Thursday, May 27, 2010

Facebook - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook.

The Good:  Popping in on friends and family just to see "What's Up"?   Pictures of a horse show or birthday party or learning that my nephew's wife ran a marathon for charity.  The birth of a baby or wedding pictures (but not 50 of them, please) are perfect to share with friends and family.  Pictures of a new puppy or kitty.  Or how a garden is progressing.   I love stuff like that.  Any kind of photos, actually...I love photographs.

Sharing a joke or a favorite website (nothing rude or offensive, please) or blogpost or useful information is a good thing.  Wishing your friends and family a very happy birthday or anniversary is a nice thing to do...it's a gentle reminder to other friends and family and it makes the day special for that person or couple.

It's a perfect venue for keeping in touch with friends and family members who live far away.


The Bad:  Not being able to have a separate Facebook page for business or for blogging friends or other associates who are not family members.  

Oh, I know there's a way to do that but it's not legitimate and would be kind of a pain in the neck, I think.  Having to constantly monitor my account and privacy settings.  Security is paramount, especially for personal family pages.  I don't think young children should have Facebook pages.


The Ugly:  I'm very sorry but I just can't tolerate drivel.   I don't need to know someone is bored.  I don't need to know that someone is having a bad hair day.  I don't need to know that someone broke a fingernail.

Posting an "I love you more than life itself" comment to your significant other when you actually see each other every day is incredibly annoying.  I'm glad you're in love but let's keep the intimate details private.

I don't like radical political postings, either.  It's fine to voice an opinion - that's a good thing. It's called freedom of speech.  It's an important part of who we are.  I'm all for it.  But getting nasty is way out of line in my opinion.   I've read Facebook posts that are downright mean from otherwise lovely people!  I don't get it. 

Posting just for the sake of posting is just not necessary.

Wow...I can't believe this turned into a rant!  What are your thoughts?  Are you a huge Facebook fan?  Do you have multiple accounts and if so, how do you do it?

Just wondering...
Print
Posted by CherylK at 7:34 AM
Labels:

11 comments:

  1. Cheryl, I found myself nodding agreement as I read. Couldn't agree with you more. Every single word!! Hard to explain, but sometimes FB seems like a lonely out-reach and kinda sad. And kids definitely shouldn't be on FB. I read about a family that had scaled back for the summer vacation. So, what do they buy their six-year-old daughter? A Coach clutch! And were so proud they had saved money by not buying a purse. I must be a relic because what's a six-year-old doing with a Coach anything??
    ReplyDelete
  2. I have a facebook account. 1 - only because my family are on there. I don't facebook. I only use the account so that I can check on them. I've told all of them, if you want to keep up with me go to my blog.

    I like my blog. I don't like facebook.
    ReplyDelete
  3. I, too, have a love/hate relationship with facebook. I have actually had to block feeds from some of my friends because they post drivel constantly!
    I only have one account, so all my friends, relatives and blogging buddies are on the same page. But that's okay, so far.
    But wow, do I ever waste a lot of time playing those stupid games........ :)
    (and if you ever decide to include some of your blogging buddies on your facebook page, email me!!) :)
    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Cheryl, we have tried facebook two times and just cannot enjoy it. Same with myspace. So we have shut them down completely, turned our backs on them, and are emailing, texting, talking on the phone a little, and blogging. That is enough. I like to read books, and I like to take my time when I chop up veggies for a soup and enjoy that experience, not just mindlessly making something to eat. I am learning to participate in each activity in my life like I have not done before, and it is good for me. As far as seeing pictures of family and friends, they send them to me in emails so why do I want facebook? Ha. Hope you are having a good day. Hugs.
    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't mind facebook. I have a lot of relatives and a cousin who started following the family after we lost him for years. All he does is tell his wear-abouts while he's in his semi-truck. So I blocked his msgs, in a sense blocking him completely. My mom, his great Aunt, deleted him from his friends completely because she did not know she could hide his posts. Anyone who post drivel (according to me) gets hid or deleted. Any app (which is nearly all of them) gets hid. I don't want to see how your farm is doing or who's butt you are kicking etc. And I have all the privacy settings set to friends only. Plus there's the new scan for privacy app that works very well. I think they will come near full circle and fix this issue eventually.
    ReplyDelete
  6. Very interesting post.
    You know, it is funny, as I joined facebook many years ago, way before it became what it is today. It was by a chance (that is why I have a somewhat cryptic name;), as I was invited by a acquaintance, someone I hardly knew actually. I almost never logged on until I started blogging about two years ago.
    Still, even today I have very little affinity for the place. It holds very little of my interest and I keep in touch with my loved ones by other media. I find it ridiculous to post updates to strangers about my life. It just isn't my cup of tea.;))
    xoxo
    ReplyDelete
  7. I think you're right about almost every detail, but online life is exactly like that, you have the good and the bad stuff and we just have to know how we portray ourselves and don't do things we don't want, just to satisfy others. What others do or say is totally up to them. Luckily, I can hide the details I don't like to see or hear.
    ReplyDelete
  8. About the spammers: Did you try comment moderation? That's what I have, people post, I get and email to either accept or decline. If its a spam I decline and its gone.
    ReplyDelete
  9. I will make this fast and clear, the reasons why I do not have a Facebook account are mentioned in your The Bad and The Ugly!!!

    I prefer having a blog, some things have to remain private and unfortunately lots of people share too much of their lives in Facebook, sometimes it gets nauseating :-/

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts about Facebook :-)

    Greetz,

    Joseph
    ReplyDelete
  10. Cheryl, very timely, I decided this morning to deactivate my FB account. Time to get outside and do, well, just about anything else. I was wasting time on it. There was some good, some bad and some real ugly. BTW: I like your "blogging without obligation" link
    ReplyDelete
  11. Facebook, now that's quite the topic. I was just mentioning this morning that it's making communication over the telephone almost obsolete. I sometimes wonder why I even have a telephone anymore, a home phone that is. I call others on it but everyone seems to think that a quick message on facebook is the way to go... I MISS HAVING COFFEE AND CONVERSATIONS!

    I agree that I don't need to know how many times a day someone goes to the washroom or how they are doing every five minutes, really now. The "I love you's" that are on couples status bars show me who the insecure one is in the relationship, save it for the marriage counselors please!

    Now the bonus about facebook is that I have reconnected with school friends from way back, I have my family on my facebook so I can view their albums and we also have a site for us social work students... right which I must add extra security to now but it's just boring things on there such as homework and that sort of stuff.

    Ya, it's love hate, tonight it's more hate. I received a Happy Birthday.... do I know you... yesterday on facebook, really now, DELETE comes to mind!

    Oops I wasn't going to rant neither but oh well, it's late and I'm just waiting for laundry to dry so what the heck, might as well vent! :-)

    Have a wonderful weekend Cheryl and thanks for the opportunity to vent. :-)
    ReplyDelete

I just love reading your comments. It's part of what makes blogging so much fun, don't you think?

Unfortunately, because of a recent spat of spam, for awhile I'll be reviewing comments before publishing them.

Thanks for understanding.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)