What are the top cons of Facebook?
Dad, no one does Facebook anymore. It’s for old people.
https://www.gocomics.com/baldo/2019/09/09
I’m old! I use Facebook. The biggest con to me is the political debacles that invariably happen. Also, those who post about their perfect kids, perfect house, perfect spouse. Blah blah blah. Leaving out the affair, the arrest, etc…
Son, I posted it in a parents forum.
Tell me about it. I recently re-joined it as my kid’s school has parent network page there and then friend request from all corners of the universe started pouring in. Even people who doesn’t even exist in my memory any more.
Everyone tries to put their best foot forward but some are just too much. I hope it helps them feel good about themselves but tooting their own photoshopped horn must be tiring.
I joined FB after my first 10 year HS reunion. Was an easy way to stay in touch with classmates and get to “watch” their kids grow up. What I HATE are when debates get ugly and also finding out which friends are kind of jerks to people who disagree with them. I only friend people I know IRL and have unfollowed a bunch of folks as well.
I hate all the political BS. I have unfollowed at least 50% of the friends and family on my page that seemed to feel they needed to shove political memes down my throat all day. I mostly use it for school and kids activities communications, and I toss pics of the kids on there occasionally to share with the family.
One of the better things I’ve found recently are a couple parent pages for the colleges my son is interested in. Tons of great info on those and I can see where that network would be nice once he goes away. People are finding other parents from their area and carpooling, dropping off things at school for each other, etc.
People complain about people posting only about the “perfect” of life. Yet how awkward would it be to post about a divorce, arrest, etc.? I don’t think that’s reasonable.
To answer the OP question:
CONS TO ME:
- Too much of the just “sharing” of a news article, meme, contest, etc. I would rather read more personal content.
- Posts where people are fishing for comments/attention with little info given. Like checking into a location and it’s a hospital. Should we be worried something is wrong? Or posting something like we might post on the “Say It Here” thread - but it’s on FB and so you feel like you should be asking questions but the OP (on FB) didn’t provide any context.
Biggest problem for me is it’s impossible to find anything again. My brother mentioned a book and I looked in his entire feed, but it seemed to have disappeared. You rarely have a real conversation. And now that so many people don’t use real names or pictures it’s impossible to find anyone who doesn’t tell you what they call themselves. I’ve always preferred message boards. Facebook is handy for sharing and organizing photos.
The Cons are: privacy issues. People keep playing those “What fruit are you?” games that are just data mining schemes. Political stuff- I’ve lost several friends recently just because I pointed out that what they posted was actually incorrect and didn’t pass the Snopes test. Canned posts- “I bet no one will re-post this and show that they care…” Multi-level marketing- you can avoid this, but if you get sucked into following a friend’s posts and they are selling Rodan + Fields, Lularoe etc, that will be your whole feed. Learning how to “hide” people or “snooze” them for 30 days and how to see a post that you want to go back to can be confusing.
That said, to me facebook is still worth it due to some great groups I am in and the ability to keep up with people from so many years of my life that I would not otherwise be in touch with.
@mathmom - Go to your brother’s page and at the top of his “wall” make sure it is sorted to ALL posts and not just “unread”
About a year ago, I friended a woman who was a high school classmate. We were pretty good friends as kids but just lost touch. This summer, she and her husband stopped by as they drove through Maine. We had the best time reconnecting! If it weren’t for Facebook, I would never have gotten to do that.
The main con for me are the political posts., especially the ones that say, “If you support ______, you can just unfriend me!” Really?? That just boggles my mind.
Anyone else get the Facebook survey today? They wanted to know what was good and bad. I doubt they will listen, but I gave them an earful
I never click on those surveys or games or anything anymore in Facebook! Never sure what’s a scam!
I forgot my favorite!!! Vague-booking…“I don’t want to give details yet, but please pray for me today.”
I generally like FB very much, but I’ve recently become very active with a particular volunteer group and am a member of their Facebook groups for the National group, my State leadership group, my State general group, and a specific subgroup. I’m seeing those posts way before I’m seeing stuff from my real friends, so that’s annoying.
This was a survey from Facebook…not some other random survey. I don’t do those either.
I like FB for seeing pictures, and hearing about friends and family.
It’s a time suck. I spend enough time here as it is.
FOMO and FOBO. No one presents their real life on Facebook. Everyone seems to be living a life more glamorous and more fun than you are. Of course everyone else is thinking the same things about your posts, so there’s that. Who needs the anxiety?
Things that are not glamorous that I’ve posted on FB:
A photo of that time a feather pillow “ruptured” in my clothes dryer
A photo of the time my dogs stole and ate a five-pound bag of flour
A photo of my dog’s close encounter with a woodchuck that showed a close-up of the two-inch laceration on her face
So, it’s not all roses and unicorns!
Don’t you think the FOMO, FOBO, Best foot forward stuff, etc. happens here as much as Facebook? OK, so there aren’t any pictures to enhance the “dig me” postings - but the embellishments and self serving validation are all here as much as anywhere. The only difference is that we can disguise it as “helping & supporting” students & parents.
I’m a wildlife/bird photographer – just a huge passion of mine for the past 3 decades or so and not as a professional – so I use FB to showcase my images in various groups I belong. In my news feed, I avoid posting or responding to anything political and religious. I use the news feed mostly as my travel blogs with photos and very little of personal life. I limit my friends list to only those I know or acquainted with personally, and I periodically go through the list to keep it less than 100 in order to better manage my FB activities. Since I use it primarily for my pursuit of photography and travels, I tend to ignore whatever the flaws FB has. To me, out of all the social media that I’ve looked into, FB offers the best medium for my specific purposes.