This is probably a pointless comment… but I guess this is the right place for it.
You read headlines several times a week about people who said something really stupid, insulting, revealing, even illegal on Facebook. WTF are these people using for brains? I know that when you’re sitting at home alone in the dark of night on your computer, there is the ILLUSION that you’re alone, and that the teeny words you type on the screen are harmless and will go into the ether and land nowhere… <sigh> But once you push that “post” button, especially on a site like FB, you are both public and immortal.
I know there’s no rational explanation. Just needed to say that.
I found that most people seem to ignore these types of comments, though I’ve only been on FB for a few months now. One of my friends had posted a pretty atrocious comment (one of those mass-forwards) that I had to simply respond to. The backlash of Derp that followed was simply too much.
People post stuff on here that they probably shouldn’t, too. Hell, I know I have. At least on here you’ve got a layer of anonymity that you don’t have on Facebook (well, unless your FB info is fake).
This is my point. Getting on FB AS YOURSELF and insulting ethnic groups, confessing you boffed your college prof to get an A, admitting stuff you did that was illegal… acting like this stuff is NOT public.
I see posts about people smoking weed, which doesn’t bother me (illegal though it is, I don’t think cops are combing FB for people celebrating 420) but you do certainly learn a lot more about certain people than you ever wished to know. Like, “Oh, I had no idea Janet was such a closet racist/angry bitch/bad tipper/bad speller…”
FB is like a cocktail party. You shouldn’t act like you’re venting to your best friend. There are lots of guests at this party and they are all listening.
What am I missing? I’ve some regrettable things on my wall, which I deleted later – but my wall is only visible to friends. Are you saying my conception of visibility of personal walls is flawed?
You’re kidding, right? You really believe that it’s possible for something you put on the internet to be kept private? Every person who reads your wall (or who is looking over the shoulder of the reader) has the ability to quote you, copy-paste your comments, make screen shots of your photos, etc. And anyone they forward to can forward it to anyone else.
Your wall is visible to your friends, anyone they show it to, anyone they forward it to, and anyone who uses their computer should your friends forget to log off.
There are a lot of angry, angry people on my Facebook. They don’t seem angry in real life. They’re almost what you would call pleasant. But then apparently, it seems that I don’t know anyone who’s politically apathetic, or moderate.
On the internet 100 of them are to the left of Leon Trotsky, using the PM of Canada as their vehicle of proving Godwin’s law correct over and over and over and over again…And then another dozen need to post an update every time Ron Paul has a bowel movement, because otherwise the evil shadow bankers will have won, and the entire planet will be destroyed in a fiery apocalypse.
This is part of the reason I’m slowly migrating to Twitter. Chad Ochocinco has much more entertaining things to say than my facebook friends!