Well, I checked my page, and the only thing I learned is that my cousin is a Trump supporter, an Obama hater, and apparently a full blown loon who thinks there was a recent giant parade of Muslims marching through Chicago chanting “Death to America!”. Posted a picture and everything. Must have missed that somehow. Living here in Chicago, you’d think I would’ve seen it on the news, but no…
I could’ve done without that little bit of family update.
I always thought it was funny that people said I should sign up so I could talk to high school friends. People I have not cared about for over 35 years. So I should suddenly communicate with them?
Have you reached out to people you care about and engaged them?
If it’s not for you so be it, but it’s not like it’s such a conundrum why others might enjoy the platform.
I resisted for a while, then finally joined up when I was housebound for a couple of months and had not much else to do. I’m glad I did. The big draw of Facebook, for me at least, is that it shows you connections between people.
By connecting to a few friends, I followed their connections to other friends, and so on, getting back in touch with people I had lost contact with years ago. I reconnected (and later got together for dinner) with two old school friends, both of whom passed away unexpectedly in the next two years; I’m very grateful that I got to see each of them one last time.
I’ve had lots of friendly chats with people who I really didn’t get along with in high school, and found that they’ve grown into charming, intelligent adults. I’m glad that I got to find this out and make peace after all this time.
I was notified about local events that I enjoyed attending, which I would never have heard about through other channels.
I had a platform to notify people about local talks that I gave, targeting people who were both interested in the topic, and were local to the venue.
All of these things I couldn’t have done (not as easily, at least) on a forum like this. Plus, it’s easy to block or ignore other people’s requests to play games (I’m not a game person) , or political diatribes.
Facebook is to the internet what the Student Union is to a university campus.
I pretty much hate the goddamn thing, but it’s how my kids stay in touch, so it’s a necessary evil.
Yeah, ten years ago I was saying the same thing. But I joined Facebook, and started talking with them, and y’know what? I found out that I like them now. (Well, some of them, anyway.) A few decades sure changes people.
I can see keeping in touch with local friends and distant relatives.
But zero interest in people I last spoke to in 1978. I should add I never go to HS class reunions and I still live in the same area as my high school so I could go easily.
I did not have many HS friends anyway. I do wonder if people look for me on FB but my guess is very few people look for me .
I almost closed the account when I was contacted by the wife of a guy I worked with in the Navy back in the 70s. Her husband had died and she was clearly trolling for new meat. I brushed her back, and about a month later I got an almost identical repeat email. My response was more brusque. Fuck me, join a goddamn dating site.
it seems there have been people getting back with old flames via FB and that has led to divorces.
A funny story from 2012 was a guy who got mad at his GF for a FB picture of a guy - it was Mitt Romney. 
And this is different from the rest of the internet how? Years ago it was Live Journal. Or some other blogging site. New type of website, same old shit.
It seems like old people love to send chain emails about how Obama is the devil. So I guess that stuff is now on FB too?
In olden times you would have had to take a picture of your lunch, wait days for the film to get developed, put the picture in envelopes, address the envelopes, put stamps on the envelopes, mail them to your friends and they wouldn’t get them for days.
I loathe Facebook. I’m forced to have one for my business, but have absolutely no interest in communicating with anyone from high school, so I don’t want to get a personal one.
It’s a “walled garden”, a return to the Bad Old Days of AOL and Compu$erve. It’s a Roach Motel of information - content goes into it, and doesn’t come back out.
I have about 100 FB “friends,” but have blocked all but about 20, without unfriending them.
Ello went nowhere, even though they’re still hanging on.
36 posts and nobody has mentioned the baby goat videos? I love cute animal videos 
You mis-spelled “misinformation”.
I once got in an argument over Facebook, and one of the other responses from a friend of a friend was an old boyfriend of mine who lives in Norway. So now we are FB friends and I get to see what’s going on with his daughter’s handball team, and where he and his wife are hiking or skiing this month.
It’s nice.
A couple of weeks ago I posted a complaint about the ridiculous construction happening outside my office. (I mean, seriously? Are these people total lunatics? Those three little buildings in the middle were a lovely garden and solarium last week.)
Anyway, an old high school buddy responded that it was bugging her two as she’s on the next block and . . . Hey! We should have lunch! Which is now a standing Thursday lunch for us.
It’s just really nice. It keeps people close who you could just never otherwise make time for.
You know when you’re at a party, and a conversation starts on a certain topic, and you know buddy #3 would just LOVE to be inon this, so you start looking around, and trying to gesture him/her over to join you? On FB you can put the topic out there, kinda like we do here, and invite everybody in. Those who are not interested go back to scrolling for baby pictures (or compalining about baby pictures) and ALL of your firends and relatives who are interested can join the chat.
And if, like me, you have a crazy cousin JoAnne who always has some bizarre take on the topic, other people can join in and straighten her out. So you don’t have to ALWAYS be the one who does it.
Bottom line, if something funny,or good,or really bad happens, I can share it with my 100 closest friends in only 5 minutes. And those who aren’t interested aren’t stuck on the phone pretending to care.It’s a Win-win.
As for the OP - I’m guessing that was their main mode of communication, and one of them cut it off. So, yeah, that’s a big deal. “I don’t want to hear from you” is a big deal among family members.
I think it is interesting how a lot of people hate Facebook, in a way that no one hates phone calls, email or face-to-face interaction. I hate it, too. I’ve tried having a Facebook account three times, and ended up closing it every time. At this point, I’ve given up on it. It’s the only mode of communication I’ve had that happen with. And I’m not a luddite, or opposed to social media on principle. I came to it with an open mind.
Facebook seemed to turn a lot of my friends and acquaintances, people that I liked just fine in person, into blithering idiots. And worse, I noticed *myself *coming across as a blithering idiot, much more than I do in other contexts and on other platforms, including around here. (And, yes, I know: That’s saying something.)
I don’t think it’s just about me, either, as it seems that other people have similar experiences. I haven’t bothered to attempt any kind of analysis of why, but I really do suspect that there is something about the format itself that causes it. As someone put it in another thread, Facebook brings out the worst in people and the worst in people.
Question: if you look at someone’s page, will you end up on their “people you may know” list?