I have a lot of things to do that preclude sitting in front of a computer all day, except of course when I'm working and then I have no choice.
Anyway, I added a few innocuous tidbits to my profile.
Innocuous being the operative word here.
It is apparently more protected than MySpace, i.e. you can set it up so that only those you designate can view it. I will let Mr. Garden help me figure that one out.
Seems in some circles it is indeed the cool thing to do. I notice all the music people from our church are on it, so as Waysider noted, that's probably how they stay in touch.
Coincidentally, I've been thinking about starting a topic about facebook. My brother got me involved with it and I really enjoy it. I've found several friends from high school and managed to suggest friends to other friends who were very excited about finding each other. Both my brothers, my niece, and a cousin are also on it, so it's nice to do a little family connecting also. It's like anything else on the internet, you have to be careful with what you put out, but you don't have the opportunity to browse info without the other person aware of it.
My brother says his liberal friends tend to gravitate toward myspace while his conservative friends like facebook. Does make some sense to me. Maybe we'll get a greasespot group going there....
Nothing wrong with Facebook or MySpace or for that matter LinkedIn - I use all three.
Four rules
a) Keep your security settings high
b) Do NOT load up applications - Facebook just had a couple of nasty trojans downloading via applications
c) Bear in mind that nowadays many HR departments are looking you up on Facebook and MySpace so you don't want those pictures of you posted that show you asleep with your face in the porcelain altar after puking your guts out at that wild party last month.
d) READ the EULA (End User License Agreement) Facebook recently came under fire when they changed their EULA to say that they are the EXCLUSIVE owners of your posts in perpetuity even after your account is deleted. They pulled it after some public uproar but they still intend to follow that "business" line of reasoning. So if you join a group called "I like gay whales" there is precisely nothing to keep them from publishing a set of postcards with the pictures of everyone who has joined that group.
A long time friend here in town, that I talk to a couple of times a week, sent me an invite to Facebook. O.k. I joined. It is confusing. I can't figure it out. Many folks I know live here in town and talk to on the phone and fellowship with. Why would I want to do a computer thing with them? I must be missing the allure of something.
I see folks posting pictures of their children and grandchildren. I wonder if they have asked their permission to do so. I see family business ( a southernism meaning personal laundry, dirty or not) being given in length and great detail. I wonder if Aunt Soo Soo or brother Billy or the children know or gave permission for such information to be shared.
That is what creeps me out about these kind of websites. I am going to un-join. I see no benefit.
My son and his wife called to ask if they could post a wedding picture that included me in it. I was proud of them.
Coincidentally, I've been thinking about starting a topic about facebook. My brother got me involved with it and I really enjoy it. I've found several friends from high school and managed to suggest friends to other friends who were very excited about finding each other. Both my brothers, my niece, and a cousin are also on it, so it's nice to do a little family connecting also. It's like anything else on the internet, you have to be careful with what you put out, but you don't have the opportunity to browse info without the other person aware of it.
My brother says his liberal friends tend to gravitate toward myspace while his conservative friends like facebook. Does make some sense to me. Maybe we'll get a greasespot group going there....
I know plenty of Liberals on facebook (including ME). I don't like MySpace.
Here's what it (facebook) means to me:
17 years ago, my brother died, leaving a (then) 14 year old daughter and 8 year old son. For at least the last 10 years, it's been difficult for me to stay in touch with them.
I joined facebook in December 2008. IMMEDIATELY, I connected with them and am in touch and communicate with them every day. I'm thrilled about that.
I was born in Rochester NY but moved to AZ more than 40 years ago. My dad had a second family. Even with email, it was difficult to stay in touch with family in NY. (Dad died 12 years ago this month). I invited my half sister to join facebook. She did so a couple of weeks ago. I'm thrilled about reconnecting with those folks back east.
I have friends on facebook from GSC, from the WC social site, (many of whom live outside of Arizona) and from people I used to work with and know from my involvement in local politics.
Facebook makes it easy and convenient to stay up to date with what is happening with each of those people in each of those groups.
Like others have said, you can control how much of yourself you tell about and show on your facebook page. AND you can control who you allow to view that information.
AND... there are games.
Games can be time wasting activities OR they can be important mental exercise(s) for us 50+ people who would like to put off loss of memory and other thinking related skills.
I play Scrabble on facebook. It's a social activity as well as mental exercise.
Well, I'm am decidedly NOT a techy by any stretch, so I primarily find the site to be just farking annoying. Maybe I just don't know how to navigate it well enough, or I don't understand the basics of it, but I just avoid it for the most part. I tried too many of the stupid "Find our your I.Q." kinda games, only to find I'm just being pumped for private information or somesuch, so that kinda irritated me.
Other than that I don't know just what it is you're supposed to do there. There's no real chatroom, no topics to discuss. Just a place to post a line or two. I think it's meant for a much younger crowd than I hang with. Mostly, I just don't get it...
I've been on Facebook for a while - like when it was only open to college students. For a large part of that while I was almost "friendless" for 2 reasons. 1: It was hard to navigate, even tho I am a techie. and 2: I was the only person my age. I finally broke down and friended a few people and then it made sense. I like the privacy controls and have connected with a number of people I haven't seen in years. I have a myspace page, but I'm not all that thrilled with the anonymous aspect of it. I also have a LinkedIn account where I keep professional information.
The 30-50 yr old is its largest growing demographic in Facebook, and I plan to get my 82 yr old mother on there as my brother is moving across the country. It will allow her to keep in better contact with people.
It has been for me an easy, innocuous way to keep in contact with people I know.
I'm on Facebook and I like it. I went back to graduate school when my youngest child went off to college. In my second year at Virginia Tech, I was in a class on campus when a young man shot a lot of people and then himself. My children urged me to get on Facebook so they could keep tabs on me better. Of course, I get to keep tabs on them better too!
Since then, I have added as friends several relatives (most of my college-age nieces and cousins), and lately, some folks I went to high school with (35+ years ago) and even a few former wayfers. I have a pretty busy life and don't spend a lot of time on it, and I either decline or ignore invitations to add applications that appear to me to threaten my privacy. But overall, I have found it a good way to keep in touch with people who are geographically far away. I can see how it would be a problem if you posted too personal information or accepted as friends people you don't really know.
I like Facebook for both personal and professional reasons. Since my last name isn't what it was when I was in school, it's nice to be able to find classmates (or for them to find me!) via Facebook and without paying a fee like on Classmates.com.
I like Facebook for both personal and professional reasons. Since my last name isn't what it was when I was in school, it's nice to be able to find classmates (or for them to find me!) via Facebook and without paying a fee like on Classmates.com.
YES!
I strongly dislike classmates.com but have reconnected with a handful of people I knew in high school (37+ years ago).
I don't like it that other people I do not know who know some of the same people I do make comments on those individuals and it shows up on mine. I don't know how to stop it.
I have a myspace page and I've just signed up for facebook. I don't know which one is better, but I know some of the myspace pages are hard to read because of the wall paper people chose for their pages.
I live in England and my family lives in Louisiana. A few of them I talk to on the phone regularly, but I have a large family and the rest I only talk to when I go home for a visit. The day I joined myspace I got 4 or 5 hits from nieces and a great niece and 1 brother all wanting to connect with me. I like knowing what is going on in their lives and I also like them knowing what is going on in mine. Plus I can leave short comments or just a hello when ever I want to.
What is the difference between myspace and facebook besides the liberal and conservative angle?
I have many friends on facebook, my kids and their friends, my siblings, some cousins, a local mother's group and a couple of school friends( I'm there under my maiden name). Plus I use it for networking for my writing and have had a couple of neat opportunities through there.
I don't play the games but my kids and my brother who travels alot have really connected over some silly games. I've never spent time figuring out the millions of games and applications, but I do pop in and see what everyone is up to everyday.
I think it's great, personally. It's a good tool for keeping in contact with people that I haven't talked to in a while or don't come into contact with regularly. Specifically, old friends from schools or other jobs that I wouldn't keep in touch with normally. I'm living in Texas, my best friend from high school is living in Ohio now, so we haven't kept in touch. However, now with facebook we can see what is going on with each other even if we aren't emailing constantly. It's a good tool if everyone uses it.
Also, I second the concerns people have brought up about security settings, rejecting applications, and keeping it clean for future employers. As far as worrying about paedophiles and such, MySpace is more for kids and Facebook is for adults. There are other sites that are more cutting edge such as Twitter that I don't like, but Facebook is the most mainstream one for the moment.
As far as keeping in touch with ex-TWI people, I have quite a few on my Facebook friends list, but they aren't on GSC.
I think it's great, personally. It's a good tool for keeping in contact with people that I haven't talked to in a while or don't come into contact with regularly. Specifically, old friends from schools or other jobs that I wouldn't keep in touch with normally. I'm living in Texas, my best friend from high school is living in Ohio now, so we haven't kept in touch. However, now with facebook we can see what is going on with each other even if we aren't emailing constantly. It's a good tool if everyone uses it.
Also, I second the concerns people have brought up about security settings, rejecting applications, and keeping it clean for future employers. As far as worrying about paedophiles and such, MySpace is more for kids and Facebook is for adults. There are other sites that are more cutting edge such as Twitter that I don't like, but Facebook is the most mainstream one for the moment.
As far as keeping in touch with ex-TWI people, I have quite a few on my Facebook friends list, but they aren't on GSC.
I have a lunch date with two friends from HS for next week. We graduated 37 years ago. I saw one of them at the 20 year reunion. I haven't seen the senior year yearbook for decades because I used to be in a cult and left stuff with my mother when I was moving all over tarnation. One of them is going to bring the yearbook.
I spoke with both of them on the phone today... one characterized facebook as "cathartic." I agree.
Of course, for many, GSC has been cathartic... but these people were never in this particular cult. :)
I don't like it that other people I do not know who know some of the same people I do make comments on those individuals and it shows up on mine. I don't know how to stop it.
WG
There are multiple potential issues and perhaps multiple solutions to this.
First, if you have your profile set so that only your friends can read it, then those people don't know that what they post shows up on your page. I don't know if that matters to you.
Second, in the upper right corner of the page (when you are in facebook), there is a link for SETTINGS.
Click that and you can next choose PRIVACY settings. Then, you can choose (click) what appears on your NEWS FEED AND WALL.
Thanks so much for your help! After I posted that I did in fact find those buttons, and it is so much better. I also found the "X" where I can keep some posts hidden.
I have a lot of "friends" clicking on and since most of them are from my church I can't exactly ignore them Monday through Saturday (and they are nice people). It's very helpful to hide some folks who are very frequent posters. It's nice to know what people are up to, but not absolutely everything. The pastor posts a Bible thought every morning and most of the time I agree with him. I'm more relaxed about it. It seems very innocuous.
just don't put anything up there you don't want people to see.
it's just another form of networking it has goods and bads, like going to a party, you're going to run into some people you like and some you don't, some are going to be liars, some are going to be saints.
I've reconnected with some great people and it's easy to keep up with whats going on in my extended families life!
I'm unsearchable on facebook, so if you look for me on google, it won't come up, i have my security settings on high, to keep myself as low-profile as possible.
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waysider
I'm not on FaceBook but I never respond to anything that even vaguely resembles a chain letter.
I know a few musicians who use it as a form of networking.
It works quite well for that.
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Watered Garden
I have a lot of things to do that preclude sitting in front of a computer all day, except of course when I'm working and then I have no choice.
Anyway, I added a few innocuous tidbits to my profile.
Innocuous being the operative word here.
It is apparently more protected than MySpace, i.e. you can set it up so that only those you designate can view it. I will let Mr. Garden help me figure that one out.
Seems in some circles it is indeed the cool thing to do. I notice all the music people from our church are on it, so as Waysider noted, that's probably how they stay in touch.
WG
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GeorgeStGeorge
Facebook seems more kid-oriented to me.
I use LinkedIn for networking.
George
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batcave
Coincidentally, I've been thinking about starting a topic about facebook. My brother got me involved with it and I really enjoy it. I've found several friends from high school and managed to suggest friends to other friends who were very excited about finding each other. Both my brothers, my niece, and a cousin are also on it, so it's nice to do a little family connecting also. It's like anything else on the internet, you have to be careful with what you put out, but you don't have the opportunity to browse info without the other person aware of it.
My brother says his liberal friends tend to gravitate toward myspace while his conservative friends like facebook. Does make some sense to me. Maybe we'll get a greasespot group going there....
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RumRunner
Nothing wrong with Facebook or MySpace or for that matter LinkedIn - I use all three.
Four rules
a) Keep your security settings high
b) Do NOT load up applications - Facebook just had a couple of nasty trojans downloading via applications
c) Bear in mind that nowadays many HR departments are looking you up on Facebook and MySpace so you don't want those pictures of you posted that show you asleep with your face in the porcelain altar after puking your guts out at that wild party last month.
d) READ the EULA (End User License Agreement) Facebook recently came under fire when they changed their EULA to say that they are the EXCLUSIVE owners of your posts in perpetuity even after your account is deleted. They pulled it after some public uproar but they still intend to follow that "business" line of reasoning. So if you join a group called "I like gay whales" there is precisely nothing to keep them from publishing a set of postcards with the pictures of everyone who has joined that group.
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kimberly
A long time friend here in town, that I talk to a couple of times a week, sent me an invite to Facebook. O.k. I joined. It is confusing. I can't figure it out. Many folks I know live here in town and talk to on the phone and fellowship with. Why would I want to do a computer thing with them? I must be missing the allure of something.
I see folks posting pictures of their children and grandchildren. I wonder if they have asked their permission to do so. I see family business ( a southernism meaning personal laundry, dirty or not) being given in length and great detail. I wonder if Aunt Soo Soo or brother Billy or the children know or gave permission for such information to be shared.
That is what creeps me out about these kind of websites. I am going to un-join. I see no benefit.
My son and his wife called to ask if they could post a wedding picture that included me in it. I was proud of them.
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Rocky
I know plenty of Liberals on facebook (including ME). I don't like MySpace.
Here's what it (facebook) means to me:
17 years ago, my brother died, leaving a (then) 14 year old daughter and 8 year old son. For at least the last 10 years, it's been difficult for me to stay in touch with them.
I joined facebook in December 2008. IMMEDIATELY, I connected with them and am in touch and communicate with them every day. I'm thrilled about that.
I was born in Rochester NY but moved to AZ more than 40 years ago. My dad had a second family. Even with email, it was difficult to stay in touch with family in NY. (Dad died 12 years ago this month). I invited my half sister to join facebook. She did so a couple of weeks ago. I'm thrilled about reconnecting with those folks back east.
I have friends on facebook from GSC, from the WC social site, (many of whom live outside of Arizona) and from people I used to work with and know from my involvement in local politics.
Facebook makes it easy and convenient to stay up to date with what is happening with each of those people in each of those groups.
Like others have said, you can control how much of yourself you tell about and show on your facebook page. AND you can control who you allow to view that information.
AND... there are games.
Games can be time wasting activities OR they can be important mental exercise(s) for us 50+ people who would like to put off loss of memory and other thinking related skills.
I play Scrabble on facebook. It's a social activity as well as mental exercise.
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George Aar
Well, I'm am decidedly NOT a techy by any stretch, so I primarily find the site to be just farking annoying. Maybe I just don't know how to navigate it well enough, or I don't understand the basics of it, but I just avoid it for the most part. I tried too many of the stupid "Find our your I.Q." kinda games, only to find I'm just being pumped for private information or somesuch, so that kinda irritated me.
Other than that I don't know just what it is you're supposed to do there. There's no real chatroom, no topics to discuss. Just a place to post a line or two. I think it's meant for a much younger crowd than I hang with. Mostly, I just don't get it...
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Tzaia
I've been on Facebook for a while - like when it was only open to college students. For a large part of that while I was almost "friendless" for 2 reasons. 1: It was hard to navigate, even tho I am a techie. and 2: I was the only person my age. I finally broke down and friended a few people and then it made sense. I like the privacy controls and have connected with a number of people I haven't seen in years. I have a myspace page, but I'm not all that thrilled with the anonymous aspect of it. I also have a LinkedIn account where I keep professional information.
The 30-50 yr old is its largest growing demographic in Facebook, and I plan to get my 82 yr old mother on there as my brother is moving across the country. It will allow her to keep in better contact with people.
It has been for me an easy, innocuous way to keep in contact with people I know.
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hampshire73
I'm on Facebook and I like it. I went back to graduate school when my youngest child went off to college. In my second year at Virginia Tech, I was in a class on campus when a young man shot a lot of people and then himself. My children urged me to get on Facebook so they could keep tabs on me better. Of course, I get to keep tabs on them better too!
Since then, I have added as friends several relatives (most of my college-age nieces and cousins), and lately, some folks I went to high school with (35+ years ago) and even a few former wayfers. I have a pretty busy life and don't spend a lot of time on it, and I either decline or ignore invitations to add applications that appear to me to threaten my privacy. But overall, I have found it a good way to keep in touch with people who are geographically far away. I can see how it would be a problem if you posted too personal information or accepted as friends people you don't really know.
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smarter
Facebook is good for catching up with old acquaintences and meeting new friends. I even met my fiance on Facebook.
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ChasUFarley
I like Facebook for both personal and professional reasons. Since my last name isn't what it was when I was in school, it's nice to be able to find classmates (or for them to find me!) via Facebook and without paying a fee like on Classmates.com.
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Rocky
YES!
I strongly dislike classmates.com but have reconnected with a handful of people I knew in high school (37+ years ago).
... on facebook, that is.
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Watered Garden
I don't like it that other people I do not know who know some of the same people I do make comments on those individuals and it shows up on mine. I don't know how to stop it.
WG
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gc
I have a myspace page and I've just signed up for facebook. I don't know which one is better, but I know some of the myspace pages are hard to read because of the wall paper people chose for their pages.
I live in England and my family lives in Louisiana. A few of them I talk to on the phone regularly, but I have a large family and the rest I only talk to when I go home for a visit. The day I joined myspace I got 4 or 5 hits from nieces and a great niece and 1 brother all wanting to connect with me. I like knowing what is going on in their lives and I also like them knowing what is going on in mine. Plus I can leave short comments or just a hello when ever I want to.
What is the difference between myspace and facebook besides the liberal and conservative angle?
gc :)
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Bramble
I have many friends on facebook, my kids and their friends, my siblings, some cousins, a local mother's group and a couple of school friends( I'm there under my maiden name). Plus I use it for networking for my writing and have had a couple of neat opportunities through there.
I don't play the games but my kids and my brother who travels alot have really connected over some silly games. I've never spent time figuring out the millions of games and applications, but I do pop in and see what everyone is up to everyday.
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Mister P-Mosh
I think it's great, personally. It's a good tool for keeping in contact with people that I haven't talked to in a while or don't come into contact with regularly. Specifically, old friends from schools or other jobs that I wouldn't keep in touch with normally. I'm living in Texas, my best friend from high school is living in Ohio now, so we haven't kept in touch. However, now with facebook we can see what is going on with each other even if we aren't emailing constantly. It's a good tool if everyone uses it.
Also, I second the concerns people have brought up about security settings, rejecting applications, and keeping it clean for future employers. As far as worrying about paedophiles and such, MySpace is more for kids and Facebook is for adults. There are other sites that are more cutting edge such as Twitter that I don't like, but Facebook is the most mainstream one for the moment.
As far as keeping in touch with ex-TWI people, I have quite a few on my Facebook friends list, but they aren't on GSC.
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Rocky
I have a lunch date with two friends from HS for next week. We graduated 37 years ago. I saw one of them at the 20 year reunion. I haven't seen the senior year yearbook for decades because I used to be in a cult and left stuff with my mother when I was moving all over tarnation. One of them is going to bring the yearbook.
I spoke with both of them on the phone today... one characterized facebook as "cathartic." I agree.
Of course, for many, GSC has been cathartic... but these people were never in this particular cult. :)
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Rocky
There are multiple potential issues and perhaps multiple solutions to this.
First, if you have your profile set so that only your friends can read it, then those people don't know that what they post shows up on your page. I don't know if that matters to you.
Second, in the upper right corner of the page (when you are in facebook), there is a link for SETTINGS.
Click that and you can next choose PRIVACY settings. Then, you can choose (click) what appears on your NEWS FEED AND WALL.
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Watered Garden
Rocky,
Thanks so much for your help! After I posted that I did in fact find those buttons, and it is so much better. I also found the "X" where I can keep some posts hidden.
I have a lot of "friends" clicking on and since most of them are from my church I can't exactly ignore them Monday through Saturday (and they are nice people). It's very helpful to hide some folks who are very frequent posters. It's nice to know what people are up to, but not absolutely everything. The pastor posts a Bible thought every morning and most of the time I agree with him. I'm more relaxed about it. It seems very innocuous.
'Preciate the help!
WG
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nandon
i like it.
just don't put anything up there you don't want people to see.
it's just another form of networking it has goods and bads, like going to a party, you're going to run into some people you like and some you don't, some are going to be liars, some are going to be saints.
I've reconnected with some great people and it's easy to keep up with whats going on in my extended families life!
I'm unsearchable on facebook, so if you look for me on google, it won't come up, i have my security settings on high, to keep myself as low-profile as possible.
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Raf
Love it.
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Watered Garden
Mine are on high too with no picture. I'm not a famous journalist or anything just paranoid.
I'm starting to like it now. Someday when these darn doctors stop dictating so much I'm gonna mess around with it so's people can see Bodacious.
WG
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