the ones where you change your avatar to “your wedding picture” “your look alike”, etc.
the ones where you change your status to “what color bra are you wearing”, “copy and paste this in your status”, etc.
the ones (grrr…this is the worst!) where people play the games - Farmville, vampire games,e etc. and friends “get” to see all the little icons about how they progressed - “so and so earned a cow in Farmville!”
the gifts - “Your friend gave you a smiling heart just cause they love you!”
the stupid questions WITH an icon “if you were stuck in a closet with someone, who would you want to be stuck with - you!!!”</p>
<p>I don’t get the draw of this type of “entertainment”. You can tell some people spend HOURS with this stuff. Most of all, it’s annoying to me that all the little pictures clutter up my live feed and I feel bad when I don’t “accept” a gift from someone or “play along”. It’s just not my thing!</p>
<p>I enjoy the status updates - hearing what’s going on with people and their families - the other stuff not so much. I thought my D told me there was a way to block some of that stuff on your pages - I’ll have to ask her again!</p>
<p>How about you? Annoyed? Or do you enjoy participating in some of this stuff - certainly ok! I just don’t get it!!!</p>
<p>I’m with you, abasket. I don’t get it at all. The word games I sort of understand, but there are plenty of other venues for playing those.</p>
<p>You can block the applications’ appearing in your news feed, though, without blocking the people. Hover over the posting on your feed and a “block” option should appear to the right. It’ll offer you a choice of blocking all posts from that particular game/application, or blocking the person entirely.</p>
<p>I signed up for facebook because this is how my son’s high school communicates. Since then I have added a ton of old high school friends and I am embarrassed to see how many spend their days playing farmville. (though they would wonder what kind of crazy lady spends her time on CC!)</p>
<p>On a positive note - My son joined the facebook page for admitted students to his new college and has been fun to “look” at the other kids who will be attending.</p>
<p>What I’ve discovered is that I have to be careful who I accept as friends. FB is good with reconnecting with HS buddies, but I’ve come to find I have almost nothing in common with people I knew and liked 30 years ago. </p>
<p>For instance, I seem to be the only Democrat in my class of 526. And I don’t care that Cathy got a cow or someone sent Tina a super-special-sparkly heart. What’s also weird is that I know so little about people I truly adored in HS. One of my friends is pictured with kids about 4 or 5. Are those his??? Or grandkids??? I feel embarrassed to ask (so I didn’t ask him; I asked the class president in a chat! lol Turns out those are his kids).</p>
<p>I do like having birthdays right there for me because I always think it’s nice to get wishes from people kind of out of the blue (by that I mean, without FB I never would have sent him a birthday wish).</p>
<p>I have friended relatives I wish I didn’t have to, although I still refuse to friend my MIL. :D</p>
<p>One of my facebook “friends” insists on telling the world each volleyball, basketball and flag football game her kids win. Updating this maybe once a day would be tolerable, but she updates the same status every few hours. She also asks for donations to her children’s fundraising attempts. Also needs to tell the relatives in colder climes how much she enjoys living in “paradise” (Florida)</p>
<p>I’ve just discovered the ignore setting, so I can block her updates!</p>
<p>Oops, I actually meant to post this in the Parent Cafe - if a moderator wants to move it that would be great!</p>
<p>Same with me and high school friends. It seems the ones I wouldn’t mind catching up with I can’t find on Facebook - but the others - well, if we weren’t friends in particular back then, there’s no real reason for me/you to know what’s happening now!!!</p>
<p>I’m all for online entertainment and we shoot, look where we all are (here on CC!). I will have to try out the hovering over thing and see if I can block the cutesy gifts/pictures etc.</p>
<p>I avoid playing any of the Facebook apps because of no interest and the spyware and/or adware commonly hidden in those games. Most users neglect to carefully read the terms of agreement and if they did they might be surprised as to what information they are willing sharing with third party interests and they might find their profile pic in a advertisement for singles or something else.</p>
<p>if you run your cursor to the right of the name of your friend a little pull down appears that says “hide” you can then choose either to hide the friend…for the “I am sitting on the patio” type or hide the application for the Farmville, Happy Aquarium over sharer type.</p>
<p>I admit I did the bra color thing and the sibling profile pic thing. I am a little fascinated with the speed with which these things spread. The bra color thing spread through my different fairly disconnected friends groups within a few hours.</p>
<p>I usually accept friend requests but have a separate list for those that I really have no connection with.</p>
<p>I’ve blocked all the gaming applications, and the stupid survey ones (I couldn’t care less which lingerie item or Lord of the Rings character someone is). But every now and then people post something Farmville-related as their status update (“I need nails for my barn”), which is irritating. </p>
<p>I have friends who are gamers, so I understand that they enjoy playing this stuff online. I just don’t need to know about it.</p>
<p>You can easily filter / hide all those applications; I, too, don’t get the whole Farmville / Bejeweled Blitz, nor do I want to be hit by snowballs by my friends.</p>
<p>But all you have to do is ignore those invitations. I don’t feel bad at all. We’re grownups, and we don’t have to toss the snowballs back.</p>
<p>I did change my picture to my doppelganger, however :-)</p>
<p>If Facebook were really clever, it would figure out a way to match personal pronouns with a person’s gender. Then I wouldn’t have to bristle every time I read “Janie just found a giant cow hiding in their garden.” I guess I’ll learn to filter, instead!</p>
<p>historymom and pizzagirl, right - the Doppelganger and the sibling pictures and even the bra color thing were all passed from person to person. I thought they were fun, too, and it was definitely interesting to see how quickly they spread, and to whom. </p>
<p>I think that kind of thing is different from the game applications.</p>
<p>I love facebook, but I don’t play the games or do all the status update games or the things that are the equivalent of chain letters. I have enjoyed reconnecting with high school classmates- even ones I barely knew. We are relating on a different level, and for the most part, it has been great. It’s fun seeing people’s different interests and skills.</p>
<p>I DO have an old classmate who suffered a traumatic brain injury a couple of years ago and is absolutely not OK. It’s a shame, but he goes nuts on facebook and posts comments all over the place. I’m patient with him, but it must look strange to those who don’t know the situation. He has no short-term memory, but remembers everything from 40 years ago.</p>
<p>Definitely whatever floats your boat. I was just feeling in the minority of people who wanted to “participate” so wondered if I was just not fully into the Facebook experience.</p>
<p>I am with the poster above, I will post my celebrity photo, but I will not add any of those games or anything else that is an application. Just way too suspicious of spyware and FB seems like a great target.</p>
<p>I have connected with some old friends and one in particular moved to an email relationship and periodically if we are both working late we will have an all evening discussion of issues from health care to family dynamics. I know her politics are the polar opposite of mine and she has like 800 friends, supports all the politics & issues on FB, etc. I don’t think FB is the place I want to mention my religion or politics, just like staying off the political cafe on CC, just not my thing. Or if there is an issue about which I want to know more, I can always come to CC and get some really well-considered points of view about both sides of the issue!</p>
<p>There is a CC page on FB ;)</p>
<p>Photos on FB- any one ever figured out a way to move photos from one album to another?</p>
<p>I, too, don’t get the attraction of Farmville or Bejeweled, but admit to playing Scramble and Pathwords (word games)–way more than I should. There are days when I can’t believe the time I’ve spent on CC too, which most of my Farmville playing friends would never understand. I started on Facebook because it was the way information was passed along for many of the ECs in which my youngest D participated in college. Many of my friends did the same and, like some of the posters here, ended up hearing from folks with whom they attended high school. I haven’t had one person from high school contact me on Facebook–maybe I went to a really loser high school where no one now uses technology??? It could be that I don’t use my first name anymore and haven’t since college. Also, I’ve had two married names. Is there a way to include your maiden name without having it be your main Facebook name? Anyone know?</p>
<p>I have pretty much tailored the Facebook experience to my liking. I block each and every game/quiz as it comes up. I also think these games are a security risk (in that they are developed by third parties) and nosey. And if a particular friend starts to get annoying, I “hide” that person. Everything can be undone if you change your mind. I too find it amazing how much time people spend playing Mafia and FarmVille, but here I am on CC, so I can’t throw stones! :)</p>
<p>I have reconnected with quite a few old friends and have met up with them for visits and drinks, etc. So the appeal to me of Facebook is not limited to screen time. It’s the best way I know of for sharing photos. I went through my photo drawer and scanned in maybe 100 snapshots. I put them up on Facebooks for all my friends to see. Some of the comments that ensued are hilarious! And it’s wild to see yourself in a photo that’s maybe 35 years old you didn’t even know existed. So here we have old photo moldering away in a drawer or dusty attic, and now they have new life, making people laugh. That’s what I like best about Facebook. I also like to share funny videos and links to newspaper and magazine articles. I go easy on the politics because my friends are all over the place on the spectrum, but I do take a stand when it seems appropriate. </p>
<p>Another thing is that I don’t believe in friending “the kids.” My daughter, her friends, my nieces and nephews…not connected to me on Facebook. They do their thing and I do mine!</p>