Anyone else not care for Facebook?

CrazyinVA

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I love Facebook. For me it's about keeping in touch with friends and family I don't always see often, I love seeing their photos and reading about their escapades. I also use it to keep up with what's going on in the world. Breaking news spreads like wildfire on Facebook, and I've also read some great articles through links from the pages I follow. I also have a Facebook page that I maintain for a social group I run.

I view Facebook as entertainment, and try not to take it too seriously. Sure there are occasionally posts from people who are drama queens/kings -- but I either unfriend them, or unsubscribe so I don't have to see them in my feed (that includes relatives, occasionally). I guess I'm lucky, because most of my friends are pretty drama-free.

As for privacy, I only accept requests from people I know, and check the "view as" setting fairly often to be sure it's locked down tight to the public. So far no issues there, and I've been on it for 7 or 8 years. I do a Google search of my name occasionally too, just to see what's out there ... everyone should do that, in my opinion.

I do find myself posting less these days, Facebook is just too much of a time vampire.
 

Californiablonde

Well-Known Member
My cell phone just broke and now I'm going through Facebook withdrawals. Ugh! They are shipping me another phone but it will take at least two business days for me to get it Fed Ex. I am going through withdrawals. I am especially missing all of my groups right now. I certainly hope by some miracle I get my new phone sooner than Friday!
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
I'm going to be off the air for several days surrounding my move to temporary quarters in Milwaukee, and again when I move from temporary quarters to my apartment in the Milwaukee suburbs.

I am rather embarrassed and disgusted with myself to admit that I'm feeling twinges of pre-withdrawal over that concept.

Not Facebook specifically, but the loss of connectivity to the outside world in general.

Due to poor eyesight, amongst other issues, I do not use my phone for internet connectivity (nor is my phone suitable).

Hopefully, I will be running around enough that I won't miss being connected to the outside world too much.

CB, you have my sympathies. I hope your new phone arrives before you suffer the pangs of withdrawal too badly.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Thanks, CB!

I'll take all the luck I can get. I'm already exhausted and the hard stuff hasn't even started yet! It's only cleaning and sorting and packing, and "making arrangements" so far.

The fun really starts when the movers come on the 10th, I turn over the keys, pick up the check for the trailer, and get myself, bags, baggage, and cats, out of here, all on the 12th, and hit the road for Milwaukee.

I stay with friends there to wait for my apartment to be made ready, take possession on the 15th of July. (I'll be able to view an identical apartment beforehand so will be able to start ordering furniture, etc), have furniture delivered, purchase household goods, groceries, (the movers will not store household goods, dry goods,etc, so I have to throw out a lot of stuff on this end only to buy it again on the other end)

I have already ordered a mattress set: a very expensive mattress set. The one thing I refuse to scrimp on, and my one gift to myself and my aching back and neck. It is being made to order and will be delivered to me when I phone the company's local deliver depot after I am in the new apartment. I will buy nice new bedding for it.

I am leaving my old mattress and bedding behind (all washed and folded) for the new owners, who are a young G.F.G. couple just starting out, and starting afresh.

That is my housewarming gift to myself.

I think, with all that going on, I will probably be too bloody busy to worry much about internet for a bit

Maybe you should plan a move, CB? If it doesn't kill you, it should at least take your mind off of FB withdrawal!

Of course, you've moved more recently, so aren't uprooting nearly 12 years of "one place-it is", and it just hit me that this is the longest I've lived in one place since I left home...OMG.
 

Californiablonde

Well-Known Member
I so totally don't envy you. I HATE moving with a passion. I usually move every two or three years, and I seem to collect more stuff as the years go by. But think of how great you will feel and so accomplished after you are all settled in. And definitely enjoy that new mattress. You've earned it!
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
CB, WHY do you move so often? I rented this apartment with the intent of living there for as long as possible.

My mother's lived in two apartments in the same building for 19 years. She moved from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor when increasing infirmity made it too difficult for her to handle the stairs.

If all goes well, my next move will be to assisted living, which hopefully won't be for many years yet.

This isn't so bad as moves go, actually. I am leaving most of my furniture behind. Only taking my dinette with its two chairs, a tv stand, an office chair.

It's going through all the "crud" I've accumulated in the past many years that is making me crazy.

by the way, moving frequently is reported to credit agencies. It doesn't affect your scores, but does show up on your report and landlords and potential lenders do like to know how long you've been at current and previous addresses.
 

Californiablonde

Well-Known Member
Well my last place I got kicked out of for being late on my water bill. It was a nice place and I would have continued renting there if they didn't cancel my lease. This new place pays for water so I no longer have to worry about that!
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
The place I am renting pays water/sewer. It seems that in the Milwaukee area about half the apts pay for water/sewer. All pay for trash, and a few even pay for heat if its gas. Electric is always the responsibility of the tenant.

I have to pay an extra security deposit for the 2 cats, a security deposit for rent. Then rent each month plus 20 bucks per cat per month "pet rent", plus heat and electric, which is quite enough, TYVM.

Milwaukee (I'll be living in a suburb, but 2 blocks from Milwaukee) gets hot in the summer and cold in the winter, and the apartment is airconditioned, a requirement for me to rent it, so I'll have high utility bills year round, likely higher in the summer as I like cool quarters year round and the cats have fur suits.

I am assuming your water bill was quarterly? When I first moved up here, I rented a small cottage and had to pay water. The bill came quarterly and showed up about 5 days before it was due. If you didn't pay by the due date, they'd cut you off the next day. I made a couple of panicked rushes to eh downtown office to pay that darned bill, too.
 

ThreeShadows

Quid me anxia?
Love FB! I have found my European cousins and a long lost branch of my paternal family. I no longer watch TV and get all my news through the feeds from the BBC, Le Monde, Sahara Reporters, The Economist, and Foreign Affairs.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
I'm back in touch with most of my family but there were two more on my maternal grandfather's side that I lost track of years ago. They were the only ones around my age on that side of the family and we were very close as kids. We grew up with them. Their mom and my mom were first cousins and we saw them often. I had given up on ever hearing from them again. I didn't know their married names, they didn't know mine. And then, believe it or not, THEY found ME on Facebook and contacted me! I just sat here and cried when I got the message on Facebook! And we will never lose touch again! So it can be a very good thing.
 
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susiestar

Roll With It
I don't even begin to understand the attractions of facebook, or of other social media. I do use fb to stay in touch with a few people. I friend very few people but I do message people and chat once in a while. It is nice to contact people I hadn't seen/heard from in years, but it isn't especially important to me.

Mostly I get annoyed by it. I am just not so interesting that all those people have any real interest in what I think/say/do. I completely am disinterested in the games, in the scams and in the online chain letter type things. I really loathe the way many people use it to try to shove their religion down my throat (various people who only want to contact me in group messages when they want to sell me their religion or some fundraiser junk to support their religion or their fondness for overpriced candles, baskets or whatever). I have found fb useful to identify the true friends from those who are only interested in me when they have a cause or a religion to sell to me. They only contact me then and never even reply to individual messages or attempt to contact me in any other way.

I don't post esp because of family. A few yrs ago gfgbro used info he got from other people on fb to try to have CPS all over us. He has also used it to stalk me and mine. I don't friend the various relatives mostly because I have no real common interests with them other than blood. I wasn't interesting enough to contact or see when I lived five min away, why would I be interested in online contact?

I also loath and despise the cruel things people say over social media. If I would not say it to my grandmothers, I should not say it online. The ability to reach so many people so quickly creates mobs who post ugly and vicious things that cause real harm. I don't choose to be a part of that and social media makes it WAY too easy to do that

I am quite afraid of the predators who lurk online. My husband is oddly gullible esp online and has gotten into some real problems by oversharing with people who were not what they said they were. He even had one woman who wanted to force us to split so that she could 'have' him. All he ever did was be polite to her on an online forum. It actually scared us both because she threatened to harm me numerous times. this was about 15 yrs ago and there were no laws to regulate any of it. She hacked and got our phone number and started calling us at home, going so far as to tell my kids that she was going to be their new mommy because I was leaving and didn't want them. I was preg with thank you at the time! It all ended up being a mess and my husband was not allowed to go on message boards for quite a while. If HE could be drawn in so easily, ANYONE could ad social media makes it vastly easier now than it was back then.

I love the computer and the internet, but not social media. I think it doesn't add much to my life and I am okay with having an account but not using it much.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Susie, I am sorry you had such problems with social media.

I have not experienced the same sort of problems. I keep a tight, and very small list of friends and limit my communications to that list. If approached by someone who wishes to be my "friend", I visit their page, Gooogle them, and make my decision based on what I find out about them. For the most part, I do not accept them.

That doesn't mean that they are not good people with good things to offer, but rather that they do not have anything to add to my life, nor I to theirs.

I do not in any way care how many "likes" or "shares" I get, and I share very little publicly.

My objection to facebook is the algorithms used to determine what items hit my feed. I'd like to be able to choose what I find interesting as opposed to having "facebook determine what it thinks I'd find interesting.

I enjoy it. I find it useful and pleasurable so long as I'm careful.
 

donna723

Well-Known Member
I enjoy it very much but you do have to be very careful and use some good ol' common sense about what you choose to share publicly. I've seen people who tell the world in general exactly when they're going on vacation and when they'll be back! Might as well put up a sign that says, "NOBODY IS HOME. COME BREAK IN TO OUR HOUSE AND HELP YOURSELF TO ALL OUR STUFF!"
 

Californiablonde

Well-Known Member
One thing I do not like about facebook in particular is how some strange, random men happen to see my profile, message me, and hit me up for a "good time." We do not share any mutual friends either, so I have no idea how they find me. My page is super private. I have no clue how these random people can see my profile picture and message me. It doesn't happen super often, but when it does I have to go through the big ole hassle of blocking them.

I am also a part of a group for overweight women, and I have been harassed on there as well. The group of women aren't the problem. IT's their male admirers that upset me. I have been propositioned time and time again from men who can't seem to get it through their heads that I am not single and I have no interest. A couple of guys have actually complained I'm too skinny and don't belong on the group, but the majority of them want to get it on with me which then results in more blocking. Anyway, these problems don't happen often enough for me to ever discontinue facebook. I am still addicted and I am so relieved to finally have my phone back so I can post!
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
We do not share any mutual friends either, so I have no idea how they find me. My page is super private.
Do you check your settings every single day?
Facebook is famous for re-jigging the rules on a regular basis, and it results in "cracks" in your privacy wall. At those points in time, opportunistic people can "invade".

Your page may not be as private as you think it is, at any particular moment.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
CB, anyone who looks at my profile picture sees a nearly 12 year old with a freckled nose and a rumpled head of flaming red hair.

He's adorable. His name is Thomas and he looks nothing like me. He's also a cat.

He gets lots of compliments, but so far hasn't been hit on. Quit using your real picture as your profile picture and they'll quit hitting on you!
 
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