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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to be secretly pleased at the prospect that people may have to pay to use Facebook in the future?

127 replies

lovechoc · 07/10/2009 13:12

I recently heard that Facebook may start charging a monthly/annual fee to members who use this site. I personally don't use it but DH does and he just shrugged when I told him about it.

It is just a rumour at the moment, but if it happens, I can't help feeling quite happy about it. Means less people will be spending their time staring at a computer and putting useless 'updates' on their pages.

OP posts:
wannaBe · 08/10/2009 12:40

I think yabu to be glad people will be paying to use it (although the rumour has been doing the rounds for years and is unlikely to come to anything). If your dh really is addicted then I imagine he would be willing to pay anyway.

But I do think that social networking sites have taken off so fast, that we have't really thought of the consequences of using them.

We already have perspective employers finding their perspective staff on facebook, looking to see if they have incriminating photo's, I know of people who have been sacked both for their use of facebook and for saying derogatory things on there. The problem is that people have so many "friends" that often they forget who is actually reading their status updates. Yes it's possible to set your settings, but the reality is that most people don't do that until it's too late.

Actually I think a lot of that applies to mn and any other public forum, where people post identifyable information about themselves forgetting that the internet isn't really anonomous even if you are posting under a username. TBH I don't know what the answer really is, or whether it will just take time for people to stop being quite so open on the net, whether that be facebook or otherwise.

Fwiw I am on facebook, I don't use any of the applications (none of them are accessible anyway but I don't see the point,) but I have found friends there who I had lost touch with for years.

I think it has its place, I think that reading about other peoples' statuses is part of how the future is going to be, and that in the not too distant future not being on facebook will almost be like not having a mobile phone.

lovechoc · 08/10/2009 12:54

thanks bibbity for seeing where I'm coming from...

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lilyjen · 08/10/2009 12:55

I like facebook it's totally different from email or msn and it'a a great way of catching up with people you wouldn't normally bother have lost touch with..some people update their status every hour or 2 which is a bit sad crazy in my opinion..once a day at the most i'd say unless it's funny..each to their own I dunno why you wd care about it if yr not interested in it? The applications are a waste of time as much as any game wd be but it's a harmless way of wasting spending time if you're bored.

lovechoc · 08/10/2009 12:57

Sometimes it's good to be in the minority though and have the ability to make up your own mind rather than being like all other sheeples - following what everyone else is doing.

Facebook is like Twitter really, it's just a fad and before long, something else will be replacing both of these. People are very easily sucked in. The sheeple effect.

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lovechoc · 08/10/2009 12:59

There's nothing wrong with expressing an opinion about a topic that you are not personally involved in. I don't take drugs or smoke ciggies but I do have opinions on both of these topics. Just like many others do.

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alwayslookingforanswers · 08/10/2009 13:00

I don't twitter - don't see the point of it and never even bothered registering.

I always have a FB and MN tab open though

lovechoc · 08/10/2009 13:02

I don't twitter either, so that makes two of us!

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gorionine · 08/10/2009 13:07

Lovechoc, am not on FB but you are still BU. We all do have opinions about things we are not involved in, the fact that you think FB is a wast of time is your opinion and as such I respect it. The fact that you would like people to be charged to be on it so they actually won't go anymore, is not really an opinion IMHO it is a will to stop other people to do as they please because of reasons that seenm to be personal to you. Can you see the difference? One you are giving your opinion the other you are imposing your views on other people.

alwayslookingforanswers · 08/10/2009 13:11

btw OP - what does your DH think of your time spent on MN??????

PixiNanny · 08/10/2009 13:18

YABU

My friends are sctarrered far and wide, very few are even in this country. Maybe I could write emails, however it would take triple the amount of time it does and I'd neglect people. Also, there's the photos thing, much easier then uploading hundred's of pics seversl times to show different people with a different message each time. Just upload the pics to FB and post on a wall. Much quicker than email.

And no, they won't charge for it, they aren't idiots.

TwentiethCenturyHeffa · 08/10/2009 13:21

Facebook might be a fad but it's been around for at least 4 years by now - that's not bad. I'm not particularly sociable but I'd never have the time to phone all my friends to catch up with them.

Hulababy · 08/10/2009 13:27

I can make up my own mind too. And I chose to give FB a go and found I quite liked it. Nothing sheeplike about it. Funnily enough as a grown up, I am capable of chosing whether I want to use something online, and perfectly able to not obsess over it too.

lovechoc · 08/10/2009 19:24

DH knows I don't get a lot of time to go online so he's usually at work when I have free time anyway, and doesn't really notice it tbh (does plenty nightshifts).

Yes, we are all capable of making up our own minds but many sheeple use FB because so-and-so are using it, not because they want to do it. They feel pressurised into it.

There are ways to share photos with multiple people you know, it's called a blog, or even Flickr where you can uploads plenty of photos and then email a link to your friends. Worked well before FB and still works well today.

It was slightly tongue in cheek (in regards to the cost issue), it's none of my business what others do, but doesn't mean I can't express my own views on the matter.

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TwentiethCenturyHeffa · 08/10/2009 19:39

Flickr and Facebook were launched at the same time apparently. I don't really like using those sorts of photo sites because I feel a bit 'look at me, look at me!' emailing links, whereas with FB my friends can look (or not) at their leisure. That's just me though, I know plenty of people who don't use it and I can understand why not.

lovechoc · 08/10/2009 19:50

but FB is 'look at me, look at me' though. that's interesting what you say about Flickr and FB being launched at same time, didn't realise that. you learn something new every day!

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KembleTwins · 08/10/2009 23:26

I find it odd to read that you think FB is "look at me look at me" but think a viable alternative is to have a blog. Surely a blog is so much worse in the "look at me" stakes - I find it odd to think that anyone wants to read the minutae of someone else's life on a blog.I have a very dear friend who keeps one and it is soooooo dull. FB is much better.

LoveBeingAMummy · 09/10/2009 07:57

NOt sure fb can be called a fad after all these years.

PS thanks for being concerned but i am defo not pressured into using it. Unlike mn

PixiNanny · 09/10/2009 09:13

I have a blog and flickr too, however I prefer to keep them from my family. Also, not many people use photo sharing sites and don't like using them, I think only one of my fb friends actually has a flickr. One out of a few hundred. Shows how popular that idea is hm? And on blogs. Why the hell would I want to read the blogs over 200 people I know and sift through them to find something that interests me. That'd probably put me off of them.

I don't understand why you're so against it but, if you don't like it don't use it, simple as that. Just because loads of people do use it, it doesn't make them 'sheep'; tbh it makes you sound like you think you're high and mighty for not using it. I just think you need to get over it and yourself really.

People use social networking, really not a concept too hard to understand. Personally, I want to use facebook because it's easier to keep in contact with people (repeating myself); I can't call them as they live abroad, can't send letters as I'm constantly moving (not that it's any of your business to be honest), so social networking sites are a good substitute. But again, if you don't like it, don't use it and don't go on about how the rest of us are idiots for choosing to use a social networking site.

WoTmania · 09/10/2009 09:37

The other thing about FB, other than being able to contact the cousins in Canada and America FOR FREE is FB chat. I can sit down type random bollocks to a friend then get up stop the DCs from murdering each other, sit back down read reply and respond. Whereas if I pone I get 'mummy, can I say hello. Mummy. Mummy I'm hungry. Mummy I want a drink. Mummy can I say hello. Can I. Please. Mummy'

BloodshotEyeballs · 09/10/2009 09:47

How the hell is a blog better than FB? That's even more self indulgent! No offence to anyone who has one, I would too if I wasn't too lazy to update it

midnightexpress · 09/10/2009 10:02

My fb friends are all v funny and interesting anyway. I like reading their status updates. I have 'see lessed' the one obsessive status updater I know (interestingly, the only one who also has a blog...).

lovechoc · 09/10/2009 12:55

I have plenty going on RL to make sure I've not got time to use a website like FB. I go out and visit friends and speak to them in (!!) person, phone, email occasionally etc.
I don't have 150 friends that I need to stay in touch with, although have heard of people having this amount on social networking sites like FB, Twitter etc. Not sure what it achieves, is it a competition to see who has the most friends??

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alwayslookingforanswers · 09/10/2009 13:20

but you have time to use a website like MN??

And unless I'm mistake - it's not night-time now - so your DH isn't doing his night work .

lovechoc · 09/10/2009 18:36

I do use the internet occasionally at other times of the day, but mainly when DH is nightshift. Good point though alwayslookingfor well spotted

I don't feel a sense of commitment to using a discussion forum, I do it when I feel like it so I can use this for a few nights then be busy for several others and it wouldn't bother me. With social networking, it must almost seem like a chore to log on to see who in your circle of friends says this or that in relation to your personally. You must constantly want to know who is saying what and doing this and that. With MN, I can pick and choose what I want to discuss and when. It' s just different, I suppose.

On here, there's more anonymity and so I don't feel the need to constantly check every day, because I am not personally involved in another poster's life. I'm just contributing to a discussion if and when I feel like it.

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PixiNanny · 09/10/2009 19:50

You are choosing to come on here and reply to people here, you must constantly want to know who is saying what I suppose then?

How can you think you know so much about something you've not even used?

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