Badmovies.org Forum

All of my friends are on facebook, because calling or, God forbid, making time to meet and talk is too hard, I guess.  I intended only to use it to keep in touch with friends.

Now I've been inundated with friend requests from people I used to know and had hoped to forget.  My real friends keep shoving their online friends on me.  I'm constantly flooded with miniscule life updates from people I don't know or wanted to pretend didn't even exist.  And none of my real friends, after they drug me into it, ever even post.

It's all very depressing, especially since so many people seem to be unemployed, or have serious health problems, or have failing marriages, or are incredibly lousy parents.  Basically, it reminds me of why I had my breakdown and withdrew so completely from humanity all that time ago.

And yet ... that's the way we're going.  Before long, that's what the "social lives" of most people are going to be: posting on sites like facebook.  We're raising a generation right now that's sat in front of the computer since birth.

It's just ... horrible.

That's why I don't subscribe to any of those services. There was a day when people actually went out and did things to write in their diary about, now they just write and write and write. I got a laugh years ago reading a few paragraphs of the blog "The Loser Upstairs", but I fear there are many many people these days that are doing just about the same thing. Maybe not using a stopwatch to time how long it takes their neighbor to finish peeing, but damn close.

Yup.
Nerdiness aint what it used to be. :lookingup:

Way I see it, I'm too damn old to be using crap like Facebook. Besides my understanding about a diary or journal was they was to be private. Why would I want it where others could find. I warn my kids that using such things can come back to bite them in the rear later in life anyway.

I'm ok with Facebook mainly because I keep my friends list down low.  I have no intention of accepting friends just because I rubbed elbows with them somewhere in my life.  Matter of fact for me its over 50% family on my friend list. 

All this is mainly due to me being a bit incognito.  I didn't put much personal info such as where I graduated or where I work down.  I do know what you're saying about it though.  People can still find you through their friends which sucks.  I've refused quite a few people.  I had Myspace for a bit and cancelled it due to just not liking it.   

I use MySpace and my friends on it are...well...they're you lot ! :cheers:
The only people I talk to on MySpace are board members.

I tend to refuse anyone else.

I'm using Facebook to keep updated on a few close online friends. None of my real friends or school mates have tried to contact or befriend me. Yet. I know that most of my buddies don't bother with Facebook and I'm not urging them to sign up. If they do, fine. If not, fine too. As for my school mates, I didn't put much personal info in my profile except for my name and hometown. So yeah, I could be found and I honestly wouldn't mind to know what they've been up to all those years, as I haven't seen most since leaving school.
None of my family or relatives uses Facebook though.

And as I said before, I'm only using Facebook because of online friends, but I must admit I got bored with it real quick. It's mostly about quizzes, surveys and games with the occasional blurb about what my friends think, drink, like, dislike or eat. I do chime in from time to time but not so much as I did before.

Like anything it's got it's good side and it's bad side.  I find Facebook fun and helpful, mainly because I have a rule not to add anyone I'm not on speaking terms with.  So goodbye high school person I haven't talked to in 5 years, I'm not going to add you...

I also deny any unnecessary applications, since they are largely a waste of time.  Once you trim the fat of all the useless stuff, then it's actually a helpful tool, but only if the other people you know [and like] use it too.

It's good for inane conversation or silly tidbits here and there, or for anything that isn't worth a text message.  It's also good for organising events, again because texting the address to everyone can get costly, and this takes away that unnecessary pain.

Also sometimes I can't remember a friend's email address so it's much easier to message them on facebook.

But yes, if I actually want a proper discussion with someone I'll phone them up, but then again that's not the point of Facebook right?

I figure it's easy to get annoyed at facebook/myspace but you can avoid the unnecessary crap pretty easily...

An old high school friend of mine got in touch with me a while back and insisted I sign up for Facebook so I could see pictures of her kids.  Then she emailed me pictures of her kids, so the whole thing was kind of pointless.   I didn't look at that site in a while and one day when I did, she had sent me all kinds of quizzes and surveys and stuff, which I'm sure she also sent to her other 350 closest friends as well.  It's just not my thing.  I guess I'm not too interested in getting in touch with people I haven't seen in many years, as we've all gone our separate ways and have absolutely nothing in common with each other any more.  It's like meeting total strangers.  Once in a while somebody signs my guestbook or whatever;  I get an email and it's like, "I used to know somebody with that first name, huh."  Then I look at it and it's just some drug addicted prostitute or something, probably sent her "sexy" picture to everybody on facebook. 

I like Facebook for one reason (and one reason alone!)  After I joined, I got connected with a group of friends I haven't been in touch with for about 15 years.  We ended up getting together twice already and had a lot of laughs.  Additional get-togethers are forthcoming.  Without Facebook, this probably never would have happened.  As for the day-to-day Facebook crap . . . eh . . . you can have it . . .

Facebook is bobbins!

I've found it useful for brown-nosing people who avoid me.  :bouncegiggle:

Facebook, Myspace, et al, are essentially online bulletin boards. They're a useful tool to share links, videos, tidbits of information to friends and family. I tend to use them as message centers as well.

Sure you can get stupid with it, but that's true of everything. Looked at from one angle, the badmovies.org board is a social networking site.

Assuming that means "s**te", I agree.

I have had a similar experience as Akira and most, lots of insistence by casual friends that I join, only to find when I did I was besieged by friend requests from people I either didn't know, or vaguely remembered and had no desire to catch up with.  It looks like a serious time-sink, at best.

I do have one positive experience to relate: I used Facebook to contact a (very minor) celebrity, and to my surprise they wrote me back and gave me some very good info.  I wouldn't recommend using Facebook for stalking, but it worked for me.  :wink:

So I take it Pee-Wee Herman's advice worked? Who knew the trick was cutting holes in the pockets of your pants.  :bouncegiggle:

My thoughts exactly.
Facebook is a very useful tool if, like Dean said, you trim all the fat off of it.
I still get the occasional invite for one of their stupid apps, but it doesn't happen as often as it used to.
It got to a point where I would get 10-20 a day!  It finally stopped when I posted a big bulletin telling all of my friends to not send me anymore invites.  Not only do I ignore the invites, I completely block the app so no one can ever invite me again.

I primarily use Facebook to keep in touch with my old classmates from high school.
It can be amusing to talk to them on it and see how they've changed over the years.

I enjoy it-as I have no car or the cash to travel. Or even long distance calling! So it is nice to chat with old girlfreinds and-as Ash sed-re-aquaint with old school chums.