Is not joining Facebook a sign you're a psychopath?

[Tsunami]

Originally Posted by SusanUKF

According to my 18 year old daughter (who of course is extremely addicted to Facebook!), I am just not with the times at all not having it. "Mom, everyone has Facebook, even a lot of my friends' grandparents, and you are on the computer every day, you really should make an account!" I am never making one, I am almost defiant in this, I never want one!

Susan

Hehe, I know, one ex colleague once literally told me I'd never find a girlfriend if I would not join Facebook. As if you're totally outdated or considered a backwards person for not joining. I'd respond her "well, then I'm the one with an opinion of my own!" just for the sake of teasing back.

Originally Posted by drew

I would get hooked in no time on FB.

I tried it, and after a few months of non-frequent usage, stopped using it. Just not my cup of tea. Nothing guarantees you'd get addicted to it. Everyone likes different things. I easily got addicted to some discussion forums in the good old phpBB format and to online documentaries on geography and travelling ; but FB just didn't do the trick for me.

Nothing guarantees you'd get addicted ; on the other hand, you may find yourself extremely attracted to another random site, spending hours on it each day. Every step we take in life includes a little risk


Before people again suggest I am on an anti-FB crusade...
In the end, I really don't hate Facebook in the way like disliking people using it. I just don't like the site myself for various reasons, and what I do dislike is other people trying to jam Facebook down the throat. If another person uses the site all day but doesn't push me to join in, then good for him if he enjoys it.

[walesrob]

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned/stubborn/boring* (*delete as appropriate), but we survived for many years without emails, internet and FB and I will happily live for the rest of my life without it. If people need to contact me, they know my email address and they know my phone number

Having said that, my wife uses FB daily purely for the reason all her family live in the Philippines, and she is able to keep in contact with all the latest news.

But for me, no thanks. Same goes for Twitter and all other social networking sites - I've nothing to hide, if I wanna go shopping at 3pm and watch TV at 4.50pm, that's my business.

[walesrob]

Originally Posted by FredOnline

Colleagues have often asked me why I don't go on company days out, Christmas parties, etc. My usual response is "I may have to work with you, but there's no way I'm going to socialize with you!"

Same here Fred, its bad enough working with them all day, the last thing I want is to go drinking with them. I work in a supermarket, and some of my "colleagues" seem to adopt a Jekyll and Hyde character when they've had one too many. Not nice.

[chrisretusn]

Originally Posted by Tsunami

Anyway, the idea that a Facebook account is considered by some as essential as an identity card, is somewhat disturbing

Yes it is disturbing. That I have, or do not have, a Facebook account should not be anyones business but mine.

One of the things about Facebook or the internet in general is you have no control on what others post about you. That is pretty scary.

I log in to Facebook a few times a week, mostly to see what's there. I rarely post anything. I find it difficult to use at times. I can't see how my daughter can sift through it all. I think most (including my daughter) post just to post. Sort of like those forwarded emails. Worthless banter more or less.

[drew]

The plot is thickening. To not have a FB
with real name and to update what is
happening can be seen as suspect.

That one have something to hide.

It is too late for me now to join using
a faked name identity.

http://articles.cnn.com/2012-08-02/t...book-estimates

83 million Facebook accounts are fakes and dupes
August 02, 2012|By Heather Kelly, CNN

If you're using a fake name on your Facebook account, ...
(then) you have one of the 83.09 million fake accounts
Facebook wants to disable.

In an updated regulatory filing released Wednesday,
the social media company said that 8.7 percent of
its 955 million monthly active users worldwide are
actually duplicate or false accounts.

"On Facebook we have a really large commitment
in general to finding and disabling false accounts,"

Facebook's chief security officer Joe Sullivan told CNN
in a recent interview. "Our entire platform is based on
people using their real identities."

So it is too late for me then. They will find me out
really soon. They are at it to delete all the faked ones.

I am always too many years behind. I even failed to join
MySpace when it was one of the more popular ones.

Oh I did join youtube but never posted only gave one
comment to an amateur musician that played very good.

So what is the next in thing to be part of What's Next?

[David]

It's worse than your worst fears!


Perhaps, if you have a login to an different social networking site, you can spill every detail of your life there, and feel absolved

[SusanUKF]

A very weird thing (to me anyway) that the teenagers are all doing on their Facebooks is adding their friends from school as their *relatives* on it. They say their best friends are their sisters, brothers, even sometimes their aunts, uncles, children, or parents. They think it is hilarious, and say, it is just Facebook, no one cares.

[Tsunami]

I am a writer and I do not use Twitter nor MySpace nor Facebook to promote my work. Some asked me how I ever want to get my work read... So are we up to the point now that a Facebook or Twitter account is more important than a publisher and where your "fans" think Twitter or Facebook is the only way to find out when their favourite band/writer/artist releases something new?

Originally Posted by chrisretusn

One of the things about Facebook or the internet in general is you have no control on what others post about you. That is pretty scary.

Yes but there FB is not the only one to blame. Anyone can just post lies about someone else on any website. Facebook is only one of the media where this is possible.

I sometimes wonder how life would be if the internet stuck to its original intention: making info accessible for anyone. But without emails, without users creating own sites, without social networking, without online shopping, ... Only a library that you can access from any PC to research information.

Sounds like horror to many probably, but I actually think in some ways it would be nicer like that than the commercialised internet we have now.

[David]

The internet has 'dumbed down' many. Those who believe (irrevocably) what they read on the net about others, 'employers Included' are the ones who have been dumbed down the most. IMHO

[bramhall]

Robert Collins took a leave of absence from his job, When he returned, his employer forced him to reapply for his position and demanded the username and password to his Facebook account.

US employers banned from asking for social media logins.

[chrisretusn]

Demanding access to ones Facebook account or any account for that matter takes things to far. My initial reaction would be to tell that employer to pack sand. I am so glad I am not in a position to have to worry about such things. It would be sad o loose a job over this sort of thing.

[drew]

Now one should always gives links.
I chose to not do it this time.
The text where in Swedish
and on a Evening Tabloid
so how well are such researched?

Anyway it told of a guy that talked bad
about the Boss on FB and the Boss heard of it
by other employees and he fired the man
and then the "Workers Union" stepped in
and wanted the man to be hired again and
I don't remember if they had some kind of
agreement or not.

What I wanted to share is that what one do
on FB can have very severe consequences.

To lose a job when there is no other job
to get within a 100 miles area could mean
you fail to pay for the house and lose home too.

Dangerous indeed.

[webecedarian]

Wow. I'm avoiding FB like the plague, but I can see that soon you might be tagged as a deranged loner.

[Tsunami]

Originally Posted by webecedarian

Wow. I'm avoiding FB like the plague, but I can see that soon you might be tagged as a deranged loner.

Still a better tag than a Facebook addict

Just ask yourself the question why you would care about the opinion of someone judging people on their having or not having of a Facebook account. It's not worth fretting about, or wasting time on. To each his own, let them enjoy their Facebook but if someone doesn't grasp some people don't like it and he considers those losers, then this person isn't exactly an interesting person you want to try to keep in touch with.

By the way, I see the Facebook hype vanish at some point. At the moment, I have the impression Twitter is the big hype even more than Facebook. A few years ago, MSN Groups were still seen as the best thing out there in the internet world. No empire lasts forever, and Zuckerberg's imperium is no exception to that.

[Adam Lachlan]

I finally yielded to my sister's persuasions to sign up to Bookface (as I call it). This was in 2008 when it was all the rage as the new "in" thing.

Beginning of this year I delete my account. One of the best decisions I ever made. Unfortunately, you are never gone from the site forever - it would appear that they hold your details indefinitely. I certainly do not "Like" that.