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It makes it more fun and a bit easier to stay in contact with my extended family. Most of them live in South America so it's hard to see them often. Email always worked, yes, but FB is a bit more interactive and it's cool to look through their photos and such.
It also helps keep me up to date on certain events on campus, and this student org I'm a part of uses it to dispatch information and discuss stuff (in addition to email and, of course, real in-person meetings).
It's pretty nice but I wouldn't cry if I woke up tomorrow and saw Facebook was gone.
I love Facebook and its enabled me to have 3x the social interactions I used to have before it.
With Facebook, I've been able to:
- connect with almost every person I have ever met
- keep up with dozens of people
- view and post photos
- hear updates on people's lives
- plan and get invited to events
- get other's insights on music, movies, TV shows, awards shows, anything newsworthy, etc. It was on Facebook that I first heard about some major news breaks
- I can stay in touch with people I wouldn't otherwise call on the phone, such as distant relative and long-lost friends.
- I play games with friends (Words with Friends, Sims Social, Farmville etc.)
- I can poll people and ask for advice on anything
- I've been able to contact with friends of friends and get to know them better.
I love it. It definitely has had no negative affect on my social life. Its only enhanced it.
I have very little use for social media, though I do have a FB account. I never post anything and haven't added photos beyond a basic one of me, and rarely comment on (or read!) posts by friends or family who use it. I far prefer to interact one-on-one via the phone or email with people I really care about, not some acquaintance with whom I have little in common. I spend much more time here, actually - it's more informative and certainly more entertaining!
I won't use Facebook, as I know too many people that pretty much live on it, 24/7, and must ALWAYS have it running on their phones and computers. That just turns me off. I view it as being way too addictive, as it seems that you have to check everyone's updates.
The only social media I use is LinkedIn, as that just displays my professional profile, and I connect with people from work, previous colleagues, as well as friends. I don't use it very often, but it's there when I need it.
It is of no use whatsoever to me. I have zilch interest in so called "social" networks ( which to me are the opposite of "sociable").
If I want to contact people I like I will email them, call them or even write to them by hand the old fashioned snail way.... People have never been so "connected" and yet to lonely IMO. The more social networks we have , the more it seems we become narcissistic, navel gazing and desperate to be in contact with someone, anyone even people we don't even truly care about.
My social circle is tiny but it is composed only of people I know and love. I have no desire for "friends" which are anything but.
As a society we have become addicted to airing everything in public, being available 24/7, connected to our tiny gadgets at all times and addicted to the sound of our own voice. Twitter in particular amazes mes. A generation of people in awe of the bite size pronouncement and soundbite. Nothing profound, nothing lasting, everything is so shallow and devoid of meaning.
Yes, yes I know I am a crusty old curmudgeon and some people could not live without facebook and assorted networks.
Hubby has an account and seems to derive little pleasure from it. He keeps up with Charities and local events and his teenage niece and constantly moans about the vaccuousness of Facebook as a media. He certainly is not selling the concept to me.
I remain a Luddite and prefer to only join technology when it is of benefit to me. I see no positives in social networks. All I see is a decline in manners, general courtesy and increase in selfish and egotistical behaviour. Fuelled by a medium I find distasteful and useless.
I am quite sure some people find great pleasure and succour in it but I must admit the appeal still eludes me. I have gone on Facebook to "browse" and see what the whole fuss was about and came out feeling almost sullied and rather perturbed by the whole thing.
It is profoundly distasteful to me that we have reduced human interaction to such mini soundbites of so little produndity. It saddens me in fact. And depresses me.
Linkedin makes sense to me. Something practical and a useful networking tool for Professionals.
It's a very personal thing.
Some people on the thread get enjoyment and benefit from it and some don't.
There is no right or wrong in whether you like something, the only wrong comes if you try to impose your view on others.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mooseketeer
It is of no use whatsoever to me. I have zilch interest in so called "social" networks ( which to me are the opposite of "sociable").
If I want to contact people I like I will email them, call them or even write to them by hand the old fashioned snail way.... People have never been so "connected" and yet to lonely IMO. The more social networks we have , the more it seems we become narcissistic, navel gazing and desperate to be in contact with someone, anyone even people we don't even truly care about.
My social circle is tiny but it is composed only of people I know and love. I have no desire for "friends" which are anything but.
As a society we have become addicted to airing everything in public, being available 24/7, connected to our tiny gadgets at all times and addicted to the sound of our own voice. Twitter in particular amazes mes. A generation of people in awe of the bite size pronouncement and soundbite. Nothing profound, nothing lasting, everything is so shallow and devoid of meaning.
Yes, yes I know I am a crusty old curmudgeon and some people could not live without facebook and assorted networks.
Hubby has an account and seems to derive little pleasure from it. He keeps up with Charities and local events and his teenage niece and constantly moans about the vaccuousness of Facebook as a media. He certainly is not selling the concept to me.
I remain a Luddite and prefer to only join technology when it is of benefit to me. I see no positives in social networks. All I see is a decline in manners, general courtesy and increase in selfish and egotistical behaviour. Fuelled by a medium I find distasteful and useless.
I am quite sure some people find great pleasure and succour in it but I must admit the appeal still eludes me. I have gone on Facebook to "browse" and see what the whole fuss was about and came out feeling almost sullied and rather perturbed by the whole thing.
It is profoundly distasteful to me that we have reduced human interaction to such mini soundbites of so little produndity. It saddens me in fact. And depresses me.
Linkedin makes sense to me. Something practical and a useful networking tool for Professionals.
It's a very personal thing.
Some people on the thread get enjoyment and benefit from it and some don't.
There is no right or wrong in whether you like something, the only wrong comes if you try to impose your view on others.
A lot of acquaintances have already made it pretty clear that I am inconveniencing them by not partaking of Facebook and Twitter and "coercing" them to email or phone instead. In fact some acquaintances have literally dropped off the face of the Earth since they have joined the ranks of the social networked masses...
I suppose it sorts out the wheat from the chaff only leaving people worth knowing but still it does bug me. What is wrong with emails ? I am going to be the last person standing one day still sending emails ( and real letters , handwritten on real paper)? It feels like that.
I remember the days when people who did not have so many gadgets and social networks managed to remember your birthday or remembered to contact you. Personally. Not "tag" you or interact with you with the whole world watching. Personal one on one contact is dying as an Art form.
Now it seems the more connected we become and the less caring...
I know so many people who never seem to remember birthdays, anniversaries etc... ( not just mine by the way in case it sounds like a case of sour grapes !! ) even though they can programme anything they want in their tiny gadgets and an alarm can be programmed to come on or a reminder.
I write down special dates in a paper diary and have never forgotten a special date, ever.
I just do not get it. People will remember to log on and play "farmville" but not a friend's birthday ? That to me is bizarre.
I only use Facebook, and I only created an account when I moved across the country so I could conveniently keep in contact with my friends and family, and show them pictures of my new home. It has been kind of interesting to look up old friends from high school, though.
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) even though they can programme anything they want in their tiny gadgets and an alarm can be programmed to come on or a reminder. 
