Among Friends

[Mz iMac]

I was on FB at the very beginning.  In the very beginning it was a "college" open free for all bulletin board of sorts. Male college students posted photos of their female classmates & rated them on looks.   After a while it moved on to which female at certain colleges were the best "in bed" to put it politely.  Their pictures were posted like "wanted" & "captured" criminals.    Things got so bad after that, you now had to  "sign-in/join."  No one used their "real names." 

My FB alias is still active. 

I have a rarely used Twitter account too.

Not sure if my immediate fam are still FB users.  I think they all abandoned FB.  All they talk about now is Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat, & Tik Tok.   There are a few others but I forgot.

[LindaSal]

I have never joined but my siblings were both huge users of FB.   Now neither one of them goes on anymore.  My sister almost became depressed and was having anxiety over how people were so obnoxious and always making their lives seem more exciting and better than hers!   My brother who is an intelligent individual would always post those stupid vacation photos and my sister would tell me about it.  I would call him and say really???

I think your house might be getting broken into as we speak!!  

They pressured me to join years ago, I'm glad I never did.  I like my life to be private and good give two sh*ts about other peoples' lives and what they are doing every second of the day.  JMO

[Miss Pepsi]

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@Shanus wrote:

@Sooner @Miss Pepsi   That's what I'm asking. How or where do I find out that my privacy settings are set up to block or accept my preferences? So wrong last time. Not sure if signing up again, but would sometimes be helpful if taking classes. 

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First of all the reality is, nothing is every completely private these days.  So just go in knowing that.  If you go into Facebook in the upper right corner you will see your name, about 4 icons over is a down arrow that will bring a dropdown go into privacy and make sure those settings are as private as you feel comfortable with. 

Again, right now it is keeping me in contact with so many people because between Covid and my recent loss without it I would be worse off than I already am.  I make sure its my happy place by limited who can see me, who I see and where I go.  Again as with anything it is what you make it.

I am under no illusions that anything is private any more.  It just isn't.  It is part of the world we live in.

[Miss Pepsi]

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@CelticCrafter wrote:

They just changed the layout and it sux.

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They change the layout all the time.  About the time you get used to it, it will change again.  Kind of getting used to it.

[Lipstickdiva]

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@amyb wrote:

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@Lipstickdiva wrote:

I would not choose to sign up right now.  In fact, I am rarely going to FB right now because everything is very political at the moment.  I don't think it's just my friends who are like this, I think that's the nature of what is happening.

Between that and Covid,  it isn't a pleasant place to be anymore for me.

I enjoy looking at peoples' vacation pictures so that doesn't bother me at all.  I have a friend who is a travel agent and she just came back from a fabulous vacay and the pictures were amazing.  I don't get jealous over vacations, new cars, new homes, home remodels, etc.

But of course there are the eye rolling things from those who must forget people know them in real life and know for a fact some of what they are posting is a bunch of bull.  LOL

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"Fakebook"

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@amyb , that is exactly what I call it.  It makes me laugh and shake my head at the same time.  Like girl, your 5yo daughter just innocently spilled the beans that you and your BF were up all night fighting so you can take down the "I'm with my best friend and love of my life" post.  LOL  

[4kitties]

I think I am the only person on the planet that has never had a Facebook.  I never understood it and was afraid I would not know how to set up the proper privacy settings.  

I miss out on a lot of family and friends announcements because I do not "do" Facebook so I find out much later.......

But I am glad I have never had to deal with all of the drama that some of my extended family creates there.  And over all, I am happy with my decision to stay far away from it.  

[reiki604]

I've been on Facebook for years and years and have never had a problem. I only am 'friends' with people I actually know and want to keep up with. My cpntent is only available to friends, I belong to private groups on topics I'm interested in and the posts on those are only visible to others in that group. If someone post things that upset or bother me, I mute them, unfollow them or unfriend them. Easy peasy.

I find it wonderful for keeping up with friends and family I can't see or speak to as often as I like. I can easily wish my friends a happy birthday or anniversary or congrats on a meaninful event in their lives or to offer sympathy for their losses.

[furbabylover]

I took advantage of EVERY possible way to protect my privacy on Facebook and thought I was protected. I re-checked my settings weekly to make sure I was safe. I was shocked one day to see my posts being shared by the general public, not just my closely guarded privated groups. I was then contacted by someone I did not even know who emailed me directly from a Facebook email page. I then immediately shut down my account. 3 DAYS LATER I WAS AGAIN GETTING EMAILS FROM PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK WHO I DID NOT KNOW! It was a waste of time contacting Facebook about this invasion of my privacy and their failure in protecting me. I have heard from others that something is very wrong with Facebook's security operations, and that if you sign up with them its at your own peril. 

[kaydee50]

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@4kitties wrote:

I think I am the only person on the planet that has never had a Facebook.  I never understood it and was afraid I would not know how to set up the proper privacy settings.  

I miss out on a lot of family and friends announcements because I do not "do" Facebook so I find out much later.......

But I am glad I have never had to deal with all of the drama that some of my extended family creates there.  And over all, I am happy with my decision to stay far away from it.  

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You are not the only person on the planet who has never had Facebook.  I never have and never will.  Do not see the purpose of it.  Although I get scam emails saying someone has hacked into my Facebook account.  As if!!!!

[Deree]

I actually have a bogus FB account mainly for the purpose of playing online games.  I also didn't want an account with my name because I had no intention of communicating in this fashion with anyone, not even family.  So having a bogus account allows me to play my games, join forums, and go on business' FB pages too.

That said, my Privacy Settings are as strict as allowable because I don't want to see anyone else's garbage posts.  I have over 300 friends for game-playing purposes. They're from all over the world.  I "friend" them after looking at their profile page.  If anything looks off, I don't friend them.  In 10 years there has been no problem.

To expand on what @Miss Pepsi said, once you set up your FB account, there's a drop down arrow in the upper left corner of your screen.  Click on "Settings and Privacy", then "Settings".  Under the "Settings" column on the left, you go through each item which will bring up a new screen on the right.  Go through each of the items on the right to set your preferences.  I have mine all set to "Only Me".  There are a couple of items that you can only restrict to "Friends" where there is no option of Only Me.  You set a preference also for your personal Timeline on your own FB page so that Only You can see what's on your timeline.  Sounds more complicated than it is but once you go through the steps, it's pretty automatic.