Anyone else? What are your reasons?
I think Facebook is great for far-flung families who want to keep up with news and events. Beats the heck out of round robin phone calls, letters, and pictures. That’s not my sitch. For myself, I don’t like the idea of being public. If I want someone to know something, I call, or I may email a handful of people.
Any other VPDs (Very Private Dopers)?
rhubarbarin likes this
Congrats; no one gives a shit.
Okay.
I’m effectively not on facebook, all I have is my name, a photo of me, and a shell email account address for people to contact me with. I have dozens of “friend” requests and zero “friends”.
I am not interested either. I guess I just don’t like people that much. I don’t care what former acquaintances are doing and I don’t see why they should care about me either.
My kids think it is great. Maybe I am just in the wrong age group.
Well, aren’t you just so special.
I was on Facebook for a while. I wound up in a fake relationship where neither of us could possibly move (or at least want to move), due to career goals. I reconnected to a bunch of people I knew in High School. They were people I knew, 20 years ago. Despite their labels, they were not my friends.
A lot of people get a lot of utility from Facebook, and good for them. For me, even though Facebook would take me back, I’m done. I’m not cooler than you, it’s just that after almost a year of use, I realized that Facebook was a net negative. For me. And only for me.
For most, it’s a net positive and I respect that. It’s just not for me, so I quit.
It’s not a frivolous question. Not having a Facebook account is perceived as abnormal for those less than “fucking old.” Those of us less than 80 years old who choose not to Facebook are perceived by many as weird.
There’s no need to be dickish about it.
“I’m not on Facebook” is this generation’s “I don’t even own a television” or “I don’t even own a cell phone”. While it should be perfectly possible to use any of those phrases without sounding smugly superior, in practice the people who work these lines into conversation often do so because they feel smugly superior.
The OP actually sounds less smugly superior because their reasons for not needing Facebook are spelled out and are something more than just the dismissive complaint that everyone is on it (or something about sheeple). However, the title of the OP does give that instant impression that it’s going to be a thread brimming with smugness (no offence intended, OP).
I don’t bother with Facebook myself because it’s more effort than i’m interested in putting into something that nobody I care about will ever see.
Also because Facebook is evil. 
Another non-FB person here and I’m not smug about it - I’m just not interested. I had an account for a while, but too many of my “friends” used it to spew their political BS, most of which was hateful. I also got tired of being asked to play games and I didn’t see the point of someone “buying me a beer” or whatever other silliness they did. It was more of an annoyance than it was worth to me, so I dumped it. I know I miss out on certain things since the whole world, including businesses, seem to think it’s essential. My loss…
Without being dickish, if you are not on FB and never will be, how can you possibly know if there are any benefits? Were you once on it- it doesn’t seem likely.
I’m an observer on FB…and I know a lot of people who are. I post “happy birthday” once in a while, or some brief innocuous status update, and I’ll respond, but not often. But mostly it lets me track the activities of people I know. There are a few I’ve blocked - either their activities are boring, their links annoy me, or I discovered I don’t care about them. I block all games. This leaves me with a hundred or so “friends” (including my son, and as a parent you do want to observe the facebook activity of your teenager), and really only about ten posts a day, eight of which I can scroll through quickly, one “funny thing I found on the internet” worth a peek, and an article I’m glad someone pointed me to.
You explained your reason quite well. But IRL “I dont have Facebook” is almost always accompanied with a raised nose and a sniff.
Oh my goodness. I had no idea this would be a sensitive topic. Seriously. I’m not brimming with smugness. Just brimming with curiosity. And now even more.
As I said, I’m not trying to be smart about it. However if you haven’t been there the benefits (and disadvantages) would be more obvious.
If you had arrived and said " I have been on FB for 3 months and loathe it" I would agree. I need to shut down my account every few months because it starts to give me the creeps.
The games, and the bullshit you don’t like- well you can avoid those. Facebook does give you chances to catch up with old friends (normally through another friend) and find out what flakes they have become
Obviously this is a little bit of a sensitive issue, so let’s remember the forum and try to keep it civilized (aka, nobody saying anyone else is being a dick or any other way).
I have a FB account but rarely go there - maybe once every month or so. Other than being connected to far-flung family who I hardly ever talk with, I find it to be a complete waste of time. Some of the people I am connected to seem to feel it necessary to post all kinds of non-sense, several times per day. I mean, don’t you have something better to do? Stuff like, what chapter of what book you are on, photos of your family sitting down to a meal with the label “mmmmm”, photos of your trip last weekend, status of your Farmville game. I mean, total crap. My time is limited, I would rather spend time here on th Dope!
My friends and my publisher are after me to get on Facebook and start Twatting to promote my books, but the very thought *exhausts *me. I may have to get a teenager set it up for me,
I communicate with lots of people–friends, acquaintances, readers, the occasional blood enemy–via e-mail, a friend’s blog I write for, and through the SDMB. I also have a website through which I am easily findable. I just have no desire at all to “social media,” but I suppose for business reasons I am going to have to start . . .