Why do you post them here?
You only post of Facebook what you want whoever you gave permission to read.
You don’t. If you’ve never met them, they are probably spam. Facebook is typically for people you already met.
That’s pretty much what people do.
Actually, I find it to be a pretty good way to develop friendships with people I might normally meet once and never see again. It’s also good for reconnecting with old high school or college friends (presuming that you have some).
Um, yeah, again facebook is a tool. It depends on how you want to use that tool. There is no law or requirement that you post “everything” on facebook. It’s a way I can get in touch with a lot of people that I want to get in touch with. Oh, and I’ve had people in my family act/react the way the OP did to facebook, but once they actually used it, found it quite useful.
Does Facebook charge?
Can my computer get viruses/malware from Facebook?
No
You can get viruses/malware from connecting to any website on the internet.
Buried in the EULA there is that clause about when you sign up you grant them exclusive rights to your Immortal Soul, but other than that, nah.
Does anyone else think the OP is being sarcastic?
! was reluctant to join FB but my sisters who live on the opposite coast talked me into it. I’m glad they did, in the end it’s much more efficient than e-mailing several people and reconnecting with old friends has been great. Also, non-users may not realize how much they can control. I make sure my privacy settings are exclusive, can hide all ‘farm-town’ posts and without actually dropping a friend (who posts way too much about mundane stuff) I can block her from my news feed but still check out her page when I want to catch up. As many commentators have noted, it’s all about how you choose to use it.
Reconnecting is different, IMO, than what the op is asking. I can see that as a useful aspect of Facebook but the question is why do people invest so much time in it instead of actually meeting up with them.
I’m continually amazed at the complete social disconnect I see in restaurants and bars. It is nothing to see a table full of people texting OTHER people. WTH??? That is beyond rude in my book and a complete waste of human interaction. The same goes for cell phone conversations. If you are out with other people and you are not expecting an emergency call then turn the frickin phone off. When mine rings I reach over and squeeze any of the buttons to silence it.
No, that’s just you, Guin.
It does have a very real effect in that way. I left my tiny town in Louisiana when I graduated high school and never looked back. I live 2000 miles away now and have for 16 years. I joined Facebook last summer even though I was opposed to the general idea. I have been pleasantly surprised. Its real beauty is what it does behind the scenes which is figure out who you know even though it was a really long time ago.
I have reconnected with lots of people and it meant a lot to me. I woke up on my birthday last week to find a whole bunch of best wishes from people that I haven’t seen since I was 18 or even much, much younger. Facebook is a social networking site in the same way that Google is a search engine. That is to say that the idea has been around for quite a while but combining raw computing power with human psychology is what it is all about and it is revolutionary even moreso than the telephone. I hope people see that because that is where things are going. This is just the early stages. Combine the early incarnations of Facebook with GPS technology and privacy is out the window and nothing can stop it. Facebook has already altered corporate hiring practices and legal procedures like divorce and it has no where to go but up.
Uh… because I can’t afford to visit my old college roommates and work friends from old jobs and law school classmates in places like Michigan, Massachussetts, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, California, Australia, and Tajikistan as much as I’d like to. Is that so hard to grasp?
FB friends that I live near enough to visit with, I generally see the same amount as I ever did. FB is useful for planning get togethers, remembering birthdays and sending a quick email with a question.
Every time we have one of these threads the OP seems to harbor strange beliefs about how people use FB. I don’t friend anyone I don’t know in person AND like AND wonder how they’re doing.
That’s not what the op is asking or eluding too. He’s talking about people who spend time on a computer instead of socializing directly. I added the observation that people do this during social groupings with text messages and phone calls. This aspect of Facebook doesn’t make sense.
This is very real and I will gladly second the motion that it stop.
So, now I can’t get away from the life/lives I quite deliberately left behind 40+ years ago?
THAT is even more scary than kids using their phones to text their lives to people they have never met.
The idea that FB can figure out who I know/who knows me is downright terrifying.
OK, we now can keep in touch with people with whom we had never had a reason to maintain contact? And you think this is a GOOD thing?
Just what do you say that is of interest to every friggin’ person you EVER knew? If I am your parent, I’d expect a slightly different conversation than the one you have with old grade school buddies.
Thans for the info - but maybe, just maybe the natural separation that time and distance provide serves a purpose.
I am slowly moving - I ran across an old letter from a guy with whom I had worked. The letter was dated 1986. His is an unusual name. I googled. That guy in the state of xx doing work as a xxxxxxxxxxxx just MIGHT be the same guy. Guess what? I can’'t think of a single way in which a phone conversation (how old fashioned, huh?) with him could last more that about a minute. So, what re you doing? Ever get married? How do you like doing xxxxxxxxxx in xx?
So I’m asocial.
The idea of checking email and finding “updates” from the people I left is NOT a pleasant one.
I should tell my sibs about my terminal diagnosis. Probably won’t - nothing good could comw of thqt, either…
If I know that you and someone else each have a mutual friend in common, then I know that the mutual friend knows you both. OOOOOH, SCARY! Are you terrified by my super powers? Well, you should be, because that’s pretty much all Facebook is doing.
Also, you must not be a very interesting person. Granted, not every status update is a gem, but for the most part I am quite interested to read what my friends and family are up to on a daily basis, and vice versa.
Of course you can get away from them. Nobody forces you to track down everyone you ever knew when you sign up to Facebook. If you don’t want to contact someone, don’t. If someone happens to search for you and send a friend request, you can ignore it and need never hear a word from them.
Who said it was a good thing? Do you really think people go on Facebook to find people they have no wish to contact? Why would they do that? 
So you don’t phone him. Simple. You have a phone, he has a phone, but nobody is forcing you to talk to him. When you got your phone line, did you immediately start getting phone calls from everyone you ever knew? Did anyone force you to phone your ex-co-worker’s sister’s hairdresser? No? Well why do you imagine Facebook would be any different?
I really don’t think you understand how Facebook works. You choose who you add as a friend. You choose who sees any of your details, and you choose whose updates appear on your Facebook page.
I do agree with you on one thing though - I tend to find the idea of “status updates” extremely puerile. I might post a “status” once a month if I have some news, but generally I can think of very few things that I would want all my Facebook friends to know - friends, family, colleagues. I haven’t delved into the settings to see whether you can display different statuses to different groups of friends, but perhaps someone can enlighten me?
Your problem clearly isn’t with Facebook. It’s with people.
Good luck with your health.
You are vastly more likely to get malware from Facebook than any random website. It is Mos Eisley.
My wife loves it but she has to do malware scans constantly.
I personally have no use for it. I hate the entire concept of “friending” someone, even actual real-life friends, I hate the idea of being found by old acquaintances. And I loathe the bullshit pseudo-drama of “do I friend this person, should I unfriend this person?” I like the anonymity of discussion forums like this one, of sharing only the information I wish.
My brother is a technophobe, and he has been getting all sorts of people telling him that he needs to get onto Facebook. He sells heating and air conditioning systems, and apparently Facebook addicts turn to Facebook to find everything, including a heating and air conditioning system. But I know that him “getting on Facebook” would inevitably involve me creating and maintaining his Facebook page…when I don’t want to have one myself.
A pox on the entire phenomena.
Yet you have no qualms about posting to a messageboard that’s searchable through Google. Gotcha.
In my profession, I have to use Facebook.
If you don’t play any of the games or insist on clicking on every random stupid link that shows up in your feed, it’s not really that bad.