stuff that cracks me up from time to time.

[yotsuya]

I follow writers and news outlets on Twitter, and it's very useful. I don't tweet or follow regular people on it, though. That's what Facebook is for.