Thanks to Facebook, we had a really sweet GRAMMAR school reunion brunch in our old home town. Somebody drove from 3 states over to attend. And because of Facebook, we already knew a little bit about what we each have been up to, so the whole thing was so much fun. A bunch of 50 somethings taking selfies is ridiculous, but we knew that, and we laughed all the more.
What I don’t like about Facebook is the negativity, but I can choose to ignore that. I am sometimes possessed by an evil demon that makes me read the comments on a controversial post, or even sometimes a harmless post, where the whole thing devolves into ugly name calling. I don’t learn anything from this ugliness. This is a bad habit that I must break, especially as the election season progresses.
@HotCanary - My H had a similar experience. Old elementary school classmates found each other and had a reunion and even had some old teachers show up! (Wow!) Unfortunately, my H couldn’t attend but about a month beforehand we were in town and got together with a few of them with a mini- reunion. Now they continue to keep in touch in a FB group.
I found an old childhood friend I’d lost touch with and some high school friends. It’s really cool to keep in touch this way.
@ClaremontMom : it was one of the nicest reunions I’ve ever had. And the folks who couldn’t make it got to enjoy the pictures, and want to join in next time! We are also going to include at least one old teacher next time. I wouldn’t have run into most of them if it wasn’t for Facebook.
I’m over FB. I haven’t deactivated my account yet, but haven’t been on lately, either. Well, I did use my Messenger app to chat with my Mom as we often do. But I told her yesterday that I may de-activate my account for a while and told her to e-mail or text me, from now on.
I really dislike all of the political ranting, even by those I agree with. I’m also disheartened to discover that many of my relatives - some of them formerly my favorite aunts or uncles - are, in reality, hateful people, and bigots.
I don’t want to see that side of them and wish I hadn’t.
I liked FB better when it was a place to just chat and show pictures of family and family events, trips, etc.
It’s basically the equivalent of tumblr now. Just not as edgy, and fewer young people. Definitely more bitter old people.
Maybe that’s just my feed - but I’m about done with it. And, yes, I’ve hid plenty of people, mostly relatives.
No FB for me. I think I have spent enough time online (like right now, on CC) and do not want to spend more time online.
Actually, I have never created a FB account for myself. My wife has a FB account which was created many years ago, but I heard she almost never uses it.
Just to be clear: none of these claims are new. People have been complaining about the clutter in fb for years. And yet, fb is still holding very strong. People leaving are still a pretty small minority.
I like facebook a lot, I just don’t like how some people use it. I scroll heavily past things people have liked, especially things with cheesy sentimentality, almost always with grammar or spelling errors. I try to ignore the political on all sides. I love all the babies in my newsfeed, many of whom I’ve never met but feel like I’m watching grow up. Same for people’s pets. Cuteness overload as long as it’s original content. I don’t want to see a tired meme.
I like FB and really like the secret groups I’m a member of - nothing that is posted there can ever be seen from the outside. BUT, in the last few months I started fostering dogs and now I have a huge number of people who tag the “Ugent, we need $$” to my timeline. It’s completely out of control - I’m at the point where I’m hiding or deleting the things they post to my wall - but they are very aggressive.
I made a fb group that is just for our family. We use it to send things back and forth that we don’t want on our general feed. I also found FB invaluable this weekend when there was a terrible accident in the community and news was scarce. FB seemed to rally the community around the families. I think FB is what you make of it.
I find FB fascinating. And I am the one that is guilty of liking and sharing cat videos. Don’t know how I ever lived without 'em. I like to think I can ignore the political rants, but often find myself getting sucked in and commenting, and then wishing I hadn’t. That is the main downside. It’s sort of like CC. I know I’m better off just lurking and not commenting, but can’t seem to help myself sometimes . . .
I don’t really watch much regular TV anymore, FB has pretty much replaced that, I guess. But then, lately, a thread on CC has gotten me started binge watching Netflix shows. I love posting pictures on FB, and I like seeing pics. That is valuable. And lately I’ve joined some art groups, and plant/bug groups that are fascinating to me – there are some smart and friendly people that I don’t know personally that are willing to share info about art and answer questions and also some bug/plant experts that can identify a bug from a photo if I post it on the site. I am really impressed at how easy it is to get some of this info from the friendly souls that populate certain esoteric FB pages which we would be very hard to get otherwise.
The ads are interesting. It is scary how well I am being targeted by ads. Some are off base, but some are actually quite useful ads for things that I like and might possibly purchase. FB has gotten awfully good at targeting the ads to me. I think I may have shared a little too much on there . . .
I love posting pictures on FB, and I like seeing pics. That is valuable. And lately I’ve joined some art groups, and plant/bug groups that are fascinating to me – there are some smart and friendly people that I don’t know personally that are willing to share info about art and answer questions and also some bug/plant experts that can identify a bug from a photo if I post it on the site. I am really impressed at how easy it is to get some of this info from the friendly souls that populate certain esoteric FB pages which we would be very hard to get otherwise.