Facebook

[jlbattin]

I agree with most of your points, Tex, however, I do use it to keep in touch with family and get to see pictures of those who live so far away that I don't see them but once every couple of years or so. As a teacher, it's really been fun to also get back in touch with many former students who are now married, have children of their own, and many of them, grandchildren.

The biggest thing for me is that it can be a total time waster. I can find stupid mindless games to play that will occupy me for hours (which was a life saver this summer when I felt horrible and didn't want to do anything else), but I have had to limit my time playing games.

And I so agree, I wish I would have thought of it!

[JFR]

What I have observed about Facebook is that different people use it differently. Some of it seems beneficial to me and some of it seems primarily ego driven and some of it seems downright harmful while other uses are just a waste of time. And that's from my perspective. Others would probably evaluate it using different criteria than I do and come to different conclusions as to what's beneficial and what's not. In any case whether its good or bad on a personal level depends on its use and the perspective of the user. Concerns about privacy and how it mines personal data are another level of criticism that I do not understand well enough to address. No matter the media, if we let go of our critical intelligence bad things are likely to result and if we exercise it good things may result.

Jean

[HappyBird]

FB provides a huge stimulus to the economy by providing a means for Zuckerberg and all his cohorts to make billions of dollars off FB users by mining their data and selling ads. Notice that the rules continue to change as the project matures to allow more profit from the use of those data. Tex

Tex........

That's exactly the opinion I have reached since being on FB.

My partner filled me in on which posts not to open - "sponsored links" that means its making money for someone, someone who doesn't pay enough income tax in the UK - Facebook!

About fifteen to twenty years ago we saw the rise of the first non-personal family newsletter
written in a generic manner to cater for friends, family and mere acquaintences. These newsletters were often very long, boring and bragging blow by blow accounts of the family holiday and all the fantastic things they did. Every word idealised the ideal family and so often was so far from the reality they really experienced. These newsletters were often sent with the Christmas card addressed to Dear Friends and Family.

As technology has advanced face to face communication has become less and less. We only get bills and advertiding through the letter box and the very occasional postal item from our
God-Mummy who lives in Texas, she's in her seventies.

My siblings and family members started going in Facebook years ago - they became so bad at emailing and phoning that quite honestly I just got fed up. I speak to one brother regularly via Skype, the other four - don't bother. I don't want to live my life in this shallow media sharing my personal information with friends of relatives that I have never known. I understand how casual acquaintences and business contacts want to keep contact through Linkedin and maybe Facebook but its not the way to maintain contact with your family or loved ones.

My life is busy, I have many interests and can't afford to waste time in shallow conversations
or pumping up some poor soul that craves FB likes and is willing to say or do anything to get noticed.

[HappyBird]

FB primarily ego driven and some of it seems downright harmful while other uses are just a waste of time. Jean

I have seen a lot of ego driven stuff on FB and it seems that people are using it as a PR exercise.

[brandy]

I watched my sisters dogs in Montana for several weeks last August. I invited 3 girlfriends to join me as I thought it would be fun. We did extensive day trips around Glacier National Park. Two of the girls uploaded photos to facebook constantly and had lengthy ongoing dialogs on facebook. The other girl and I took cell phone pix but honestly wanted to get away from the digital world. I found the whole facebooking on vacation thing to be rude, rude rude and a huge time suck. I get wanting to take photos on vacation but the two facebookers should have uploaded their photos in the evening and done their facebook conversation during the evening.....not while we were hiking and driving around.

It wasn't about having a good vacation with the real live people you were with for two of the girls (the facebookers). No, it was about documenting this fantasy western trip for people on line.

It was incredibly rude and a huge time suck because hours were spend staging perfect pictures.

[HappyBird]

Hello Brandy..........

I would have been furious at that behaviour, so annoyed I would have sent the pair of them packing.
There is no vocabulary for that behaviour at the moment.

We have friends we go out for lunch about once a month. The one half of the couple sits at the table and texts the person looking after their pets every five minutes. Apparently it's very traumatic for her to be separated from the pet even for an afternoon. I don't have patience for this new wave way of socialising. We both like the other party so put up with the rudeness of the other.

[tex]

I get wanting to take photos on vacation but the two facebookers should have uploaded their photos in the evening and done their facebook conversation during the evening.....not while we were hiking and driving around.

But Brandy, don't you realize that everyone in the world needs to know exactly what those 2 are doing in real time every minute of the day? It would be cruel and unusual punishment to ask their friends to wait even 1 unnecessary minute for such crucial gratification.

This is why twitter (which has to be the most pathetic experiment in ego-gone-ballistic ever conceived) is so much "better" than getting the news any other way. We (well, apparently everyone except me, that is) simply can't wait another minute to find out what everyone else in the world is doing, or how they feel about every topic under the sun.

Tex

[HappyBird]

I'm not a Twit either Tex........


I tweet at my birds, they sing and tweet back and that's where my tweeting will stay.
I'm not going to tweet on Twitter ever!

Today on our news and political commentary shows the big topic has been how 78% of 10-11 year olds in the UK are on at least ine form of social media or more. All these social media sites have minimum age of thirteen years but that is totally disregarded. Most of the children confirm their parents don't know or monitor their social media sites and the kids admit to opting for adult facilities on these sites even though these sites all have restricted access for children.

Many families are now communicating within the house/home by text. Children, instead of going downstairs to find out what's for dinner, are texting mother in the kitchen for this information. Dinner times aren't the social gathering for the family anymore, each member sits in silence eating with one hand and texting with the other.

Parents aren't parenting, kids have the upper hand in the parent / child relationship due to parents ignorance and loss of control. The parents don't remember that everything their children do they are responsible for under the law. Family life is a mess and getting worse day by day.

[tex]

Many families are now communicating within the house/home by text. Children, instead of going downstairs to find out what's for dinner, are texting mother in the kitchen for this information.

Gee, I wonder why so many kids are out of condition and overweight.

Parents aren't parenting, kids have the upper hand in the parent / child relationship due to parents ignorance and loss of control. The parents don't remember that everything their children do they are responsible for under the law. Family life is a mess and getting worse day by day.

Well, yes that seems to have happened, at least when compared with the way that our parents and grandparents brought up their kids. But we have a worse problem here in the U. S. — if a parent is seen laying a hand on a child in order to try to discipline them in public, they run the risk of going to jail and having their child taken away from them by State Child Protective Services. There are so many "do-gooders" around these days who seem to have dedicated their lives to making life miserable for the rest of us that many parents are afraid to discipline their kids. Parents have zero rights when CPS shows up. They are treated as guilty until proven innocent, similar to the treatment that terrorists receive. We're living in a convoluted world, and our loss of values can be traced back to the fact that as you say, family life is a mess and getting worse. And if you look at the social sites such as FB and Twitter, those same values seem to be missing.

So which came first . . . the social site craze or the degradation of family life?

Tex

[HappyBird]

Gee, I wonder why so many kids are out of condition and overweight.

Its part if the problem, no doubt, along with junk food, sugary drinks.

if a parent is seen laying a hand on a er to try to discipline them in public, they run the risk of going to jail and having their child taken away from them by State Child Protective Services.

We have the same in the UK. Parents are terrified to correct their tear-aways in public. This is due to legislation made by stupid politicians making knee-jerk reactions because one parent somewhere did something inappropriate and now all parents are tarnished with the same brush.

I managed to bring up two sons without lifting a finger to them or raising my voice. I was brought up by two very progressive parents who also didn't raise a finger to me and my five other siblings and neither did they raise their voices between themselves or at us kids. We had a tranquil homelife compared to our friends and even some of our cousins.

So which came first . . . the social site craze or the degradation of family life?
Tex

Degredation of the family came first - technology and the advent of social media is finishing it off. Having said that, not all families behave like the one I mentioned above, but far too many children are seeing adult material far too young. Their age of innocence is over by the time they get to 10 years old. The next generation of parents will be worse.

[tex]

Tex