How Long Can Facebook Stay On?

Not the most pressing issue, I know, but this damn site seems to be going a mile a minute. I like the clean layout and finding out where my old school friends are in life, but I could do without… well, most of it. The empty promises of drinks with people I don’t really like. The chance that someone might tag me in a less-than-flattering photo. And now the influx of Myspace-style applications. Plus the site’s first ped*phile and some crazy conspiracy theories having to do with the CIA…

Can the site continue on as it is or is it only a matter of time before people customize their pages with horrid pink backgrounds and every second message is spam from a Russian hooker?

Dear God I hope not. The main reason that I have facebook over myspace is because I can’t stand the crappy .gif animations and music that come on on almost every page. I like that fact that facebook is not customizable to that extent.

I’m constantly having friends ask me why I’m not on myspace and I reply it’s because I’m not a freaking 14 year old girl.

I like facebook because it’s simple and a good way to stay in touch with people. I hate all the stupid new applications people are adding, though - it’s turning into MySpace. Graffiti walls, fortune cookies, “super poke”… they’re unnecessary and annoying, not to mention an invasion of privacy because signing up for them makes all your info available to advertisers.

I hope it keeps going and doesn’t get much worse, because it’s really the only way I’m keeping up on my friends’ lives. We don’t email each other often enough, and there are too many people in too many circles of my life to keep them all up to date on the right things without sending out mass emails all the time. I can put news on Facebook, and those who care can check on me.

That sums it up for me. It’s allowed me to reconnect with people from high school who I hadn’t seen since graduating (5 years ago). In fact, because of Facebook I’m going out for coffee with 2 of them next week.

As long as the applications don’t get too out of control and they don’t allow anyone to embed music or videos into their page, I’ll be happy.

Those applications are REALLY annoying. I was annoyed enough when the newsfeed appeared - yes, I know I can set mine so no one can see whatever it is I do on Facebook, but plenty of my friends haven’t fixed their settings, so I get to see when they posted on someone’s wall and when they updated their profiles and when they last took a shit. Now people have all sorts of colorful crap on their walls and it’s driving me nuts. At least most of my friends have been sensible enough to ignore this latest fad.

The applications are annoying, but I found one that I enjoy. I just refuse to add any others (the one I added is the “show your bookmarks” one…)

I also use it and myspace, specifically because I use myspace to go into the music mostly. I like to look at local bands, regional bands, and such. It’s a good vehicle for that, but yeah, the people with the ridiculous pages are, well, ridiculous. I’m hoping facebook can save itself from the ridiculousness, but if not, it isn’t the end of the world (someone will make another social networking site like that if it goes to the dogs, then it will go to the dogs, and there will be another one made…it’ll go on forever, IMHO)

Brendon Small

I like the idea of using Facebook, etc for keeping in touch with people and I do use it. Problem is I’m 34 years old and relatively few of my friends from college or high school use it. So basically all my online friends are my 22 year old interns from my company.

That’s my problem too. I’m forty and most of my friends are the high school girls I coach. :dubious: I hope it becomes more popular and more of my peers discover it; I find it so much better than MySpace.

Yea, the problem is that for along time you needed an email address that ended in .edu in order to join. Now that they’ve opened it up to everybody they’re a bit late in the game in attracting th older demographic.

I’m on both Facebook and MySpace. The problem is, NONE of my classmates from my high school graduating class are on Facebook, but 40 or so classmates are on MySpace. So I end up using MySpace a lot more to connect with old friends. It’s definitely an age thing - I am 31, so many of my peers are not on Facebook since it was closed to non-college students until recently.

Hey, has anyone set up a SDMB group on MySpace yet? If so, we should. I need some more Facebook friends, I look like a loser! :stuck_out_tongue:

Ok guys, for shits and giggles, I made a SDMB Facebook group: Straight Dopers

Join it! I am lonely in there :wink:

Done!

Or you could have searched “straight dope” and found the older one. Facebook Public Group | Facebook

OH DAMN, and I did do a search, except stupid me, I think I searched on “straightdope.” Duh. Maybe I will delete the new group… although the new group could be just for people on the message board. The other group is labeled as a Cecil fan club. What do y’all think?

I joined both groups. Frankly I’ve had no use for Facebook except to get distraught messages from classmates the night before a take home final was due. “Uh, what did he want us to do again??? When is it due?!” :rolleyes:

I joined myspace 'cause my nephews and sister were on it, but I like the look and feel of Facebook a lot more. Cheers Dopers!

So…I just kind broke up with my boyfriend via facebook. I think.

I hit the “cancel relationship” button.

It is, by far, the stupidest way I have ever ended a relationship.

But I figure…I didn’t realize we were really dating until he facebooked us into a relationship, so the relationship is ending the same way it started.

This whole situation makes me feel really, really old. I found the entire thing ridiculous to begin with…and having my relationship status up there in public made me terribly uncomfortable.

Actually, when I think about it, I’m not really sure that we are “broken up” since I feel like we should actually talk about this at some point. I guess I just got cranky one night and wanted my personal life out of a public forum.

It’s still damn stupid though - I’ll never let anyone post my relationship status online ever again.

And done too!

I have heard so many stories like yours. Forget pedophiles and cyberstalkers, I think ruined relationships and drunken facebooking seem to be the biggest dangers (so far).