<p>I am almost ready to get a Facebook account. I have always said I didn’t want to do this, but a recent family get together has me re-thinking my position. It would be great to stay in touch with relatives; many of my extended family asked if I had an account.</p>
<p>I guess I am reluctant because I feel like you give away your privacy if you “put yourself out there.” I know there are privacy settings that can be be utilized to help keep things from the general public. I still feel like once it’s posted some place, it’s out there. It’s not that I have anything to hide, but I am a teacher and feel like I have to be cautious. Any tips on keeping things as private as possible? </p>
<p>My second reservation has to do with people asking to be friends with you–and you don’t want to add them to your friends list. Can you say awkward? Lol.</p>
<p>So, please share your thoughts with me. Thanks!!!</p>
<p>Pretty easy…
Have the account. You’ll see what your friends and relatives are up to.</p>
<p>Don’t post anything about yourself.</p>
<p>eg, I like reading about my kids and nieces/nephews, and seeing their photos. I never post what I had for lunch, what movies I watch, or anything else about me. If I’m tagged in a photo, and I don’t like being identified in that photo, I remove the tag.</p>
<p>if I start hearing TOOOO much about a particular relative’s life, I change the setting, so that I don’t get notices about them automatically (instead, I go to their home page when I want to see what they’re up to)</p>
<p>Have someone walk you through the privacy settings and set them to the max.</p>
<p>Just ignore friend requests that you don’t want. It’s amazing how most people don’t know you’ve ignored them. If someone does ask, just say something like “I don’t really use Facebook…” It’s not as awkward as you’d think.</p>
<p>Like mtpaper says, don’t post anything about yourself and remove the tags if people tag you in a photo. Again, it’s amazing, but people don’t generally notice or mind. </p>
<p>If you do post something and wish you hadn’t, delete it.</p>
<p>For many people, privacy is no longer valued. Fine for them, but there’s no reason you can’t keep your own and still use Facebook in a limited way.</p>
<p>Well, rodney, I haven’t done anything yet. I’m still thinking. </p>
<p>One of the things I don’t like is that people can post pictures of you without your permission. I realize this can happen whether or not you have a Facebook, but it seems to happen more if you’re on there. I consider my family pictures private. One of my friends took a picture of me with my daughter and posted it on her Facebook. People were making comments about it and I never even knew it was out there–until she was showing me her account, trying to convince me to join. Guess I’m just “old school.”</p>
<p>The thing about being on FB is that you would at least be able to see if pictures are being posted. And if you’re tagged, you can untag yourself. Obviously if you’re not on FB, you can’t be tagged, but you can be named in the photo caption (D1 untags herself all the time if the picture of her isn’t ‘perfect’!).</p>
<p>If people are posting too many pictures of you (or ones that you don’t like), you can let them know you are a sort of private person and prefer that they not post pictures of you. Seriously, in this day and age, any time someone takes a picture of you, you should always diplomatically remind them that you don’t want to see it, or hear about it on FB. I’ve had to make that promise to people before they’d allow me to take their picture.</p>
<p>I would recommend creating a new email address just to use with facebook. I would never click on any of their ads especially if recommended by friends. Their ads often have viruses or spam in them. Treat whatever you post as if it were published on the cover of USA Today and everyone would see it.</p>
<p>facebook is a company founded by a thief and people should realize that the company reflects its founder.</p>
<p>I am 55 yrs old and have had a facebook account for the past 3 years. It is a wonderful way to stay in touch with family and friends, especially those who don’t live near by. It all started with an alumni group from my HS. You have absolute control of who sees your profile. You can befriend individuals and you can set it that only they see your info and not their friends. You can also set it that certain individuals within your friends can’t see anything you post. It iss a great way to share pictures and even start groups with in groups. Right now, I have some cousins within a group and we are planning a family reunion. I post occasionally and comment on other’s posts.
I find, that the people who are afraid of Facebook, don’t really understand how it works. I have a friend who was very skeptical to join, but she has nieces and nephews that she wants to be in their world and she has connected with them and it has brought their relationships to a different level. It certainly isn’t going to go away. I say go for it.</p>
<p>You can limit who can tag you in photos. Go to privacy settings and click on customize. Any time you see an option to customize select it and go through it to make sure it is set the way you want it to be. Also get to know how to use groups. By putting people in groups and giving the groups the limited permission you can limit the photo tags. You can be notified when they occur. But you cannot stop people from posting pictures they took of you. Just the tagging. We use facebook all the time now to share photos in the family group. I use settings that limit the ability to share beyond the family. Agree that it has helped me stay in touch with all generations of the family in ways we would not have been able to with the distances.</p>
<p>Risky for a teacher. Use max privacy settings. Be very careful when you register for your account, you will be asked if you want them to find friends for you. I hit the wrong button and friend requests were sent to everyone in my address book that had a fb account (including some of my hs son’s friends that I had sent 1 email to in the past). I immediately cancelled the account and stayed away from fb for 5 years.</p>
<p>I’m a teacher and I have an account. Use the highest privacy settings possible and check occasionally to make sure they are still set the way that you want as facebook sometimes changes their options without notice. I never put anything on my facebook that I would be embarrassed for anyone to read. I never, ever friend or accept friendship from students or parents of students. If one asks me about that I say I have a strict policy against it. I don’t discuss my work on facebook with the exception of the occasional (positive only) anecdote without using names.</p>
<p>It’s fun and it has been wonderful to reconnect with old friends and stay in touch with out of state loved ones.</p>
<p>Jeez, really? Why? Are you going to tell ugly stories about your students and/or their parents? Are you going to bad mouth the other teachers or the administration? Are you going to be showing up in pictures doing embarrassing things?</p>
<p>If not, you’re FINE! Just read before you click. If an app says it needs to access your account in ways that you don’t like then cancel it! </p>
<p>People here make it sound so sinister. Just relax, but use good sense!</p>
<p>I’m FB friends with three of my daughter’s former teachers from high school, and another one from grade school (that D1 had). Of the three former high school teachers, D2 is friends with all of them, too. But the high school now has a policy of teachers not friending current students, which I completely agree with, especially seeing what one of the former teachers posts on his wall; more like a 16-year old girl with all her angst, etc. Current students do not need to see this.</p>
<p>I’ve had a Facebook account since back when you had to have a .edu email address to use it. My kids suggested it then as a way to follow their pages and ask them fewer obnoxious questions.</p>
<p>As regards privacy, you do need to check your privacy settings regularly. Facebook is notorious for changing your options. I do it every couple of months, or whenever there’s a NYTimes article about Facebook privacy.</p>
<p>I recommend following the rule that if you would be embarrassed to see what you wrote on the front page of the local newspaper, don’t say it on Facebook. I follow the same rule on CC, BTW.</p>
<p>Best use for me has been to see pictures of my kids that I’d never get to see otherwise (like that their friends at college post). I rarely post anything about myself. Have been able to keep up a bit better with relatives that live out of the country.</p>
<p>DH is quite the luddite–only recently got an account, but has re-connected with some old friends. (One of our kids logged in as him recently and discovered he has 20 friend requests waiting. He just ignores them.)</p>
<p>And re: pictures of me–there aren’t any. I’m a white witch.</p>
<p>I’d say go for it. You really do not have to let it take over your life.</p>
<p>P.S. Just discovered another use! That stuff down in the lower right-hand corner allows you to chat with “friends” who are online! Who’d a thunk it?? I just used it for the first time–DS#2 is in Singapore for three weeks and we really hadn’t gotten much news. He’s alive and well and happy! :)</p>
<p>I love Facebook. I’ve moved often in my life, and Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with many old friends, colleagues, and former students, and to stay in touch with distant family members. I’ve also become better friends with many casual acquaintances–for instance, I’ll know somebody through work, or through a hobby, but then learn via Facebook that we actually have many other interests in common. My Facebook buddies have drawn my attention to some fascinating articles, essays, blogs, etc. and often discuss recent films and such. Not that much different from the Parent Cafe, actually, except that you know the people posting.</p>
<p>You do need, I find, a certain minimum number of friends before Facebook becomes interesting. It was boring for me until I had about 75 friends. Now I have about 350-400, as more and more middle-aged people start their pages.</p>
<p>Just be vigilant about your privacy settings–there is a button on the right side of your page that will allow you to customize them–and don’t post anything stupid or overly personal. Most adults are pretty sensible about such things. If you have an annoying acquaintance, you can selectively block your view of their posts without “de-friending” them, and they are none the wiser.</p>
<p>I joined FB a couple of years ago and really enjoy it. The learning curve was not too bad and once I figured out how to remove the posts from people playing games it was much better. I think FB was made for our generation. You can connect with current friends and reconnect with old friends.</p>
