Facebook

[MindyLee]

I HATE IT!

All I have to say is that it nearly ended my marriage because of a hubbys ex girlfriend. Sorry but I have better things to do then spend endless hrs blogging about what color my nails are today and how I feel with smiley faces.

Besides! I spend my time here instead! With my smiley faces!

 

[Minimor]

Well, I do have a FB account & I try to visit the site once a day, but I don't spend a lot of time there. It's funny, for years certain of my friends kept telling me that I need to get a FB account, they love it and it's a great way to keep in contact with people. Well, now I have an account & I never see those people on there. Just once in a great while they post something or click like on someone's photo.

Because I'm not on the site very much I do miss some things--but, often I'll see another posting that obviously refers to something I've missed, so then I can click on that person's account & go look back on their wall to "catch up".

I don't go for the status updates that say things like "I'm sleepy, good nite" or "I'm eating a burger", but they're easy to skip over.

I do get to see some photos that I wouldn't see otherwise--some of my FB friends I don't talk to otherwise or at least not very often so FB does allow me to keep up with them to some extent. I've gotten some leads for news for my Area 6 Journal column. One of my FB friends is a distant cousin--we don't keep in touch otherwise, not really, but it's fun to see her posts on FB. I had a nice chat with one friend a little while back--she's someone I went to school with when I was still in ND, and our families were the best of friends. I moved here & we lost touch--she wasn't into writing letters and when I tried phoning I didn't call at the right times to catch her in--but we've had nice chats on FB.

 

[Reijel's Mom]

I generally check my facebook page about twice a day for 5 minutes at a time. I post there very little, but when I do, it's usually pictures of my toddler for our friends/relatives to see, that might not get to see the pictures otherwise, or not for a few months or longer, or community events that I think are important/worthy of posting.

I have found it helpful to get in touch with people that I know I never would have connected with in any other way, and while they are not "deep" relationships by any means, it's nice to be in touch in this way.

Recently a coworker's husband has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and it's been a good way for her to let everyone know what is going on without getting the constant questions from multiple parties about the same things.

There are many things that I don't care about with Facebook, mostly for all of the reasons already mentioned by everyone else, but I think it can be a great tool to use or not use as you choose (just like phone, e-mail, sending letters, etc).

 

[HGFarm]

I have one but dont use it a whole lot... my private life is just that- private. It is very time consuming to pull up other's pages and read what has been going on. Have tossed around deleting it- haven't decided yet. Dont like the idea of all the tracking etc...

I dont really think FB is where someone is going to go to find a horse for sale really- it seems that the regular horse websites work much better for that.

I dont need to see crap like "I'm in the bathroom", "I have to pee", how drunk someone was last weekend or "good night". If people dont have enough of a life to post more than that... well I feel sorry for them and perhaps finding an active hobby or doing something constructive would be an option.

I do admit some of the cartoons are funny though- and have seen a couple of cool videos- however I can also go to utube for that.

 

[Tab]

I commend you for staying away and maintaining contact the old fashioned way. I think that there is great value to that. There are lots of pros and cons to fb. It is wonderful to get back in touch with good friends and family you have lost contact with, but heartbreaking when someone unfriends you or you have to unfriend them for any variety of reasons. I have two childhood friends that I see and call on the phone regularly that I was able to reconnect with through fb.

It is terrible from a privacy standpoint. Yes you can limit what you share, but it is difficult to keep up with the constant privacy changes, and how your info is being used outside the scope of your settings.

Another thing is that once you activate an account it remains there. If you decide that it isn't for you and deactivate, your info remains indefinitely. Pictures and private messages will reappear upon reactivation. Even things that you may have deleted before the deactivation. That is freaky.

One of my biggest peeves is when people use it for twitter. They comment on everything they do in the course of a day. With that negative tidbit, another is how negativity becomes a plague, it is the most common problem with facebook. It just seems like everyone is very accusing and confrontational on there at times. Big reason to stay away from fb when you are having PMS or a bad day.

If I could do it over again I may have stayed away, sometimes it seems like it can be Pandora's box

You know much more than you should about everyone and once it's out there it's out there.

 

[mydaddysjag]

I use facebook quite a bit, but I stay out of the drama. Well, I had one ex friend starting drama, but I simply blocked her, problem solved.

I love it for networking in the horse world. I bought my last horse because I saw his old owner post on facebook that they were selling him, I hadn't seen him listed elsewhere. I keep in contact with mini friends from all over the country through the "message" system. I know its easy to say to just call them, but we're talking drastic time zone differences, or friends who work different shifts and such, making impossible to catch them on the phone. The messages make me able to "talk" to them and catch up, and they answer when its convenient for them. Plus, it doesn't use the minutes on my phone. I often come to LB for horse advice, but I have also post on facebook. When Moe was sick I got a ton of messages and comments, all of which were very helpful. His old owners Pura Vida Ranch also helped me network to get more advice. I know that there are a TON more "mini and pony" people who use facebook than on lil beginnings, and I like to congratulate them on national wins, etc.

I also run a weekly child playgroup, and we have a private facebook page. Once a parent is in the playgroup, I add them to the page. This allows "open discussion" among the parents, but I prefer it over a parenting web forum, because I have met all of these people in person, and know they arent really some perverted child pedophiles pretending to be parents.

I have reconnected with both my family, and my husbands family. I hadn't seen these members of my family since my grandfather passed away when I was about 5 years old, so it was really neat to find them on facebook. We all set up a family reunion, which has become an annual event. The last time we had seen them, email was unheard of, and over the years people moved, changed their numbers, etc. and everyone lost touch. I had a girl message me the other day that I didn't personally know, but it turned out to be my husbands cousin, he hasn't seen her since he was 10 or 11 years old. Another story of lost touch of everyone, but came across them on facebook. We have quite a bit of family from Sicily, all of whom speak italian, but very little english, if any. My dad speaks italian, as well as my grandfather (both are from Sicily), but no one else in my family does. The only way we communicate with the family in Sicily is by messaging them back and forth, then putting the messages into an online translator to have it translated to english.

 

[RockRiverTiff]

I said I would never get on Facebook, then I ended up opening an account to get current addresses on old friends when I was writing up wedding invitations over a year ago. When the wedding was over I gave a blanket thank you and closed my account, but I ended up opening another one this year. Why? Mostly for the horse news! I could see National and World results almost as soon as some exhibitors got out of the ring along with candid ringside pictures. A lot of breeders also seem to prefer posting their phone pics to FB over taking the time to upload them here. The only downside is that I now have hundreds of horsey contacts which results in a near-constant scroll of updates and makes it hard to use Facebook to keep up with the few dozen non-horsey family and friends I have on there.

 

[fourluckyhorseshoes]

I'm in college and I don't have a FB page. I know I am definitely not the majority in my age group but I have heard of a good number of people that tell me that they deleted their account. But for the most part people tell me that its probably better not to have one. I know for myself I spend enough time on LB, I don't want to be glued to the computer all day.

 

[walkermini]

I really dont care for facebook (have had some drama on there, not horse related). But I do have a farm page and personal page. The farm page is mainly to promote the horses, and the personal page is to keep up with friends/relatives that dont live nearby. I dont get on eitherone very much, and also prefer good old emails! Edited to addr prefer the LB forums!

 

[weebiscuit]

I just read through all the posts. LMBO! I'm like the majority here. I took out a facebook page maybe two years ago and I think I've posted on it three whole times in two years. I have NO IDEA who all these people are whose posts keep showing up on my page! They are miniature horse people, but I have never gotten requests from them!

The posts I hate the most are those idiotic ones where people are evidently playing some stupid game called Farmville. A post shows up. They just bought a pig and need a feeding pan. Can I help them get a feeding pan? GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!! How any adult has the audacity to bother other adults with this freakin' stupid games is beyond me! Each time someone showed up on my page with a Farmville post, I deleted that person, and that included some of my cousins!

I don't *get* FB, and I probably never will. I visit my site maybe once every three weeks and find 90% of the posts are people I've never heard of, so why bother? there are so many of them that to wade through them to get to the actual family posts is a waste of time.

 

[hobbyhorse23]

The only downside is that I now have hundreds of horsey contacts which results in a near-constant scroll of updates and makes it hard to use Facebook to keep up with the few dozen non-horsey family and friends I have on there.

There are tools for that. Go through your friends list and mark the people who are family or close friends as being such. Then click on the same list to the left of your news feed and it will show you only those people! You don't have to see all the stuff from other people if you don't want to.

The posts I hate the most are those idiotic ones where people are evidently playing some stupid game called Farmville. A post shows up. They just bought a pig and need a feeding pan. Can I help them get a feeding pan? GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!! How any adult has the audacity to bother other adults with this freakin' stupid games is beyond me! Each time someone showed up on my page with a Farmville post, I deleted that person, and that included some of my cousins!

Ugh, I can't stand the games either! The first thing I did was figure out how to block all of them so I never get requests or have to see the game updates on other people's pages. It made life SOOO much easier.

I was another one who resisted for years but once I tried it I was hooked. I keep up with world-traveling cousins I rarely see, made a lot of new friends (no seriously. Ones who I now pick up the phone and call and like to hang out with in person!

) and find it much easier to upload pictures there than on LB. The main thing I don't like about it is the transitory nature of the posts. I make one about a breakthrough my driving colt made, forget to write down the training experience in more detail anywhere else, and then within days it's overwhelmed and gone. Before FB I took the time to "blog" those experiences here and I can still bring them up and enjoy rereading them and reliving the experiences. It makes me sad sometimes but maybe it's good for me to learn to "let go." I tend to cling to things!

Leia

 

[Bess Kelly]

Not only do I not have a FB page, I have never even gone there!!

But.........never smoked either, or even tried drugs.

So, do I feel deprived or left out? NOPE!

 

[jacks'thunder]

Nope no FB either! My thought is if I did not give you phone number our contact is not that important. Really if I have not talked to you in 20yrs there is a reason. Hubby and I feel the same way about it.

I think it would be really easy to type all the nasty things I'd love to say to my sisters and not have to use a filter and self control. I'll practice my self control and put that filter on my mouth in person, it's good for me! I prove to my self how strong I can be every time I'm near them.

 

[Marty]

I'm going to be de-friending a LOT of people who can't keep themselves from dropping the "F" bomb. I don't like that kind of junk showing up via my wall!

 

[Sue_C.]

I'm going to be de-friending a LOT of people who can't keep themselves from dropping the "F" bomb. I don't like that kind of junk showing up via my wall!

I don't want "that" on my wall either, but am not going to "de-friend" someone because of it...you can simply block their posts or clean up your "pages".

I love FB...it keeps me in contact with my grand daughters, sister, brothers and other relatives which are too far away for me to see as often as I'd like. It is a tool...use it well, or not at all, that is your choice.

As for the game requests etc...you can also just "go to the "X", and click to block all the posts from any and all games. Too easy...don't sweat such small stuff guys.

 

[kaykay]

Sue I had a couple like that and like you said I would just go "clean it up" but then it got to be a part time job cleaning up posts so I just defriended them. Just not what I want to do everyday or what I want to see.

 

[Sonya]

I really like facebook...it got me in touch with cousins I hadn't seen/spoken to in years. Me and my husband both have an account. I go there about twice a day, spend maybe 5-10 mins each time...no different than lb really...check in to see what everyones doing and post if you want to.

 

[Sue_C.]

Sue I had a couple like that and like you said I would just go "clean it up" but then it got to be a part time job cleaning up posts so I just defriended them. Just not what I want to do everyday or what I want to see.

Yes, there is that, but in most cases, they are still people I want to keep in touch with...so I simply block their posts, but still keep the option of going to their page and keeping in touch with them at MY leisure.

 

[Relic]

l posted on something in the spring on FB and got back a couple of w.t.f. from a couple of people l would never have thought they would think let alone write that...later l was informed and embarressed to learn it meant..

Welcome To Facebook.

 

[wildoak]

I am on facebook, it's been a good way to reconnect with old friends I had lost contact with. And yes, as someone said if I haven't seen someone in 20 years there may have been a reason LOL, but it's still kind of fun to find out what they are up to these days. Doesn't mean we'll be spending every day together.

I delete the drama too, it's strictly entertainment and friend finding for me. I have blocked a few who were offensive and I've blocked farmville and all the game applications. No time for them/no interest.

Jan