Is it wise to have a facebook account?

Zoxsasi

Im just wondering, but is it wise to have a facebook account? Although a lot of people post news updates etc - they usually only post good news - and its a bit "showing off" - does anyone ever get this impression?

I mean, no one is going to post an update like "my teacher slapped me at school and embarrassed me to death". No one will say that..

And then, there are some girls, who, ok  they are European, they post pics of themselves wearing the smallest bikinis... you can say "ah.. well.. they had no idea that others will be looking".. but this can't be right.

I mean, i think an FB account is OK, so long as you only have your husband and immediate family as friends. More than this, and u go off posting pics of yourself half naked isn't right - is it???

servant33

Like nearly everything, it can be good and it can be bad, it depends how you use it.

Archdeacon

I believe you should not have a Facebook if you are not completely aware of how to operate it.  That means you need to be very computer literate and know exactly what everything in the settings tab or whatever means so you don't get yourself into trouble.  As to all the girls posting questionable pictures of themselves, I am pretty sure if they knew those pics would be available for the whole world to see, then they probably would think twice.  Then again, maybe not.  Point is, nearly all the people who have suffered that hands of Facebook, whether it be getting fired or getting dumped, or getting bullied, suffered because they didn't understand completely what they were dealing with and how to prevent stuff like that happening.  I think this is the problem with modern social networking.  The websites are getting more complex every day and the average user has no idea of how to take proper precautions.  Of course the companies who own these websites probably don't care how much the average user knows, they just want to make a profit.

user00

For the longest time, I was against it, and eventually caved and got one. And like servant33 said, it can be very good or bad, like most things, depending on how it's used. For example, I was thinking of deleting mine, but I realized the good that came from it that I couldn't forego, like being able to sell and buy books for college at cheap prices, knowing about church youth events that I wouldn't have known about otherwise, staying in touch with people I don't get to see often, etc. So instead of taking the extreme of doing away with it altogether, I just stopped being as active as I was before. So yea, facebook can be good and helpful, but if you're not mature/careful, it was be a big waste of time and an instigator of many problems.

Zoxsasi

[quote author=user00 link=topic=9706.msg119043#msg119043 date=1283838308]
For the longest time, I was against it, and eventually caved and got one. And like servant33 said, it can be very good or bad, like most things, depending on how it's used. For example, I was thinking of deleting mine, but I realized the good that came from it that I couldn't forego, like being able to sell and buy books for college at cheap prices, knowing about church youth events that I wouldn't have known about otherwise, staying in touch with people I don't get to see often, etc. So instead of taking the extreme of doing away with it altogether, I just stopped being as active as I was before. So yea, facebook can be good and helpful, but if you're not mature/careful, it was be a big waste of time and an instigator of many problems.


See  - I was thinking on the same lines as User00.

But then I realised a few things:

In FB - what if someone posts a picture of you in a public album that was done without your approval?
What if someone posts a comment on your page or asks you something embarrassing (that you don't want others to know) publicly.

There is ONE HUGE problem with facebook:

--> In the real world, you don't treat all your friends the same. Some friends, you talk to them about religion, that's what you have in common - some others may not share the same faith as you, so you avoid religion. Even those that have the same religion as you, you will treat them differently than those close friends whom you are intimate with. You agree?? Yet, if I post a video of a guy who was muslim and became Christian, I cannot make a muslim friend of mine of FB NOT see the video.

I mean, I have  3 extremely close friends, and a lot of friends that I like, yet im not close with. So, Im ALWAYS asking about the same 3 people. Now, what if someone I've never really spoken to much sees that Im talking to the same 3 friends often and not him? Won't he be upset? So, I don't ask about him whenever I see him in real life, and now we're on facebook, I STILL don't even ask about him. In fact, the feeling is this: With facebook, you are giving others your left-overs, and you're not offering them from what is really yours.

Those that are really worth holding on to, and keeping in touch with, why don't you visit them or call them?

FB has done a lot of dammage. There were many rapes, many murders as a result of messages posted in FB.

I remember many many years ago, I was having a chat with a good friend of mine whose parents had divorced. The father just left his wife with 2 kids to raise and "enjoyed" his life with another woman. He never paid any attention to his wife or his kids.

My friend said to me "We'd never see or hear from my father. He used to write to us 1 letter a month.. and then it got to 1 letter every 2 or 3 months, and then we only received small letters from him during things like Christmas or Easter... UNTIL email got popular. When he got an email account, he started to email us. He never called. Then we noticed something... the emails he'd send were the exact copy and paste of the previous email - perhaps with a few words changed".

So, the relationship actually got worse, NOT better with electronic communication. The communication increased - but not the relationship. In fact, it gave a false sense of friendship, a false sense of intimacy.

And this is the perfect example I can think of to describe the relationship between myself and everyone I have as a friend on facebook. Its a great way to keep your distance, yet show that you are friends. This isn't a real friendship. Its not a real relationship. Its all pretend. Yet, because there is communication and message-flows between 2 parties, you could be forgiven that you do have friends, when in reality, you're just reading the left-overs of someone's time.

So, look at this:

What is the answer then? Let's go through this carefully. The answer is that facebook give you a solution where you can categorise friends:

a) Intimate
b) close
c) friendly
d) a bit friendly
e) Not so friendly but I can cope with him
f) I really don't like this person, but I just want to know their news

You agree?? That would be the logical step for facebook to take. To make friends into categories, and only certain friends in certain categories can see certain updates.

Now - here's the wicked part: what if you find yourself in a category that you don't feel you should be in??? What if I loved someone soooo much, and cared for them, only to find that they put me in group d,e or f???

You see??

ilovesaintmark

No.

minatasgeel

[quote author=Zoxsasi link=topic=9706.msg119045#msg119045 date=1283845674]
You agree?? That would be the logical step for facebook to take. To make friends into categories, and only certain friends in certain categories can see certain updates.

you already able to do that on facebook.

Now - here's the wicked part: what if you find yourself in a category that you don't feel you should be in??? What if I loved someone soooo much, and cared for them, only to find that they put me in group d,e or f???

it's not your choice....it's theirs....friendship or general relationships are a 2 way network.