a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by lessismore
lessismore  ·  4736 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Facebook is making us miserable
I still don't get Facebook. It probably would help if I joined the network, but I just don't see the benefits of having an account outweighing my privacy concerns.




ecib  ·  4736 days ago  ·  link  ·  
So I probably log in less than mk, -about once a month, maybe twice. I actively dislike Facebook. But....everybody is there. If you've never been on the site, it's hard to understand just how finely tuned their process and algorithms are that steer you to find everybody you have EVER known (and conversely have them find you as well).

So in effect, there are a ton of friends and acquaintances on there. A few months ago I was in NYC and wanted to hook up with an old friend of mine who moved out there, but I had lost her contact info. I logged onto Facebook, sent her a message, and lo and behold, 15 minutes later I get a phone call and we made plans to get together that night. Quite useful.

For me, Facebook is pretty much just a social address book that populates itself instead of me having to track everybody down in real life, which I would never do. It's kind of a corner case, but that's what I use it for, and I won't delete it for that reason. Other than that though, it's pure hatred, and I'd love for everybody to be on a different service someday :)

thenewgreen  ·  4735 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I used to use it a lot to invite people to "new green" shows. Now that we aren't playing live shows any more, I'm really considering abolishing my account. The only thing that keeps me there are the things mk mentions... pictures of my daughter to share with my family that live away etc. My entire family, including my grandparents have FB accounts. -How messed up is that? My grandparents are on FB. That tells me 2 things: 1.It must be a pretty easy to use interface 2. FB is super lame. I used to be on there a lot more before I started hanging out here too.
forwardslash  ·  4736 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I used to have a facebook account which I used mostly as a sort of extension of my social toolbox. All of the conversations you have with friends about what you've done and are going to do fit nicely within your profile and network of friends, allowing you to keep in touch even when you can't visit with someone in real life. Unfortunately it became a replacement of social interaction instead of an extension. After I had deleted my facebook account I had situations where people asked why I wasn't at such-and-such a party or get together. I simply told them I had neither heard of the event nor had I been invited, to which they consistently responded, "Well, it was on facebook".

I also didn't like how it really diluted the meaning of the word, 'friend'. People's friends lists would swell to huge numbers and some of them they would barely know at all ('we were at the same party this one time') or outright not like at all.

I can see the benefits of having a service not unlike facebook, but for me at least the benefits seem to have become drawbacks.

mk  ·  4735 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Yeah, I found out I was invited to an event after it happened, because the invite was through Facebook, and I just don't check it that much.

It's kind of sad that when you are using a service just because you feel like you have to. I think that feeling creates a lot of resentment.

I deleted my LinkedIn a few months ago, and it felt great.