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Oooh, oooh!!! I do! I find it objectionable! 
That’s like saying “If you do not have/partake of every single modern invention you cannot fully participate in modern life”. By the slimmest of definitions that is a true statement. In reality it’s hokum. No one can participate in every aspect of modern life (or ancient life, for that matter). It’s impossible, there is not enough time, money or interest to do so. We all choose those things in which we will fully participate, dabble in or completely ignore. I love my smartphone (all hail Google, knower of all!) and I love to dabble here, but I choose to completely ignore Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Am I missing stuff? Undoubtedly. Stuff I care about? Not so much…
I think it’s more like we have this same thread every two weeks and it gets old after awhile.
I have a FB account, solely because a music group I play with uses it as the primary method of communication. I have no content on my homepage, and no friends other than family.
I use my smart phone to make and receive calls and IMs, and take pics which I seem to never look at again. Other than that, the main use is to find directions or phone numbers when out and about. (I like paper maps.) I have 1 app. I dislike doing much substantive on my phone - simply do not care for the small screen.
Never sent or read a tweet.
I would be absolutely fine with - probably prefer - simply having a desktop computer at home and work, and a landline w/ answering machine. I readily acknowledge the value of being able to look things up on the internet so easily. But I prefer my newspaper, magazines, and books in print form.
The more society turns digital and virtual, the more I find myself drawn to the tangible and “natural.” I value privacy and anonymity. For the most part, I don’t give a damn what you like or are doing, and can’t imagine why you would want to know the same about me. Technology is a tool, which I choose to use in limited instances when it enhances my life. At 55, I welcome becoming more and more out of touch.
So no, IMO, you aren’t missing much.
So very, very true. And yet, there is one thing I find FB useful for, and that is niche interests. FB Groups have become the bulletin board for all kinds of common interests either too small, local, or too diffuse to have a self-managed discussion website. Groups I follow include:
People who like meeting others for horseback riding on trails in parks within my area code. Also (overlapping membership) the county horsemans’ association. International group devoted to my rare breed of dog. Upcoming events of interest and daily scripture offered to parishioners of my church. Tri-county livestock for sale group. International Liturgical Arts group (decorating churches).
Probably any interest you could name has a FB group now. I used to belong to all kinds of different discussion boards but except for very large interests, they all died as everyone gravitated to FB. It’s a flawed format to say the least, but it is very easy to figure out how to use it, and it’s free.
Really?
They’re a part of many news stories.
I like Twitter. I can say any of the dumb things that float through my head each day, and they either get a laugh, an interesting response sparking a conversation, or just disappear into forever. On a rare occasion I get an actual response from a celebrity I admire.
I also like it for the people I follow, getting to partake of someone’s daily life in a small way that they choose to share. They can be funny, interesting, creative, or important, and sometimes make me think.
It is quite remarkable.
Facebook, on the other hand, is bullshit I can’t be bothered with.
I’m not sure if Facebook is horrible because I’m unable to control the noise, or if I’m horrible because I simply don’t care for 99.9999% of the content that it shows me, or if other people are horrible for posting stupid, time-wasting bullshit that can’t possibly be relevant to anyone but themselves.
Thank goodness most news sources still maintain RSS feeds. Those are dead easy to curate.
Fair enough.
I know many people who have met their SOs on-line, or have had success through Meet-ups. So I’m not foolish enough to say such things cannot be of use to many.
But I find it hard enough to avoid surrounding myself with an echo-chamber of folk who come from backgrounds and hold views similar to me. As I understand it, platforms such as FB and Twitter can tend to emphasize that echo-chamber - identifying what you have liked in the past, and feeding you more of it. Sure, that can be pleasant in terms of music or humor - not so much when it comes to politics or philosophy. I don’t generally perceive myself as overly paranoid, but I perceive a great deal of modern technology as a means for manipulating and marketing to me - which I disfavor.
This is one of the few places on-line that I like to waste my time. It is enough for me.
Wait, there are Android Chromebooks now? When did that happen? All of the Chromebooks I’ve seen run some flavor of Linux.
Fair enough, indeed!
It’s all good.
Chrome OS is getting the ability to run Android apps, is what I think he means…
since I have lived in Nevada (2 fire seasons now) I find the very best source of news on wildfire is a facebook page by a local authority.
less than a week ago I could see and smell the smoke from my house and the wind was blowing hard and I needed to know what was going on.
also, one of my dogs recently had pancreatitis and I found a facebook group for people with the same problem: instant place to ask questions and share info.
the answer to your OP is, of course you are missing something. there is opportunity cost for every thing you do. it’s up to you to decide what’s worth your time.
Some of the responses have, to a degree, made clear the practical uses of a smart phone. There are tools that I could use in everyday life, such as getting directions, etc. I don’t exactly have the Ted Kaczynski approach to technology, however, I somehow see getting a smart phone as the edge of a money vortex in that I would find myself always having to have the latest…having to “upgrade”, having to spend more and more and more money on “data plans”, having to be exceeding aware of hackers, trackers, and other nefarious activities. It seems having one creates more and more of a dependency. It also seems like a whole bunch of trouble that I do not now have with my 5 yr old, almost-broken, flip phone.
As for social media… I have read all the replies and I have seen nothing that gives me incentive to participate, except perhaps impending disaster info as mentioned above. My own daughter told me the other day she put out a twit (or maybe is was a Facebook message) that she was going to be away from her phone for half an hour while she was in the Dr’s office. Really?? Half an hour?? Totally cut off?? The horror…
I simply do not want to be that connected, or should I say dependent. My friends and family have my phone numbers, email, and they know where I live. Thanks, but as far as social media, I’m out.
That’s fine, and it’s totally up to you; but your response sounds a bit like “I don’t want a TV, because couch potatoes” or “I’m scared to ever take a drink, because alcoholics.”
You young-uns with your bipedal locomotion, agriculture, and hand tools…
Who needs 'em!?
To be fair, and I can’t believe I’m defending Facebook, you can hide most all of that stuff. For example on a Candy Crush game invite you can click on the upper right corner and you’ll get the option to block notifications from Candy Crush.
And if certain people keep annoying you, you can either unfriend them or “unsubscribe” to their posts. Unfriending them isn’t a dramatic thing, they won’t get notified. I carefully curate my friends list, it’s small and I rarely get annoyed by any of them.
Mrs. DrumBum uses Facebook to catch up friends and family around the globe. Given the difference in time zones having some sort of connectivity is quite important. Less important but still occasionally useful are the games and cute animal videos.
I stand corrected!
I just thought anything Google would be Android? But even still, if Google is supporting the Chromebook, that is a potential replacement for my Microsoft irritations!
Except Facebook isn’t sending an automatic friend request to everyone on that list. It just uses an algorithm based on information you gave them to suggest people who you might already know. It only sends friend requests to people if you decide to send them a friend request.
If you’re worried that your boss will discover you’re on Facebook, send you a friend request, and then fire you when you don’t accept, well, all I can say is that I’m sorry your place of employment is such dystopian hellscape.
But also note that it’s possible to configure your privacy settings such that you could accept your boss’s friend request, and then set it so that you never see posts from your boss and your boss will never see posts by you, all without your boss knowing. Or just, you know, don’t friend your co-workers or your boss. Or, if you think Facebook would be a valueless waste of time, don’t join Facebook.