So everyone does Facebook. Or at least 150 million people do.
I looked at it once and thought, “The last thing I need is one more thing to do online.” Honestly, some days I’d like to disconnect from the internet completely.
And there was something about it that creeped me out. It felt different to me than blogging. I just didn’t find anything attractive about it.
But then I am incredibly old-fashioned and behind the times. Except I guess I could confess that David bought me an inexpensive MP3 player with speakers for Christmas. (NormalMiddle – So far it hasn’t changed my life.)
So do you Facebook? Why or why not?
Goodnight Moon Lapbook and Puzzle
I do face book. I started because a lot of my friends did- and because I like putting photos up there- I just make sure I set it to friends only.I like the instant messenger facility. I also like playing the games and taking the quizzes.
BUT- It can take up a lot of your time. It can become addictive. People are not that wise about what they share on there.- a believer could easily endanger their profession through some unwise words or ‘status’ reports- I think people relax on the computer and forget that the www is not private! Also you will be sent and see things which you do not want to if you have unbelieving friends on there.
I find it fun- but it has many pitfalls and at times I wonder if it would be better to stay away altogether…….it is a bit like not watching as much tv but finding yourself wasting time there instead………So if not inclined I wouldn’t bother. You are not missing that much really
I am on Facebook and I personally love it. I was skeptical at first too. One more thing to do, etc. My brother-in-law started the whole thing by sending me an invite and I thought “Why not?!” I got on and realized how great it is. Now my entire family is on FB and it is our main way of communicating. We haven’t cut out the phone at all, but it is fun to write on my sister’s wall about the little birds in my yard or share a cute picture of our little boy. I’ve also reconnected with old high school friends, etc. Yes, it can become quite addictive and I try to make a point to not check very often. Overall, I give FB a thumbs up. I have been able to maintain relationships with people that otherwise might have gone by the wayside and that, to me, is worth it.
I created a Facebook account a year or two ago for the sole purpose of being able to view the photos that my sisters were uploading to their profiles. While I do have a FB profile I only log on about once or twice a month. To be frank, I have seriously considered deleting my profile {this may sound snobby} because I am not interested in keeping up with everyone who sat behind me in 7th grade math. FB doesn’t interest me, even after trying to be interested in it. The bottom line… I do a pretty good job of keeping up with friends and family with whom I want to stay in touch without a social network.
I actually am “incredibly old-fashioned and behind the times” but I DO facebook. Why? All 4 of my oldest children, plus spouse and fiancee of such offspring, are on facebook. I want to see what they’re up to. Besides, a bunch of old friends from here and there are on FB.
I do not blog, however. Somehow, I love to READ blogs but I have just about NO interest in creating one for myself.
So…
Susan (a mother in her “middle years” (older than you by some ten years :)) who DOES do that one thing)
It took me a while to open an account, but I decided to. I do it to keep in touch with relatives that live far away and a few friends.
I’m holding out as long as I can. I’m like you, Sallie. I don’t need one more thing to do online. I joined Twitter, but I’m only limiting that to what I can manage. IOW, I don’t follow everyone that wants to follow me. To be honest, I see a lot of this networking stuff being more about getting business contacts than friends.
My husband and I recently signed up to FB.
I swore I would NEVER EVER get involved with it because I just do not need anymore reasons to be on the internet. But it’s actually a tool our church uses to stay connected, so we finally succumbed to the peer pressure and signed up. It’s surprisingly fun, but I can see how it could become time consuming and addicting if you’re not careful.
I don’t have many FB friends, but those I do have are all from church or ladies I have met in local moms groups. It’s fun to read their status updates and see what’s in their heads. Although like another poster said here, I am not interested in the middle school nonsense I see some grown women getting caught up in. I stay away from that and I don’t have any FB friends from school. Quite frankly, I do not use my maiden name on purpose because I don’t want distant acquaintances and old boyfriends contacting me.
Overall, though, it’s a nice way to keep your friends and relatives updated on how you’re doing day-to-day.
I don’t do facebook. I have no desire to be in touch with people from my past. My extended family, however, is on a family site that is very similar to facebook but it is set up for the purpose of keeping families in touch. We post videos, pictures, recipes, upcoming events and have discussions. We have a site set up on both my side and my husband’s side and it’s free! One person from the family sets up the site and invites other family members to join through an email invitation. It’s a great way to keep up with family members who live out of state.
I am not on Facebook, and I really don’t have any interest in it. There are a couple of reasons. One, I have to disclose my full name and my general location. I’m just not interested in that because I don’t need the more unsavory elements of my husband’s job to find me there. Yes, I know I could use my maiden name. Still…too close for comfort.
And I don’t want to always be getting “friended.” I feel like I don’t have enough time for the people in my life already. I don’t need more relationship demands on top of the ones I’m already trying to do justice to.
Two, I feel like you can’t find out a whole lot about what people are thinking and feeling from the Facebook format. It isn’t designed to hold a lot of text. That frustrates me. I feel like the blog format is much more conducive to providing a place for showing who I am and what I think. You can put up pictures and links, too, and its easier to personalize it. I guess I think of Facebook as a glorified blog wannabe, and it doesn’t do it as well, in my opinion.
Oh Facebook.
I just got on it a couple of months ago and all of a sudden “c0nnected” with all of these people from H.S, college, old jobs, etc. Then after the initial curiosity was over, and I saw what everyone was up to and vice versa, I realized that I didn’t like having 60 “friends.” There was just too much noise and I found I didn’t want to post status updates or post pictures. I’m very much a quality-over-quantity person when it comes to friendships of any kind.
So I “defriended” about 40 of them (people that wouldn’t care or notice that I was gone off their list). Now I have a small group of 20 friends and relatives on my friend list.
So now, I really enjoy FB. I keep up with friends & relatives that I would never keep up with otherwise. I love hearing people’s little status updates and seeing their pictures. I keep my privacy settings very, very tight. I think FBs email is really cool. I find I’m not using my old email as often because FB is so much easier and more fun.
So all in all, now I like it, but I wish I had known to keep the friend list small to begin with!
I totally LOVE facebook. I like the fact I only have approved people looking at my page. It is a good way to lookup and keep in touch with REAL people you know through high school, college, work, etc
I don’t blog on there—it is more uploading of your photos and giving status updates.
I do have a profile, but I don’t check it everyday to see what all my ‘friends’ are doing…I can see where it would eat up a tremendous amount of time. I only log into the site when I get an e-mai lthat someone has written on my wall, and since I don’t actively participate that doesn’t happen very often.
I will say that it has been a better way than e-mail to stay in touch with my SIL who is overseas…
I don’t but my kids do (even the thirty-one year old kid).
I have to say, it has been wonderful for Stephanie and her husband. Through the “friend of friends” links that happen, she not only found some of their great friends from college but my best friend located ME.
Both of us had moved at about the same time and since the Post Office doesn’t forward after a year, we had “lost” each other. You wouldn’t think it possible in this day and age but all we knew was her family had left Iowa but we didn’t know where.
I have enough to do with blogging. I guess I’m not as social as they are. Guess? 🙄
Sallie,
I really struggled with facebook for a number of reasons. I no longer have an account, but I did at one point in order to connect with some younger church friends. I think it comes down to a personality in the end though. I am very old fashioned as well, and I found it to be just lacking in sincerity.
The main issue for me was seeing so many people from my past at once. For me, it also takes the sacredness out of running into someone unexpectedly (that the Lord plans) that you haven’t seen in a long time. That can be a really enjoyable thing if He is directing it and desires them back in your life. But for me it was just like having everyone in my past in one room, so to speak, and it created unnecessary stress and noise for me.
I also feel like FB has a pitfall of trivializing relationships. There is something sacred in having a core group of friends and not having everyone in your life as a “friend”. I’m not that uptight, but I cannot really think of someone as a friend unless I truly know what’s going on in their life and am connected to them in at least some small way. That’s just my personality! Plus I don’t like the guy I kissed at prom looking at me now…that just can’t be good for anyone 🙂 😯
I love your thoughts, Sallie.
I don’t do Facebook; I want to have three or four more cute kids before my former classmates start finding me.
Oops I was only supposed to have this guy with my comment. 😯 I love those faces. As for kissing at the prom, I probably should have had this one. 😳
I think it’s fun to see pics of the children of old college friends. It makes this stay at home mom feel a little less isolated. It’s NO replacement for real friendship, intimacy, communication. But fun still.
I’m not a facebook person although a friend from church went so far as to sign me up. (She couldn’t activate my account from her computer and I never did it either so no account.) I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what it is, but it just doesn’t seem right for me. I know a good many folks who do use facebook and really enjoy it. I’m just not one of them.
It is nice to see that I’m not the only one who isn’t on facebook…
I did Facebook for a few months at the request of some friends and family. I couldn’t stand it and thought that it was creepy (I didn’t like photos of my or my children being flagged with our names) a time waster.
My husband has signed up for Facebook because his trombone band uses it to arrange events, etc. But what he finds strange is the idea of everyone from all walks of your life all gathered in the same “room,” which only happens usually at things like weddings (grin). For instance, he’s there as a musician, but then he gets “friended” by a work colleague or an old friend from high school. He ended up “unfriending” people like the old H.S. friend because it was nice to say hello but he didn’t need to follow everything that person did in his “news feed” (or whatever you call that thing ). And it’s a little awkward turning down work colleagues but does he really want them mixed in with his hobby, which is why he’s there?
I guess there are ways to separate groups of people for some privacy but he doesn’t yet have that all figured out. I haven’t done Facebook yet for the same reason: do I want family, friends, clients, blogging acquaintances, people from my past, etc., all in the same “room” with me?
I have met my closest friends — who are now “in person” friends, so to speak — on the Internet (back in the early ’90s when it was a much smaller place, grin), so I don’t discount the importance of the internet for social contact. I’ve readily embraced bulletin boards, email, blogging, and Skype. And I love how easy the Internet makes it to stay in touch, whether it’s with my friends and family in the Eastern U.S. or my daughter who’s spending the semester in London. But I’m not so sure about Facebook.
Best wishes,
Laura
I have a Facebook account and I LOVE it.
Not to get in touch with old friends, although I have enjoyed that.
But, I can send ONE message to my kids, their spouses, my nieces and nephews and everyone can be included in all the responses. That saves me a lot of time – and for our family Christmas party I knew exactly how many would be there and what/who they were bring.
We also have a private family group for our immediate family. This helps me to know that everyone is on the same page.
Then, there is the added benefit of playing Scrabble with my married children and not having to pull rank to have them put the game away. I never win though. I don’t know if I should feel badly, or chalk it up to some good home schooling!
I do think it becomes more fun the OLDER you are. My kids seem to be growing tired of it.
And, since we are on the subject, the residences list at the nursing home is my 82 year old father’s equivalent to Facebook. When he goes to visit my mom each day he scans the list. I’m SHOCKED at how many old school friends he has found.
I’ve been on for a while, but no one I knew was. And now lots of my husbands family and a few old friends are on line.
I like that the family is there because then I at least know what’s going on with everyone. We all post pics of our kids, and put up other newsy stuff.
I also talk to a few old friends that I probably never would because our schedules are so different. But it is fun to reconnect, especially for an introvert like me who hates to talk on the phone!
Facebook has been a huge blessing for me.
My siblings and I have an ongoing thread in our inbox–like a chat. This is very fun and so much easier for us all to have info in the same place.
I can see photos of my niece and what my brother and his wife are up to as well as share photos from our life.
I’ve connected with some of my dearest friends from college and have found real edification since they are all committed Christians.
It can take as much or as little time as you’d like it to take.
I don’t know about the “sacredness” of unexpected meetings happening much around here! Many of my friends are missionaries and pastors/pastor’s wives all across the world and I don’t think I’d run into them at the grocery store;0!
We share prayer requests and encourage one another. The alumni group has a mothering page on Facebook and it’s a great place to go to get parenting advice (or share it) with people who have a similar Biblical mindset.
So I guess Facebook is what you make it.
I think FB is like any other internet driven tool. It can be good, bad, dangerous or addictive. While we haven’t used it, we know many who do.
Personally, I don’t want to be that ‘exposed’ to everyone in my life. I’m transparent with those who have proven trustworthy, who are brought to me through God’s direction of my life. However, I think that FB would expose, or limit, what I said to those on my page. This may sound harsh, or cold, but not everyone in my family (both husband and mine) can be trusted to keep information private. Nor is everyone understanding and accepting of our faith based life decisions.
Just MHO
I forgot to mention my pastor uses Facebook as a witnessing opportunity.
When people from his past finds him, he shares with them how God has changed his life.