Use FB all the time. Multiple times a day. I find it very useful.

I’m in Facebook Groups for:

– Reception Year parents for local school
– Year 3 parents for local school
– PTA for local school
– Cubs/Beavers
– What’s On in the village group
– Buy/Sell for the village (+ a couple of other groups for surrounding areas)
– local cycle campaign group
– cycle club
– kayak club

Not sure how all that would get organised without something like facebook? I’m guessing a confusing mess of emails, phone calls, chats, text messages, cards in windows, leaflets through doors, etc etc

Actually I’m curious – how many other people on here have FB friends they’ve never met?

I have a number of people from here on my FB feed who I haven’t met, and some I have.

I keep meaning to friend more from seeing them on other STWers comments but I keep forgetting who’s who 🙂

Strangers are just friends you haven’t met followed yet.

how many other people on here have FB friends they’ve never met

Not me.

Our little group of riders have a private cycling group set up on FB for organizing rides an stuff. Not visible to anyone unless you are a member.

Actually I’m curious – how many other people on here have FB friends they’ve never met?

Just a couple from here, a few I’ve worked with remotely and another handful from MTB advocacy.

And I would consider myself actual friends with some of these.

Actually I’m curious – how many other people on here have FB friends they’ve never met?

This is the bit I never got about FB.

When I was on FB my wife, on my FB page, accidentally sent a friend request to a friend of one of my friends. I did not know this person or had never met this person and had no idea of their relationship to my friend and as far as I know they didn’t know me.
But they accepted the request! Why would you do that?

BTW I don’t hate FB, I just had no real use for it so binned it. Whatsapp groups are good enough for me.

It’s like booze – you can enjoy a nice craft beer or two with friends once a week, or you can be an alcoholic. Or anywhere in between.

So “craft” beer is the furthest you can be from being alcoholic eh? I blame social media.

seemingly was in my case! kidding aside, the way ppl used FB changed over the years I used it. It became as i saw it, a stick to beat people with and i disliked that aspect to the on-line presence of my nearest and dearest. Too much drama. And then you’re left reading about yet another baby or house move. Not much stimulation there beyond the obvious.

The joy left FB for me, with a greater society shift to regurgitating political opinion – perhaps i just knew too many people of that ilk! It still has great value but the way information was surfacing was what pushed me away a the end. I’m interested in socializing- not stating at a noticeboard of reposted this and that. When you start blocking/unfriending some of the closest people to you- you know its time to step away.

That’s pretty much been my reason to quit.

I thought it was my age, I’m 40, my mates are all about the same age – it’s bloody rare to do anything of note, when all you seem to do it take the kids to various clubs and I’m bored of ‘liking’ all my mates Strava posts out of politeness, so they’ll do the same for me.

The rest is lazy ‘shares’ of nonsense that wouldn’t pass even half a look at snopes.

Nonsensical, Motivations style things, honestly, for a laugh I used a site (I think posted here) that just sort of vomits random words onto a Getty Pic of someone on a boat or something, 15 likes.

Kid Pics – I’ve got kids, they’re amazing, they’re the best kids, the cutest kids, they do the best things – but sadly all my mates have got kids and whilst they’re just normal kids, not like my super kids, they’re delusional enough to think their kids are special so-how? Weird, anyway they like my kid pics because they’re awesome and I pity like theirs.

The worst though, has got to be FB Nostalgia, it’s all of the above, regurgitated on it’s anniversary every year.

Interestingly (to me anyway) I think FBs days are numbered, my Son is social media mental – he’s Mr. Insta, Mr. Snapchat and others I can’t remember the name of – doesn’t want, or care about FB, it’s for old people, My sister is 18 years my junior – 22 as of a few days, ago, has a FB account so my Mum can ‘keep an eye on her’ never uses it, hardly uses SM at all, none of her friends do – “too impersonal”. Young lads in the office don’t use it “it’s where your Mum spies on you”.

Where the action seems to be these days is Whatsapp Groups, it’s private, or as private as you want it to be, you don’t feel any social pressure to be friends with anyone, people tend to be themselves, not some BS polished highlights real person they want to people they went to school with the think they are.

Only one of mine I think is like that – but she’s also on one of the local activity groups I belong to (well I’m an admin of and organise events for), and I’m sure I will meet her at some point. Most of the people I’ve never met don’t even live in the UK – I think all of the rest are unicyclists. Though I personally have a basic rule, I don’t accept friend requests from anybody I haven’t at least communicated with in some way, even if that’s just commenting on the same post.

edit: actually having just checked, one FB friend is somebody on here I’ve never met.

Actually I’m curious – how many other people on here have FB friends they’ve never met?

Only one, she’s my Wife’s Cousin, they’e pretty close but haven’t seen each other in the flesh in years as she lives in LA and Vegas. She was Meatloaf’s Tour Manager for years, now she’s with Kesha – we chat a bit actually, she seems one of the few who get my odd sense of humour. She doesn’t post much, but it’s usually so far removed from the normal Baby/Holiday/Nostalgia/InternetNonsense it’s really interesting.

I think FBs days are numbered

Nope. Two billion users now. Has arguably become the world’s biggest media company. Making much more money than other social networks.

Your son will get older and will join FB, especially now you’ve quit it.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but do you think you might be projecting a bit?

As I pointed out up there, plenty of younger people on it, who will probably end up posting baby pics in a few years (I’ll defriend them at that point).

FB isn’t going anywhere, even Google couldn’t dislodge them. If a startup competitor comes along FB will either copy their ideas or buy them out.

Edit: a bigger threat might be regulatory bodies. If they get too big then they could be split up in the same way that Bell (the telecoms corporation not the helmet manufacturer) were.

Where the action seems to be these days is Whatsapp Groups, it’s private, or as private as you want it to be

We have a standing WhatsApp group for my drinking circle to organise pub meets, trips, banter and occasional bike rides.

But for other stuff WhatsApp seems too personal. I wouldn’t want to be in a WhatsApp group for all the parents in my daughters’ years at school. Or a WhatsApp group for the PTA or for buying/selling stuff locally. Facebook Groups seem ideal for those.

Interestingly (to me anyway) I think FBs days are numbered, my Son is social media mental – he’s Mr. Insta, Mr. Snapchat and others I can’t remember the name of – doesn’t want, or care about FB, it’s for old people,

Thing is FB has changed. I joined when somebody at work (a youngster) set off on a world tour and stated that they would not be sending out emails with pix, as had been the norm up til then, but would post on FB. Then over a few years I found it a great way to reconnect with friends around the country – it had sort of become a super-efficient post-card and Christmas card replacement. Now, for me, it’s become a barrage of copied novelty items and political nonsense, much as email became at one time. Simultaneously it’s become a marketing tool like a website. On the positive side there are all sorts of buy and sell groups and small clubs find it quick and easier than setting up a web site. So usage does depend on what you want, and it will have changed over the years it’s been around.

Snapchat and so on are just messaging and transient, so tales of youngsters abandoning FB for those are not really surprising.

Scrap my previous comment about never wanting to join….i am sooo tempted now just so I can see Lings Facebook page 😀

Very apt post by Matthew Inman of ‘the Oatmeal’ today…

reaching people on the internet

Yeah ironically enough I saw that on Facebook this morning.

Yeah ironically enough I saw that on Facebook this morning

Yep me too, I did wonder how much it cost him to promote it!

That’s a good comic strip.

Does anyone here specialise in FB advertising/marketing? I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts on how that kind of thing really works. The ratios involved etc

Just say some words such as “Cadbury’s Wispa” a few times in the vicinity of your phone; it’ll be on your FB feed within a day or two.

THe other thing that’s worth a rant is people constantly sharing left wing ideological pro muslim drug addicted vegan bollocks. Who’re you sharing it with?!?! Your friends that hold exactly the same views as you!!! Where do you live?!! IN a little bubble on the furness peninsula!!! NONE of it affects you anyway, nothing serious that happens in the world ever will!!! Thankfully I don’t have to be friends with them in real life 😉

davidtaylforth – Member
THe other thing that’s worth a rant is people constantly sharing left wing ideological pro muslim drug addicted vegan bollocks.

As is people constantly sharing right wing ideological anti muslim straight edge carnivore bollocks.

Although to be fair, it’s good that they do and I keep some of them as FB ‘pets’ so I can be reminded of the stupidity of crowds from time to time…

davidtaylforth – Member

Who’re you sharing it with?!?! Your friends that hold exactly the same views as you!!!

Do all your friends share exactly the same views as you? Bit weird.

Just say some words such as “Cadbury’s Wispa” a few times in the vicinity of your phone; it’ll be on your FB feed within a day or two.

I uninstalled the facebook and messenger apps from my phone as facebook started showing adverts for things I’d only spoken about – I had been telling my mum how to use a velux window in a holiday home we were in and hey presto I started getting loads of ads for velux. I’ve never searched for anything to do with velux windows or anything and the only other thing I can think of is previous holiday makers had googled velux windows from the same IP. In the T&Cs it does say they can use your mic and camera at any time and there have been various things online about it listening to you so I wouldn’t be surprised if it is.

Never had an account, never wanted an account, saw it right from its inception and thought how the hell would they monetise it. Since then they have driven the fine line of punishment and reward, much like any of the free to play games kept the features flowing whilst chipping away at everything else.

for anyone in the early 90’s the internet was going to be a portal a walled garden with limited access to the rest of it. Aol, Compuserve etc…. now its Facebook you get an email telling you have received an email… walled garden again… sorry I’m going to throw an insult at all of you ‘Sheep’

Never had an account, never wanted an account, saw it right from its inception and thought how the hell would they monetise it.

Well they seem to have managed it.

sorry I’m going to throw an insult at all of you ‘Sheep’

Who cares, it’s delivering my a benefit, I know there is a cost in terms of ads and data collection but it’s actually making things easier for me, another great example was last weekend, a mate posted he was going to be somewhere for work on Saturday was anyone riding, ended up with a group of 5 of us heading out together without knowing each other was planning to be there.

facebook started showing adverts for things I’d only spoken about

They would need special permission from Apple to do that, which seems unlikely.

Facebook (and Apple) would be opening themselves up for a massive lawsuit, especially as FB have expressly denied doing it.

Plus of course you can just turn off the apps access to the microphone. (And if Apple are ignoring that too they’d be in even deeper legal trouble).

there have been various things online about it listening to you

Yep, the conspiracy theory has been circulating for at least four years that I know of. But no one has ever been able to prove it.

I get ads for things I have spoken about but not searched.
The Daily Mail once quoted something I had said in asmall local group.
Younger family become competitive over likes.
People portray their lives as unrealistically successful.
It spreads images I am not comfortable with, violence, objectification of women.
It is very time consuming.
It spreads falsehoods and manipulates group behaviour.

For those reasons I turned off notifications, once you do that it soon becomes irrelevant and you may as well get rid of it.

I turned off notifications,

Sorry, but are some folk saying that they have notifications popping up for everything in their feed? Surely the first thing you would do is just switch them off and just catch up whenever you feel like it? I guess that being unable/unwilling to make even that small change would make Facebook a lot more intrusive.

As for the microphone stuff…..

I think it knows who else is in your household, so it will show you ads for things you’ve spoken to your OH about and they’ve searched for.

It also probably searches your fb messages so if you are talking about stuff on there it will know.

As for the price of using it.. the price is better advertising. Not that high of a price imo. One of the main themes in my ads seems to be stuff I’ve searched for or bought on Amazon. And I get them on countless websites including this one. So basically everyone’s at it even those who have nothing to do with FB.

I’m not a sheep.

As for the price of using it.. the price is advertising

FTFY

Facebook’s business model is based around pestering you with ads so that you carry on being a good little sheep consumer.

As a rhetorical question: if MI5 (or any other government security agency) came up with something akin to FB and the price was better security would you sign up?

People portray their lives as unrealistically successful.
It spreads images I am not comfortable with, violence, objectification of women.
It is very time consuming.
It spreads falsehoods and manipulates group behaviour.

This is what I was talking about above and I just don’t get it, please help me understand.

How can somebody portray their lives as unrealistically successful? Do they put fake job titles in their profiles, do they photoshop the family pics to include a helicopter and a speedboat? Or do people post little snippets of their lives that they think people will find interesting and you are taking this as them showing how successful they are?

A bit like watching the highlights of a football match, it is obviously not like that for the entire game and we don’t expect it to be. That doesn’t mean the BBC are showing football to be unrealistically interesting, it is just the way it works. No different for facebook…

How does it spread images of violence, objectification of women etc. I can tell you there is next to none of those on my feed so is that something your friends pass around? If so, they would be doing it anyway and facebook just brings it to YOU so you can either choose not to associate with those people or you can challenge those friends and possibly stop it. If anything, facebook has helped.

How is it time consuming? Does anybody force you to do 2 hours of hard facebook graft every day, does your profile cease to exist if you don’t spend xx hours a day on it?

It is a tool and in some ways a mirror of your surroundings, you cant get angry at the mirror if you don’t like what you see.

And for the ads, just install an adblocker and be done with it. Obviously turn it off when visiting STW 😉

Facebook’s business model is based around pestering you with ads

Not unique is it? We’ve had newspapers, magazines and TV funded with advertising for decades; and most of the internet is ad-funded. It’s just that now there’s a slightly better chance you’ll see an ad for something you want.

Most of mine are for outdoor gear or similar – I see special offers on boots which is handy since I need boots.

People portray their lives as unrealistically successful.

Some people do – but my friends don’t.

It spreads images I am not comfortable with, violence, objectification of women.

IT doesn’t – your friends do.

It is very time consuming.

The amount of time you spend is entirely under YOUR control.

It spreads falsehoods and manipulates group behaviour.

No, PEOPLE use it for that in the same way that people use TV and print media for the same thing.

Remind me who’s a sheep again?

It’s just that now there’s a slightly better chance you’ll see an ad for something you want.

Want? Do you mean need? The whole point of advertising is to replace “need” with “want”.

My wife’s on FB and the other day there was a giggle and a “look at this”. “This” turned out to be one of the Simon’s Cat cartoons, in fact it was the first ever one and I’d seen it before. The cartoon is a full 97 seconds long but FB decide that they’ll stick a fekking commercial in the middle of it!

No. The publisher of the content decided to include an ad.

THe other thing that’s worth a rant is people constantly sharing left wing ideological pro muslim drug addicted vegan bollocks.

😆

Gay and disabled. You forgot the gay and disabled bit.

FB decide that they’ll stick a fekking commercial in the middle of it!

I watched Dave Gorman on Dave the other day and there was like eight entire minutes of ONLY ads filling the entire screen in a half hour show! They even stopped the show in the middle to show me more adverts! And they were for stuff I had no interest in at all! Shocking, when will it end? What’s the world coming to?