to not "get" social networking?

[Joolyjoolyjoo]

Everyone seems to exist on Facebook now, and I just don't get it! I have a Facebook page, I admit, but only ever log in when I get an email to tell me that someone has messaged me.

What was wrong with e-mail? I can understand that people have busy lives, it's not always convenient to 'phone people, but I don't see the attraction in leaving messages on FB that all your other friends can see. So they can see that you were out with such-and-such the other night, but they weren't invited? So they can wonder what it actually is that you were so "mortified" about? So that you can spy on each other's "status" constantly?

I love getting e-mails from my friends- it's like a conversation, between 2 people rather than 100. I can write long, personal e-mails to friends and receive the same back, without worrying who else will be privvy to our correspondence.

All my younger friends, however, insist on FB. I just don't see what you get from it, other than the odd communication from people you barely know! I'm sure you will all tell me I am a horrible old fogey, but WHY is it so great? AIBU in thinking it isn't?

I detest Facebook. It regularly breaches its' users privacy and people only find out that they have done so after the event. The former Chief Exec has gone to press admitting that as far as he's concerned, there is no such thing as "privacy".

I hate the pressure on children too young to use it, to ignore the minimum ages and get an account anyway - and their parents for allowing it. I have lost count of the incidents of cyber bullying it has led to, at our DCs' schools.

Quite apart from all this, I regularly despair at how people seem to live their lives on the bloody thing, even conducting life-altering conversations with their spouses on FB. It's bad enough couples texting what should be said face to face, but having a chat on Facebook FGS?

There, rant over, but YA definitely NBU.

People end up in thrall to it - they seem unable to reject requests to be "friends" - MN is full of this kind of stuff.

I deregistered recently because everyone was irritating me. People who I actually like in RL were irritating me with "vaguebooking" ie doing cryptic attention-seeking updates, my SIL was annoying me because she was doing passive aggressive updates, certain colleagues were doing self-aggrandising showing off...

In the end I decided it was better not to be forming judgements on people based on their FB personae and to come off and leave them to it.

I slightly miss not knowing what people are up to, but it's better than being mightily irriatated every time I logged on.

So glad I am not alone! To hear the media, you would think that unless you are "active" on FB you have no life!

dittny- very interesting article, and has led me to understand the "niggling" feeling I've had about FB for some time.

It does all seem a bit too Big Brother to me, despite the convenience factor.

Or maybe the convenience factor is a calculated move?

Yanbu - I don't get FB either. I don't have a page, neither does dh. I find it all a bit childish - ooh look at me I've got 256 friends and they're all doing wacky things and have crazy photos.... yawn.

well - its no more weird than posting random thoughts to strangers on here...

whenwillifeelnormal I know someone who organised (And I use the word loosely) her whole wedding over facebook

I have a lot of peoples status updates blocked to avoid the "I just ate/shat" updates, and the "I'm so upset - now message me to guess why" ones. Although I've deleted many more people for that reason.

The childishness of it drives me nuts, we had a phone call at about midnight the other night from DP's mate because DP had deleted his mates girlfriend (who we've never met - and who we've discovered bitches about us) from FB. Believe it or not, those two have actually passed puberty!

Luckily the people that we leave on there are more sensible.

I think it just depends on your attitude toward it. I am a big fan of FB, after a long time resisting it. I won't 'friend' just because; I have good friends and family(my people are American, and I live in the UK). I like keeping up with them on a consistent basis, even though I do still send lengthy emails and speak to people on the phone. I like that I can post recent pics of DCs so that they can see how they're growing, and vice versa. I don't spend hours on it, I don't write every boring thing I'm doing in my status reports, etc.
I feel like my friends from afar and I keep in much better, more frequent contact now that it exists, and it's been a lot of fun 'finding' a few people that I lost touch with, but genuinely like.
Again, it depends on your attitude...if it's all you've got, and you don't phone, email OR ever see folks in RL, then it's a problem.

i like it a lot, but i am selective about who i accept as a friend and i also have some friends 'hidden' if they post too much i'm not interested in.

i love that you can post something like 'anybody interested in [obscure film or exhibition] that's on' and somebody will answer.. often somebody you don't expect.

of course, that only works if your 'friends' are actual friends you'd want to see a film or exhibition with!