I need moral support! (in Off-topic)

The CB community has to (I'm on my knees, here) help me resist peer pressure. Not to do piddly little things like drugs, but for the big one... Facebook.

Sadly disillusioned friend: "Hey, David... have I added you on Facebook yet?"
Yours truly: "Uh, no... I don't have a Facebook."
Them: "Oh, I guess I'll just... um... email you?"
Me: "I suppose... WAIT! Do you use IRC?"
Them: "..."

<self-aggrandizing-melodrama>So, am I a dinosaur? Am I clinging to the past and old technology in a futile attempt of staving off the relentless progress of advanced social interaction? Or am I doing the noble thing by resisting the pull of the latest fad? </self-aggrandizing-melodrama>
Help!

You can learn more about your friends on facebook....so why not?

I've avoided Facebook long enough that some of my friends are now ditching their accounts. Facebook avoidance is a badge of honor.

Oh, and IRC... I'm not sure how many CBers use it, but I haven't touched it in years. The last time I had a use for it was for console modding. That may very well make you a dinosaur.

Claim your avoidance of FaceSpaces is a moral stance. You are honoring your Amish heritage or considering joining the Luddites and "trying it out".

I don't use Facebook.

I didn't use Facebook for the longest time but I had to get one for college. It is not bad just don't waste all your time on it like most people do and you should be fine. :)

you will be assimilated sooner or later, resistance is futile!

it is actually much easier to stay in touch with more people on facebook. just learn as quickly as possible to hide your online status, turn off all the notifications for things you aren't interested in and how to rebuff old, toothless girlfriends by claiming homosexuality.

Without Facebook, you will never know how many friends you have. You don't want to be a loser, do you?

What is this book of faces you speak of and all these invites to it from former colleagues in my email ?

I don't facebook and hardly e-mail, I find I enjoy connecting to my friends face to face and if they are across county I phone them. Those who I don't see either by not sttempting to make contact or them not attempting to make contact with me are really not my friends but people with whom I am friendly too.

I don't face book for a because it's work to check up on it and I won't be putting up my pictures or anything of importance on there anyways so it's just a waste of time for me.

For a social butterfly this would be the opposite of me, I am no longer younger and have all the >good< friends I need.

bah..I should stay off the keyboard until I have had my 1st coffee.

I'm about to delete my account since after trying to setup privacy options I got angry messages from family about "how come I defriended them?"

The fact I can't keep "friends" from seeing who my other "friends" are is also a major bummer.

I also still don't have Facebook :p

Facebook is convenient when trying to keep contact with fellow travellers.

But as for friends and relatives, I find most other ways of communication to be superior. Even messages in bottles.

I find no need to proudly present the fact that you just had dinner or that you found a green rabbit on your farm. (Unless it really was a farm, which would make it kind of interesting).
The millions of pictures of people holding a bottle of beer, a glass of wine or any other alcoholic beverage while smiling into the camera is also a complete waste of data storage.

However.. to not appear too anti-social, the only people I've sworn to never enlist to my "Facebook friends" are my work colleagues and parents.

Bahhumbug!


Look Marl let me help you a bit. FaceSpace communication is not different than having e-mail with pictures and a crappy I'M shoved into one. Also as a side note both are chocked full of stupid apps that will make your IQ drop by the second for having even seen them I will say nothing of participation. Yes you can communicate well with both but only to a point after which both suck.

Final review you will be better off by using a stable IM/good email, good photo upload site and reverse the peer pressure tell them Google Wave is better.....lol

IRC is still good... As old as dinosaurs maybe but it's the only place to be when you need information on something very geeky :)

I used FB for about a year, then became disillusioned with it (that would be about a year ago, now). Yes, it is fun to hook up with some old friends and such, but by an above-average margin, this is what usually happened to such connections:

-- I realized the person I thought that "old friend" was, was not that at all. Some cool people now seemed like racists. Gentle people seemed coarse and rowdy. And friends who still sync'd with my perception were people I had largely kept up with. anyway, via non-Facebook means.
-- I would "friend" someone and we would never share a single word again on Facebook (or otherwise). Entirely pointless.

I had a rather large volume of the above two scenarios in a 2-3 month period, and just chucked the whole account. Yes, I made sure it was all deleted, though there is no guarantee even that works since they undoubtedly have backups/archives covering the time I was on it. Even if I had changed all of my information to "Joe Schmoe" before deleting, they would still have snapshots of my FB activity. That brings up the next point...

Privacy. Just realize that everything you do on Facebook is out there forever. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. And privacy concerns for Facebook have only gotten exponentially greater since I deleted my account there. Every picture, every mood, every quote, every message -- just assume it is as public as putting up a poster in a busy train station.

Good parts about Facebook? It's a one-stop multi-media exchange. No, id doesn't do anything that file-sharing sites, instant messengers, email programs, and picture/movie sites can do, but it does it all at once. It's an "experience", not a "service". Also, some of the games are fun, but games these days are pretty easy to find, and many already have some sort of leaderboard to them that has nothing to do with Facebook (if you are the competitive type).

Bottom line: just know what you are in for. Know that all of your personal life, as much as you post there, is public. And if you DON'T post much, then you have to ask, "what is the point of this?" Though, as an earlier poster said, you can still know more about your friends, and keep yourself more in "lurk" mode, if you are into that sort of thing.

You are not a dinosaur, in any case.

*snorts*

Ask yourself why you're so against it. Do you have a sound reason behind it?

Denying yourself a useful resource because you just don't think it's cool? Because others do it, you shouldn't? That's just as bad as doing something because other people -are- doing it.

Facebook is a fine way of contacting old friend and staying in touch with new ones. It doesn't mean you can't call them. And it certainly doesn't mean you can't see them in person (Indeed, I find I spend more time out of the house based on how up to date I am on facebook.) I ignore most of the entertainment aspects and use it simply for what I need it for. A place to keep track of people I want to keep track of.

Sounds to me like you're saying no to facebook just so you can tell others you are saying no. Which is, in my opinion, silly. Do what you want, for whatever reasons you want.

I guess my point is make sure that the reason you do something is a reason you are proud of. Personally, I find that I'm unhappy when I don't do something simply because others enjoy it, or do something because others do and for no other reason.

I mean, are you going to stop using google because millions of others do? :P

Just use it as a means of contacting people. Being able to simply search someone's name and contact them is surprisingly useful. I don't use it much beyond that.

I use my cell phone for this feature :O

Never had a myspace page, never used facebook. I find social networking sites a misleading mockery of actual human interaction.
You know, there's actually a sort of filter in our brain that activates during face-to-face interaction that keeps us from being totally inappropriate. That filter doesn't get activated over the internet and people definitely act differently, as Sutekh described:
-- I realized the person I thought that "old friend" was, was not that at all. Some cool people now seemed like racists. Gentle people seemed coarse and rowdy.

Also, my apartment is tiny. I need to get out of it at least 6 or 7 times a day just to roam, so I see a lot of my friend group. No need to hit them up on the internet. Which most of them are too poor to afford anyway.

I still only have my myspace, which I made when I was like 14... I refuse to do facebook also. ^^

Without having their phone number

I refused facebook for years, then I made one just to look at some people, but then I got some requests, and I checked it once a week.

but now, 2 years later, I'm on it atleast 2 times a day, and because of Facebook, I got in touch with old classmates that moved away after college, after High School, during high school, and EVEN Elementary school. not just friending them, but drove out and hung out with them and vice versa. something I never could have done without facebook.

I held out, but now its got me. If you don't have that many people to keep in touch with that you lost, it won't be a big deal to you, but if so, its actually kinda sweet.

two words: 'gateway drug'

we seem to have a great representation of the down side of social networking so here's a shot at an up side of it.

i live about 100 miles from austin, texas. i have a college friend who lives somewhere in minnesota. he plays upright bass with a singer/writer/guitarist. they got some gigs in the austin area during south by southwest this last week.

there were several gigs with numerous venues and many different people wanting to get together at different times and for different purposes. having facebook made it possible to coordinate and pick what you wanted to be involved in.

we certainly could've done it by phone but some people would have inadvertently been left out or missed some of the opportunities. basically instead of calling a few people and relying on them to contact others, etc. it was easy to post one message and everyone could see that.

after last week i think social networking sites have their place, especially since you can hide status updates, game notifications and such. where social networking shines is event invites and coordination.

i also have some friends that have a music management company in austin, they now do much of their marketing through social networking.

I do not have a Facebook. I had a MySpace, but that turned out to be far more trouble than it was worth. I don't want to repeat such hassles on another site like Facebook.

Sut says: "just assume it is as public as putting up a poster in a busy train station. "

There was a case not so long ago where a picture somebody posted on their Facebook account ended up as a poster in a busy train station.

My wife is a big FB user, and I'm not all that happy about some of the things she puts up, but it's out there now. Just never assume it's ever private.

Only reason I made a facebook account, before eventually deleting, was for some games someone else wanted to do on there with me. Facebook recently passed google in site visits for a month. Claim you won't do facespacing because being another sheeple in the herd is crap.

I've never facebooked or myspaced or the whatnot. I've had MSN Messenger that's about it.. And CB and my Cell phone. :P

I'm now using my PS3 to keep in touch with my old uni mates (and some School friends).

We all have them, we all message each other, and only each other, on there, and sometimes hook up for multiplayer games.

Better than Facebook and "Just going for a Dump" by a mile. ;)

Well if I dont have their number then their ->friend<- status comes into question. Friends over the internet are different than friends face to face.

I hate Facebook and will never ever use it because it is bad!

I'm thinking more along the lines of someone you just met. That and I have friends who don't have phones, yet have internet access, but I guess that's unusual.

Or the case that Neo Japan has mentioned. I've met up again with plenty of old friends that you've lost touch with via facebook. Also, convenient if you lost your phone etc. and have no numbers in the first place.

I have to say that many on here have made good points for both sides of this thing. I would say this from personal experience then I'll drop it like a bad habit.

You do not NEED to use FaceSpace! However if you do, use only the most basic stuff and prepare for more peer pressure. You WILL be asked, on many occasions, to use 9 Gazillion Apps which have little to no purpose whatsoever. There are hidden Gems and dangers with both, be smart and find the things you want to do and then only do those things. Just remember that you can easily do without either and you will be fine.

oh the good ol' days of IRC, used that for gaming as well.

Thanks fellows, this has been quite a thread! I'll likely give it a try and follow Zen's advice.

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2010/03/25/2010-03-25_facebook_blamed_for_rising_std_rates_in_britain_report.html