The “memories” post are one of my favorite. My parents are both deceased (my Mom a couple months ago and we have been estranged for 4 years), I had a dream with both if them last night. It was great visiting with them. And then a memory popped up today from 5 years ago.
I had gone down to Sarasota to visit them by myself. I’d never done that before. We had a great time, and I know they loved just having me without the family. Dad died 10 months later.
I’m so glad I had those few days with them before all H broke loose. It’s one of my most happiest and wistful memories.
I’d love to post it, butI know I’m being judged by far away family members and even friends IRL for not reaching out first to Mom, so I don’t. Of course, they don’t know the backstory so I don’t blame them.
@O2BonCC, you’re not the only one who doesn’t post much. Many people are the same. I joined only to monitor my Ds’ activity, and friend requests soon followed. If anyone is offended that I don’t post, that’s just too bad. I’m not required to share details of my life on the internet just because others do. So far, no one has complained, and if anyone has unfriended me because of it, I haven’t even noticed it.
I do react to peoples’ posts sometimes, though (most often family members), and make an occasional comment. I don’t acknowledge political posts, even if I agree, and some people I’ve quit following because they either post obnoxious political stuff, or they just post constantly all day.
I want to make it clear that I don’t have a score card on who is or isn’t posting/liking, etc.
I just personally find it odd/interesting/puzzling that people join FB with every intent to see what other people are up to but have no intent to share anything themselves.
I imagine we all have our FB quirks. One of mine is the birthday thing I mentioned above. My other is that I will rarely friend request someone - I often wait for someone to friend me. That is probably a trait related to me having a tough time reaching out to others IRL.
I’m Ok with people not posting- not everyone is comfortable with it, but I like to at least know that the person is engaging with me to some extent- “liking” my posts or an occasional comment is nice.
You can choose to post on both at once or not. But they are owned by the same company and if you use one email/name/phone number for both or attach your fb friends to instagram, they collect data on you, as you, on both. (and maybe even if you use different info they figure out it’s you). FB plans to integrate the two even more - messaging for example - if the current antitrust suit isn’t giving them pause right now.
The most eye opening thing I did a couple of years ago was download all my FB data. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to me that they kept a transcript of every conversation I had in private messages, aka Messenger, for example.
Creepy. But not as creepy as a profile public (or friends of friends) with birthday, high school, mom’s maiden name, your pet’s name, or playing games and doing quizzes designed to give up security answers similarly linked to bank and credit accounts and such.
I’m more uncomfortable with the “friend” who posts occasionally, but never reacts to my posts. And then she will mention something to me in person about a post of mine, so it’s obvious she reads them. I think she’s just not aware that it’s a courtesy to “like” a post. In fact, I learned that by the way other users reacted to my posts, so I’ll just have to give her a pass.
Pro: I’ve gotten some pretty nice deals at restaurants through their Facebook pages. The best one was getting into a new food hall two days before the grand opening, and receiving a $15 gift card for being there. Every once in a while following a restaurant Facebook page pays off.
Worst things about Facebook, besides the loss of privacy, are 1) I have lost respect for several acquaintances, either because they appear downright narcissistic on Facebook, or because of their irrational political commentary (on both sides of the spectrum). 2) The number of disturbing news items that I see on Facebook can leave me feeling much worse. I have scaled back on my Facebook use quite a bit.
My biggest FB annoyance are people who post multiple links to articles every day. I already follow news sources , I would rather see posts about what people are doing in their own lives.
I very rarely post anything political. In my 10 years on FB I have posted pictures of myself at 2 different marches. That’s it for my political posting.
While on FB this morning, a couple of things that came up that reminded me what I don’t like:
A friend of mine, without even bothering to ask me first, placed me in his FB church group. The next thing I know, I’m getting church announcements and other posts on a daily basis. I’m too close a friend to unfriend him, so I simply de-listed myself from the church group. I think he got my subtle message. Another FB “friend” did the same with her group.
Likewise with the automatic placement in certain events. Just announcing the event would be okay instead of actual invitation that forces me to take a decision action of either attend or ignore.
Birthday fundraisers: “In lieu of birthday gifts, please send the donation to ________.”
I don’t think it should be banned, but it shouldn’t be allowed to buy up all the competition either. If there were another viable option a lot more people would have left it by now, IMO.
^I think it’s more than buying up the competition. Google+ made a go of it, and certainly had the backing of a huge institution behind it, but didn’t succeed. Most likely because everyone won’t jump unless everyone jumps. And they didn’t.
Back in the day, Facebook ate MySpace for lunch because MySpace was clunky, full of sketchy people (per kid’s comments), and was not yet populated by old ferts who don’t like to change their ways. Even though hip kids are not that hot about Facebook, the platform is not going anywhere… the oldsters will carry on, and Facebook will just buy up any platform that the youngsters deem hot (like Instagram).