New Social Thread

[Dak]

Just curious, how many of you guys here use Facebook? (im not asking because I want your usernames)

I don't have one because I believe it invades my privacy and is really all just a plea for attention and social validity/ credibility. Yet lately I've been thinking of creating an account as I've been asked countless times if I have one and/or people assume you already do and ask like they would ask for your cell or email. I feel as if I'm missing out on something especially within my own social realm. I'm not sure if I'm being persuaded/convinced or indoctrinated into something Ill end up despising.

How do you feel about social networks? esp Facebook.

I have one up with the bare minimum of information (Name) to appease a few people, and to allow me to inundate said people with anti-state info lol. I do hate FB though.

 

[The Emptier]

I have no problem with it, I've disabled my account for periods of time because it was a waste, but now it's actually important for me to connect with certain groups on an instant basis, and keeping up with friends who live far away, and I just created an event for the party I'm having for my birthday....so it is actually great for networking

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I use facebook a lot for instant messaging, and i occasionally come across party invites or old friends through it, which is nice. I think people are generally more hostile toward it than they need to be, it's a pretty useful tool.

My main concern right now is getting a second account going so i can "keep my worlds apart" in terms of friends vs. family and professional contacts. I talk about smoking pot in private messages, which i probably shouldn't do, but i'd be really surprised if the authorities bothered to track me down for that.

 

[Vimana]

I mostly use Facebook to feel good about myself. When people post stupid statuses like exclaiming how expensive shopping in South Korea is, followed with a huge list of stuff they just bought, and topped off with wanting to shop more, it makes me feel smart.

My main concern right now is getting a second account going so i can "keep my worlds apart" in terms of friends vs. family and professional contacts. I talk about smoking pot in private messages, which i probably shouldn't do, but i'd be really surprised if the authorities bothered to track me down for that.

I doubt that would happen unless you got a high profile federal job or a high-ranking job in a big company. Who's gonna pay someone to put in all the hours it would take to read your private messages?

 

[Zephyrus]

I used to be addicted to the bloody thing. I have actually taken a break from using it for the summer. I plan to start using it again (more moderately, I hope) when I get to Iowa, since it's not only useful but becoming downright a necessity for communication and networking, especially for one moving to a completely new region like me.

But yes, beyond those advantages it really is a theatre for validating one's identity in a virtual environment at the expense of doing so in the real world, and the vanity and inanity suffused throughout has become revolting. What on the surface seems at last a context for exchanging ideas openly is in truth a place to validate your own opinions by collecting friends who are like you and marginalizing those who aren't.

And perhaps that is what's most insidious about it as a sociological phenomenon. As a venue for free speech it allows people to vent their opinions harmlessly and be rewarded with the feeling that their voice is being heard. But beyond that, nothing happens. People now say this and that, or like this and that, but don't actually do anything about it. It should be a vehicle to action in the real world, but instead it feasts upon its own entrails.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

But yes, beyond those advantages it really is a theatre for validating one's identity in a virtual environment at the expense of doing so in the real world, and the vanity and inanity suffused throughout has become revolting. What on the surface seems at last a context for exchanging ideas openly is in truth a place to validate your own opinions by collecting friends who are like you and marginalizing those who aren't.

And perhaps that is what's most insidious about it as a sociological phenomenon. As a venue for free speech it allows people to vent their opinions harmlessly and be rewarded with the feeling that their voice is being heard. But beyond that, nothing happens. People now say this and that, or like this and that, but don't actually do anything about it. It should be a vehicle to action in the real world, but instead it feasts upon its own entrails.

Never thought of it like that. You've confirmed everything I thought, I thought. If that makes any sense.

 

[skeptik]

Facebook is like just about everything else; you get what you put into it. It's not evil.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

The only way it could be evil is if we were forced to use it. Yet that's whats worrying me, hm.

 

[Vimana]

Zuck's done some shady stuff, but he's the world's youngest billionaire. It probably took lots of badgering (by badgering, I mean incessant offers of money) from advertising corporations and the like before he finally caved to giving away information on Facebook's users. Besides, they submitted it willingly anyway.

 

[divine_torture]

I use facebook a lot for instant messaging, and i occasionally come across party invites or old friends through it, which is nice. I think people are generally more hostile toward it than they need to be, it's a pretty useful tool.

My main concern right now is getting a second account going so i can "keep my worlds apart" in terms of friends vs. family and professional contacts. I talk about smoking pot in private messages, which i probably shouldn't do, but i'd be really surprised if the authorities bothered to track me down for that.

I talk to people I used to steal cars with. Kick doors in with. Stab people with. Shoot up meth with. Sell pounds of meth with. The authorities really don't care about you smoking pot, bud.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

I talk to people I used to steal cars with. Kick doors in with. Stab people with. Shoot up meth with. Sell pounds of meth with. The authorities really don't care about you smoking pot, bud.

really dude? WTF for doing it and WTFX2 for even mentioning it.

 

[Vimana]

Is that the only sentence that Yoda says in normal English syntax?

 

[The Emptier]

I have almost all of my professors as friends on facebook and really have nothing to hide and don't post any obscenities or retardo partying pictures. Totally agree that it's only as evil as you let it be.

 

[skeptik]

I have almost all of my professors as friends on facebook and really have nothing to hide and don't post any obscenities or retardo partying pictures. Totally agree that it's only as evil as you let it be.

Fist bump, mother fucker.

 

[The Emptier]

YEEAAAAHHHHHH

 

[sevag00]

I don't know. I don't thing i will ever come across using facebook. I think it's a waste of time.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

d_t - you're crazy... but point taken

 

[SentinelSlain]

For me it's a way of setting up events and nights out without using credit. IM would suffice but you can't look at as many pics of hot girls you've recently met with that.

 

[Dak]

The only way it could be evil is if we were forced to use it. Yet that's whats worrying me, hm.

If the users were given a sense and/or promise of privacy and then find out, after the fact, that FB is keeping all info they posted and distributing it wherever FB wants to, this is a problem. That is the problem.

 

[Vimana]

I don't think they explicitly promised privacy, but they didn't have any kind of disclaimer or openly say "we can and probably will sell the information you give us to advertisers."

Or at least they didn't when I signed up for about five or six years ago.