Email is weird that way, though. There was a time when EVERYBODY had an AOL email. Then it was Yahoo. Then it was MSN/Hotmail. Now it's Gmail. I'm not really afraid of Google, any more than I'm afraid of any other big company. They're all crooks in some for or fashion.
Top 10 Reasons You Should Quit Facebook
- Thread starter dpm802
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Email is weird that way, though. There was a time when EVERYBODY had an AOL email. Then it was Yahoo. Then it was MSN/Hotmail. Now it's Gmail. I'm not really afraid of Google, any more than I'm afraid of any other big company. They're all crooks in some for or fashion.
You really should be afraid. Read this. Yes it reads like some conspiracy nut wrote it but, unlike so many conspiracies, it's all true. What's really sad, most of my colleagues have drunk the Google kool-aid and don't realize how big of a privacy issue they pose. They have Android phones, Gmail accounts, Google Voice numbers, Google Docs, Chrome web browser, etc. These colleagues of mine are programmers. You'd think they'd be smart enough to see the obvious invasion of privacy. But then again, I suppose there is no invasion of privacy when you're willing to give it up so easily.
I see where you're coming from, but I guess I see online privacy issues as an unavoidable fact of life at this point. I have been an active internet user for over 12 years now, and I've been on Facebook for a little over 4 years. I don't always go to the safest websites, but I've never had an issue yet. I see most of this as "big brother" and "what if" worries. If someone is concerned about their privacy, great! By all means, take whatever precautions you must in order to feel secure. But, in this day and age, a FEELING of security is really all it is. I know I sound very passe about this, but I'm really not being dismissive. I just think that for every well informed worry that someone expresses, there are 10 follow ups of the uninformed, fear-mongering variety.
Thanks for the link, it was very interesting.
I see your perspective and agree. I've been online for close to 20 years and managed to stay off the radar, within reason. I remember when "the internet" was nothing but a bunch of bulletin boards and text based browsing. But I'm sure if some government official type wanted to dig up dirt on me, it wouldn't be hard, even without Google's compiled info. I simply try to make digging into my private life more difficult for the average Joe. I don't like any one company having that much info on any person(s). I guess that's why I dislike google so much.
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Fair enough. As for the overall theme of the thread, I find Facebook to be invaluable in keeping up with friends and family around the country. It allows me to connect with hundreds of people in my field (entertainment) and get my fledgling company out there and in front of people that will be likely to be interested in what I'm doing. Just last week, I reconnected with my best friend from high school. We hadn't been in contact for over 15 years to that point. It's really the old radio argument I suppose...if you don't like it, turn the channel. I have a good friend that parrots many of these same arguments at me about Facebook (he has an account, by the way), but he's a ham radio guy and I think he's nuts for spending so much time on that. Everyone likes what they like, and far be it from me to judge it just because it may or may not be useful to me.
You can check in with a small group of friends and family via email or phone, but to keep up that way with what a couple hundred acquaintances are doing isn't realistic. I can go on my facebook page and see pictures of my sisters' camping trip, find out that an old friend is vacationing not that far from our house, learn that a guy I used to work with has a new job, find out that my cousin finally had that baby, etc etc etc.
Nothing particularly groundbreaking happens on facebook, but it's nice to be aware of the general ebb and flow of the lives of people I care about.
All those 10 items are all well and good, but family is the number one reason I can't delete my facebook page. That's all they use anymore - email is out, phone is for catching up and important things. With multiple kids, hectic schedules, and their own lives, I would feel kind of selfish if I deleted my account and told them "Call me, or write me an email". Sure we still talk on the phone, but for the quick update Facebook is where they are now. Plus there's extended family that I hadn't seen in years that facebook has allowed us to easily keep in contact. Facebook has done a great job in that regard - they've gotten the day too day chatter out of email and into their system.
Windows Phone 7 has a great new feature called groups within it's Contacts application that allows you to add facebook "friends" to groups. I setup a group for family and close friends and ignore the rest except for the occasional visit to the actual site. I also keep stringent rules for accepting friends - how good of friends are or were we? Will I ever see that person again? Sometimes I temporarily accept a friend and then remove them. My friend list has been about 80 for two years. It became too much like high school - and at 33 years old, I don't need that. I also keep my likes down to a minimum. I don't need a feed full of news articles I already get in my Google Reader account.
Like others have said, facebook is what you make of it. They can't get information that you don't give them...
Windows Phone 7 has a great new feature called groups within it's Contacts application that allows you to add facebook "friends" to groups. I setup a group for family and close friends and ignore the rest except for the occasional visit to the actual site. I also keep stringent rules for accepting friends - how good of friends are or were we? Will I ever see that person again? Sometimes I temporarily accept a friend and then remove them. My friend list has been about 80 for two years. It became too much like high school - and at 33 years old, I don't need that. I also keep my likes down to a minimum. I don't need a feed full of news articles I already get in my Google Reader account.
Like others have said, facebook is what you make of it. They can't get information that you don't give them...
Yeah, I see your point. I just haven't gotten in to it- I am not very sociable, even with family
This isn't going to make Facebook doubters change their minds any time soon! 
Which raises another security issue - notably for Noscript users. Have you noticed how so many websites nowadays take their content from multiple domains, not just the obvious official domain? If it isn't some cdnlayer nonsense, it's a subtly different domain name (e.g. something.net instead of .com) or even something totally different and unrecognisable. Even banks do this!!! There is no way to know what is a safe, official site any more.This isn't going to make Facebook doubters change their minds any time soon!
So I didn't go far with that link.
Did you let the whole movie play? It's pretty funny, and you can uninstall the Facebook app as soon as you're done....
Never got that far.
I now allowed facebook.net after taking the trouble to do a whois search on it. But soon found other reasons to stop. I don't know if the link is a joke or a test of how gullible people are ... or if it's just normal stuff that FB users agree to blindly. I honestly don't know which.
Try it, I'm interested in your comments after seeing the whole thing.
I have yet to hear a good reason to join Facebook.
Good looking women you know casually will occasionally post bikini vacation pictures for their "friends" to see?
I created an account to share some pictures of my baby girl and in the process made contact again with some people I hadn't seen in a while. No pics of myself or my wife go up there, I don't play any games or install any apps. Their most recent changes have made it a real eyesore too. I make occasional smartass comments to try to make a few people laugh, but I am by and large a private person so I use it in extreme moderation...
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Thank you! I think you and I would be good friends (speaking of). I think everything you say... that sounded creepy, huh? Facebook works great for me. Internet privacy is overrated. Is it a little disconcerting that Facebook has your info? A little, but at the same time, not at all. They don't just have your info... they have millions upon million upon millions of people's info, which makes yours just as useless as the next guy's. Set your privacy (mine is 'friends of friends' I think) and hide all application posts as they come through (you can hide specific application's updates now... no more FarmvilleMafiaBirds in your feed), don't post things that will get you fired (or at least have them set to private) and you're set. Pretty straightforward.
I like G+ though. I'd use it more if there were more people on it. I love categorizing people I know lol.
Facebook is so naughties. Join Not Google Plus to be up to date with social networks.
http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6611967/not-google-plus
http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6611967/not-google-plus
Reason #11: Facebook now creates shadow profiles of users not on FaceBook. Even if you are not on, they may have your data.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/10/18/1429223/facebook-is-building-shadow-profiles-of-non-users
I'm convincing my family to move over to text as a means of communication, when email is inconvenient. Easy to set up group text.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/10/18/1429223/facebook-is-building-shadow-profiles-of-non-users
I'm convincing my family to move over to text as a means of communication, when email is inconvenient. Easy to set up group text.
There is a online very liberal newspaper in Seattle called the Seattle PI. I look at it from time to time to see what the far left is thinking. I noticed on the website this morning that in a week or two you have to have a Facebook account.
I don't have a Facebook account. Evidently there is a program on Facebook that allows you to make comments on other websites. I don't understand why you would need to have a Facebook account to comment on another website.
I don't have a Facebook account. Evidently there is a program on Facebook that allows you to make comments on other websites. I don't understand why you would need to have a Facebook account to comment on another website.
Have you noticed the, um, quality(?) of commentary on most newspaper websites? By allowing anonymous comments you end up with every mouth-breathing basement dweller out there spewing nonsense and hate. Studies consistently show that if your name and face are associated with your comments, the level of stupidity drops by astonishing amounts and the quality of the discourse increases immeasurably (for example read http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/03/troll_reveal_thyself.html) You have, of course, heard of the Greater Internet F***wad Theory? http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/3/19/
The problem is that putting up roadblocks in the way of commenters (create an account, wait for the email, click the link to confirm the registration, wait for activation, realize you already have an account on that site, try to figure out the password, go through the password change process etc etc) discourages people from participating. Facebook stepped in to say "hey, we'll do all that work for you, just go ahead and log in once to our site and now you can post quickly anywhere."
I actually get some entertainment by reading some of the idiotic statements that are made in the comment section of the paper.
Personally I have never written into a newspaper with a comment. I just haven't ever seen the point.
It just seems like every week or so I hear about another area in society where Facebook has appeared. There are people are many people out there that have no desire to ever have a Facebook account. Me included. While it is a company's right to decide how to interact with customers, by allowing only one method of interaction, they are choosing to write off a large part of the population. I just find that a little foolish. Especially for a newspaper.
