<p>Am on Facebook - friends with my youngest due to that being a requirement of mine when she was 13 signing on - now she is17 and she rarely uses it - she’s not your typical teen social butterfly. My oldest D , age 26 friended me about a year ago - it was cute when she said, “mom, I think it’s time for us to be FB friends.” Not friends with 22 yr old son - but he isn’t a heavy user either these days.</p>
<p>Here’s the thing. Try it and see if you like it. Stay with it if you do. Forget about it if you don’t. It’s YOURS. There should not be so much angst or perplexing issues with your participation. Only friend those you want. Unfriend or block posts of those who annoy. Limit your time on it. Make it a social outlet not another daily responsibility if it’s too much. It’s YOURS. </p>
<p>And finally, don’t bash it if it’s not your thing. If you don’t participate in it, you really cant have an opinion on if it’s worthwhile or not. </p>
<p>Yes. FB has been great in allowing me to connect with long lost classmates from high school, college, and former military buddies in previous assignments. FB is also very active for parents at my son’s current school to exchange news and chit chat. </p>
<p>I will not friend my kids or any of their friends. I don’t want to snoop on them and vice versa.</p>
<p>I joined it after my brother in England suggested it. Most of my family and friends live a long distance away and it is a great way to keep up with each other. I have also reconnected with some people I had lost touch with between their and our moves. I am friends with some of my kid’s friends who friended me. They are all adults and I enjoy seeing what they are up to.</p>
<p>I’m also in a couple of private FB groups I joined when my husband was diagnosed with Esophageal cancer. They have been an amazing source of information and support. </p>
<p>I am on Facebook mainly to see my daughter’s facebook posts. She is not an everyday poster, but will post pictures of her at events and with friends and I enjoy seeing them. Sometimes something will happen and she will message me to check out the pictures she just put up. (Like last week after she posted pictures of the gingerbread house she made with her friends). I am friends with her but not with any of her friends. I also “like” many of her college’s pages to see their posts about what is happening on campus.</p>
<p>I am on FB. Not friends with kids or kids’ friends. How do you belong to a group? Should I have joined the group when asked to? I didn’t and now I see that I lost a contact with a few “friends”</p>
<p>I’ve been on Facebook for at least 8 years. It started with (then undergrad D) telling me about a new way to keep me posted on what’s happening at her school. I have NEVER felt compelled to track her.After a couple years, since no one I knew was on, she felt sorry for me and asked her friends to friend me. I still only have about 75 “friends”.I belong to small visual arts groups and even larger institutions such as the Louvre send out daily updates and articles that they only post via Facebook.Locally it is a great way of getting invited to gallery openings, small recitals, and other wonderful events. Even LA Opera notifies when they have extra tickets on sale for the same night.Now that D lives in Europe, it’s especially nice to get a little IM pop up every day while I’m at work. Just little notes and pictures giving me another way of keeping in touch while she is thousands of miles away.</p>
<p>I love it when my kids friends friend me, but I won’t friend them. My older kids are still pretty active users, my high schooler says no one in high school actually uses facebook. I get occasional friend requests from clients, some I don’t accept, some I do. That can be weird, but I’ve never had someone ask me why I didn’t accept their friend request.</p>
<p>"How do you belong to a group? Should I have joined the group when asked to? I didn’t and now I see that I lost a contact with a few “friends” </p>
<p>I was sent an invite to join my private group. I don’t know how else to join one without an invite. Maybe someone else does. </p>
<p>If you know someone who is in the group - if you go to that person’s FB page you can send them a message - even if you are not a “friend” and ask for an invite to the group. </p>
<p>It occurred to me that I’ve run across two reasons why some people say they won’t try Facebook, and I think they’re legit reasons to be concerned about if you don’t use Facebook wisely. One, they see some friends spend hours and hours a day on Facebook, and believe it’s the only way to use it. One of my cousins told me she has seen friends get ‘hooked’ and spend hours upon hours. I honestly don’t think any of my friends are like that, but I suppose there are people out there who do. If you have an addictive personality and you think Facebook would suck you in, and you’d not be able to restrain yourself, then don’t belong. Two, I’ve heard people say they don’t want to get involved in another group that sends out emails after emails. Honestly, the only emails I ever get because of Facebook, are the sometimes once a week reminders of one of your friend’s birthdays that week. I think those emails usually come on Sunday. And sometimes I get an email letting me know that someone has tagged me in a post or photo. But again, those come maybe a couple of times a month.</p>
<p>I was going to say I don’t post that often on my wall, but then, yesterday, I posted two times, which is very unusual for me: I put up a photo of my pooch he had with Santa yesterday; I put up a link to the WestJet video that I also posted here on CC. </p>
<p>It doesn’t have to be a time suck if you don’t want it to be, yet you can still enjoy it.</p>
<p>"I got an invitation a few times. I didn’t know what it was about and didn’t accept the invitation. Now I can’t find the invitations. "</p>
<p>But if you know some of the people who are in that group you can send them a message and ask to be invited - even if they are not your “friends” on Facebook. </p>
<p>I use Facebook to keep up with my relatives in other states and a few other people. I do get tired sometimes of the dog pictures and the shared affirmations but … </p>
<p>BTW, I made all my relatives “close friends” so I’d see all their posts. Facebook will otherwise limit what you get. I prefer less filtering because my experience is they’ll filter out the things I want to see.</p>
<p>I have some really hilarious friends whose stories never fail to make me laugh. However, I also have a few who post the most boring, mundane things and do so way too often, IMO. My favorite groups include one devoted to the breed of one of my dogs (but it’s all about “crazy antics”), several animal rescue organizations, and a private group that a few parents from the Class of XX thread here set up. I also second the idea of “liking” pages related to our kids’ colleges or prospective colleges–you can learn a lot and stay up to date with those.</p>
<p>lergmom, how do you make people “close friends”? </p>
<p>I have been on fb for years for all the reasons cited above: great to see what’s up with the kids and the photos they post and a great way to re-connect or stay connected with people who live far away. I rarely post and, like others, never friended my my kids’ friends but quite a few have friended me and it’s fun to see them at their now universities. I spend a max of 10 minutes a day on facebook so it doesn’t have to be a time sink. Also, I signed up to receive emails about upcoming birthdays (yes, it’s a weekly email) as I like to recognize them and could easily miss them without the email) and also emails notifying me if someone mentions me in a post, posts something on my wall or messages me. I want these notifications because I’m not a big user and wouldn’t want to miss seeing something directly related to me in a timely manner. I do recall that it’s a choice, though, and you don’t have to receive those emails. I, for one, really appreciate facebook’s existence and the small part it plays in my life!</p>
<p>Oh, I’m also a member of a few groups and value that too. :)</p>
<p>Things I don’t like:
-I had to hide a couple of friends that were using FB to push things like Plexus and 31 bags. Shame as I like them and would like to see what is going on other than the selling stuff. I go and look at their pages occasionally.
-friendly best friend posts a LOT of rather annoying reports. I do the occasional one if I think it’s funny, but she will post multiple ones in short spaces of time. (I don’t hide her though as she lives a long way away and even though we talk often, I like the additional layer of contact on FB)
hate political and religious posts. The political ones tend to be of the offensive type. And I respect others religious beliefs but don’t know why it’s necessary to shove your beliefs continuously in other people’s face. To me, both types of post show a disrespect for others beliefs.
posts where someone has read some nonsense and taken it at face value and reposted without finding out facts. </p>
<p>My other pet peeve is people posting to their spouses, who are under the same roof. Like, one will post an old photo and the other will put in the comments section, “Where was that? Sanibel or Captiva? I can’t remember…” and then they go and have a fake online conversation that they could have just as easily had in real life.</p>
<p>Yes, I am on Facebook. And most of the time I love it. It is such a great way to reconnect or stay connected with my college friends, high school friends, and family members that I live far away from. I know so much more about their families, daily lives, and current interests than I would without it. I can chat (free) with my niece who lives in Australia, my cousin in Arizona, and my kid in college in California. And I have had some very fun experiences meeting up with high school or college friends for dinner when I travel to parts of the country where they live now; would not have known they were there or connected with them without FB.</p>
<p>I am friends with both of my kids. I am Facebook friends with a few of their friends who asked me to be friends with them (that is my personal rule, I will only friend one of their friends if they ask me first).</p>
<p>I feel no pressure to have a lot of friends. My kids have hundreds. I have under 100 (would have more, but I have quietly dropped some that have repeatedly made political posts that I found offensive – I try to stay away from making political posts myself). I have a few friends I have not met in person – a couple from the CC community, and the sister of one of those CC members who thought we would like each other. But most are people I know IRL.</p>
<p>I check it once or twice a day. I have it set up so I get email notification if someone writes on my wall or sends me a message.</p>
<p>“My other pet peeve is people posting to their spouses, who are under the same roof. Like, one will post an old photo and the other will put in the comments section, “Where was that? Sanibel or Captiva? I can’t remember…” and then they go and have a fake online conversation that they could have just as easily had in real life.”</p>
<p>My pet peeves are people who post every minute detail of their life constantly. No, I do not care that you are stuck in traffic on the FDR Dr. Also, people who post extremely personal things/problems they are having with job, kids, spouse, etc. If you need to talk to friends about these things - pick up the phone! </p>
<p>I have had to block some acquaintances because of constant political things they post. </p>
<p>Damn autocorrect - my post above should read “my best friend posts a lot of rather annoying reposts”. Think I prefer my typos to the Kindle 's attempt to guess what I really meant to say. </p>
But most are people I know IRL.</p>