To be glad I've given up facebook....

[ssd]

..no more people being blessed, no more married couples talking lovey dovey bollocks to each other online when they are probably at home on the same couch ignoring each other, no more kids in front of their 3 million birthday presents showing off, no more selfies, no more shite and boasts and and and....bloody facebook!!!

and breathe....

its great, forget dry January, no FB January is much better for my health!!

[ItsAllKickingOffPru]

Have they?

Sheesh.

[CuntCourtIsInSession]

FB is as good as the quality of your friends. Don't like friends posting gummy gushing life stuff? Don't be friends with them!

I really really don't understand how people blame the medium, rather than, you know, the people posting the messages...

[paperlace]

Because Cunt (blimey, feels very aggressive writing that!) some people are cocks on Facebook and perfectly fine in RL. Tis scientific fact.

ssd I deleted my FB account nearly three years ago. Not missed it at all in any way. Have realised am one of those people who doesn't care if they are missing out and could't give a shit who's done what or talking to who.

I still spend my time doing uncultured shite like watching crap telly, Mumsnetting, browsing all kinds of crap online so it's not like I've gained time or any noble pastimes. I just hated FB.

[wobblyweebles]

Never had an account on facebook but I have seen the damage it can do. What I don't understand is why people share so much with total strangers?

I guess if you've never had a FB account that would explain why you think people are sharing 'so much with strangers' when most of them are sharing a few things with friends.

[CuntCourtIsInSession]

Paperlace! Sorry, I know what you mean contemplates namechange

Yes, that's kind of my point - we wouldn't tolerate half the bull in real life that we complain about on the internet. I figure a) adopt the perspective of an anthropologist or b) cull ruthlessly!

I'm an emigrant so to be honest my life would be a lot worse without it, I miss my family and friends and it' s marvellous to see what kind of things mundane bullshit they get up to.

[Thumbwitch]

Well obviously YANBU because you giving up FB only affects your feelings, really, and if it makes you happier then hurrah for you!

But I couldn't and wouldn't want to do it. If people constantly fill their threads with fluffy smuggy bollox then I downgrade what I can see of their posts, from everything to Only Important (or whatever it's called). If they really piss me off still, then I hide their posts entirely. I had to hide my own sister's, because she was playing some sodding bingo game that I could NOT switch the notifications off for, and it was driving me batty having 10 notifications a day or so from her bloody bingo!

FB is an excellent way for me to keep in touch with friends and family back in the UK, and also for arranging meet ups with friends here. Cheaper than text and easier to see everyone's responses.

I wouldn't give it up unless I absolutely had to, and I'd miss it if I did.

[Spinnerbear]

I am on FB several times a day, but I use it to keep in touch with old friends and family members. My family are scattered around Europe and the United States, so it is an easy way to stay connected. Sometimes I will have a day or two where I don't go on it at all, and I don't have it on my phone, just on the puter.

[Hygellig]

I haven't updated my status for ages, but I enjoy reading and sometimes contributing to some groups on Facebook, sometimes coming across an interesting link, and seeing what friends are up to. It's certainly not without its annoyances, but on the whole I'd rather have it than not have it.

[MaliceInWinterWonderland78]

I think I was anti-Faceache long before it was fashionable on mumsnet

My wife has an account (though she seems to go for days without accessing it). We recently had my mother-in-law over for a few days. She's addicted to Facebook - to the extent that she doesn't give her own grandchildren the attention they need. It all came to a head when my wife (on returning from hospital) unplugged the wi-fi. My mother-in-law became incredibly anxious and was even covertly asking my father-in-law to turn it back on.

Facebook can be misused in the same way that drugs or alcohol can be. When it affects your ability to interract with people n real life (which it has done for my mother-in-law) it's probably time to knock it on the head.

One notion I did disabuse my MiL of was that she did not (as she felt she did) have any meaningful relationship with people merely as a result of Facebook. You get the side of people that they wish to share. That's true of real life too of course, but Faceache takes it to another level.

[ChickenMe]

I find it annoying but strangely compelling, perhaps in the same way as reality TV. I think it often brings out the worst in people but it certainly gives me a laugh.
When it first came out it was really fun to see people from primary school etc. Now people have become more contrived and it's quite interesting to see how they present themselves-usually completely at odds with how they really are.
Eg one girl used to constantly refer to her scrummy DH and amazing life. But now they have spilt up after two failed IVFs. Now she posts even more about being blessed and lovemylife but it's kind of a bit weird cos it doesn't ring true at all and you can sense the dissonance.

[Tinkerball]

Horsepower9

What do you mean about FB and sharing things with total strangers? I don't have anyone on my FB I don't know, hardly strangers.

[ClaudetteWyms]

Well my DSIL is FB friends with a man who lives a few doors down from her, who she says hi to around twice a month when she bumps into him. But she doesn't know him at all really.

So he is in fact a stranger, yet sees all her pics of her kids and all the bloody constant updates about her life. He's not the only one of her 250-odd friends that she doesn't actually know as a RL friend. So I guess that's the sort of thing Horsepower9 might be referring to?

[MadeMan]

"I had to hide my own sister's, because she was playing some sodding bingo game that I could NOT switch the notifications off for, and it was driving me batty having 10 notifications a day or so from her bloody bingo!"

I'm really hoping the notifications were bingo-isms such as, "Thank you whistlers!", "Top of the shop, blind ninety!", "Two little ducks, twenty two!" I would have loved to have had random bingo phrases popping up on my wall.

[MadeMan]

"Now people have become more contrived and it's quite interesting to see how they present themselves-usually completely at odds with how they really are."

Yeah, it takes 2 seconds to pull a crazy face for a selfie at a party and present yourself on Facebook as an up-for-it, totally outrageous party animal, but in reality you could be sitting alone quietly sipping a drink in the corner for the rest of it.

I know at least a couple of people whose online persona is a bit different to how they actually are, but you'd only really know this by knowing them in day-to-day life.

[funnyperson]

Sometimes I think of it as similar to penfriends years ago. People write differently to how they might speak or post. So which one is the 'real' person? The facebook person or the 'real life' person.

The idea that the self presented in everyday life is different from the inner self is not new. Is a person's facebook profile an extreme version of the public self (as for example with politicians and their facebook profiles) or is it a way of them communicating their private selves?

Anyway its all very interesting, and even more interesting are those studies which look at the links between people on the social networking sites and use them to identify terror cells.

[Mintyy]

I just can't imagine being addicted to it ... how can it get to that stage?

what on earth is there to say all the time?

I check in every few days, for about 10 minutes at a time.

But then I do only have my 71 FB friends, and loads of my rl friends and family don't use it.

I had one friend (woman from school) who updated her status a few times a day. I just hid her.

[Thumbwitch]

mademan - I hate to disappoint you but no, it was all "Sis has played bingo and won x" or "sis has played bingo with her friends" iirc. It was a couple of years ago now! But certainly nothing like your suggestions, sorry!

[wobblyweebles]

I spent today smiling tearfully at pictures of my two friends getting married, then chatting to our other friends in common about how lovely the whole thing was.

Shocking really, the depths to which Facebook forces us :-)

[PuppyMonkey]

Mintyy a lot of people probably think the same thing about MN

Can't imagine being addicted to it
What on earth is there to say all the time?
My friend posts several times a day.

[MadeMan]

Damn, that's a shame Thumbwitch. Although maybe some bright spark will create a bingo phrases app one day.