how many of you like FACEBOOK ?

[r055]

I don't envy you Campbell and all of you parents to younger children.
We work on school/ education sector and very closely with ICT providers that have started pushing out the whole social networking through the virtual learning environment.

The whole 'bully' button on Facebook is a worry. I wouldn't want my kids on it as they can sometimes be really cruel and at that impressionable age those who wouldn't normally be classing themselves as one are becoming one. With no face to face dialogue it hard to judge at a young age what's acceptable and what's not.

I use it for fun mainly. I try and store very little personal info on it.

What's interesting though is the amount of negatives against it, with the poll in favour of it!
I'm so disgusted I'm going to write a status update to describe how I'm feeling!!!

[rossybee]

Campbell - sharing your luddite pride (but admit to curiosity getting the better of me - and as said earlier on this thread - binned shortly after)

Ref your point with the kids - are you aware that "legally" FB is not available for under 13s (my elder bairn Sophie will be 13 in September)?

She is not remotely interested in it as we have had no demands to create an account which suits us fine - she moans about school friends (she is in 1st year so big changes socially) who spend lunchtimes glued to their blackberries on FB like nothing else matters

I'm happy with her being contented enough with texting her pals, or even (shock horror) PICKING UP THE PHONE AND SPEAKING TO THEM!!!

Fully appreciate though that she might want to get on FB eventually, but we have no desire to force it upon her.

[Skyenet]

At times I thought some posts on this thread were from a script for Grumpy Old Men

Forget Email and Mobiles, I was around when the only way you could stay in touch with people was by letter as hardly anybody had landlines. So to me Facebook is a great toolbox of Features for Socialising. Like my own toolbox there are some tools I would never use and some I would hate to be without.

Some people talk about all the Marketing and security but I have never had any marketing emails or phone calls that have come from my details on Facebook in all the time I have used it, so in my opinion somebody has just been duped by Media Hype more than marketing Hype. I have had scam emails from Play.com and M&S Security breaches though, thought I could trust M&S more than Facebook to look after my deatils

In fact many non Facebookers seem to fall for negative Facebook Media Hype. Like most things I try things out first, and then make my own mind up. My cousin and his wife think its all bad and won't let their kids on it or do it themselves despite the rest of our small family being on it. Its a shame as they miss out on so much news and keeping up to date on what everybody does. Their daughter is desperate to get on after Skye showed her Facebook when we were last down visiting them. As well as Facebook, I publish photos on my MobileMe gallery so at least they can see them if they want.

I like it for being able to keep up with the adventures, interests and achievements of friends and family. Sometimes just to view and sometimes to actually join in and comment. I have rekindled friendships (one from 45 years ago) and made many new ones. I have found folk with similar interests and that has lead to a more active social life. It was fantastic when Skye and I were touring around Europe last year on the motorbike and posting up photos and video of our adventures. Comments from friends made us feel as we were really sharing out travels with loads of people. I also love seeing Video and photos of people from around the World. I also like the way folk find obscure or funny stuff and share it on their profiles, love some of the stuff that I have come across.

I have posted up news and photos on STV Locals Facebook site and many have ended up in there main site. There was loads of Police and helicopters around a week ago here and within minutes of getting in I was able to find out through Facebook what had happened. STV contacted me through Facebook to see if I knew what was happening as they had seen a Photo I had just taken and posted up of a police Helicopter with its searchlight on circling overhead.

Skye had some hassle with it with school friends but I just copied a chat session in which one girl threatened to beat up another and sent it to the school. The girl responsible had no idea that this could be done and the Police who were in visiting the school at the time told all the kids that they would be actively monitoring the situation. Result, no more problems since then.

Facebook Apps and Games don't interest me (well some might but don't have the time to get interested) and just remove and block any that are posted to me. Rarely get any now. Personally I wouldn't have my location continually posted to my profile but that could be because people didn't realise that Facebook changed some setting and some defaulted to stuff like showing your location.

So I LIKE Facebook, yes it could be better and there are bits I don't like, but I think its an improvement on all the other ways of online communication and socialising. And if you don't like it your welcome to go and use your pen and paper.

[Skyenet]

Ref your point with the kids - are you aware that "legally" FB is not available for under 13s (my elder bairn Sophie will be 13 in September)?

SKye is also 13 in September, but I actively monitor her Facebook and all notifications come to my email address so will let her loose when she is 13. She also has some restrictions on which computer she can use to access it and how long she can be on it for.

I do think one of the biggest down sides of Facebook is that it can become quite addictive for some folk, but then so can other Social stuff. I can remember years ago in Livingston when CB radios was the in thing and some folk were on it all night talking to their pals as if they were the only people on the radiowaves

Personally I hardly ever use Facebook Chat, but SKye loves it. Its just like text messages, I would rather just ring the person up and speak to them.

[rossybee]

Further to my last post, I'm very surprised that the pro-facebookers don't outnumber the anti-FB brigade by a far greater margin....

[Skyenet]

Further to my last post, I'm very surprised that the pro-facebookers don't outnumber the anti-FB brigade by a far greater margin....

Is Facebook on the SE COOL wall or not ?

[campbell]

Further to my last post, I'm very surprised that the pro-facebookers don't outnumber the anti-FB brigade by a far greater margin....

they're all busy FB'ing each other instead of using a 90s tech like a BBS forum

I think Iain touched on my biggest worry...distraction! It's all I can do to keep SE time in perspective.

Anyway like I say at some point a "killer need" will emerge and I'll no doubt sign up but for now, I will indeed use my pen and paper, the electric telephone, and the occasional face to face visit

I did a holiday blog through Google Blogger and Picasa, and that did fine for keepig people up to date with our big trip to Florida. Will do the same on certain occasions in future I think. One step at a time for me!

[renmure]

I can remember years ago in Livingston when CB radios was the in thing and some folk were on it all night talking to their pals as if they were the only people on the radiowaves

I remember having a CB radio in my green Ford Capri
"Breaker Breaker 1-9 .. this is the Green Goblin .. do you copy?" .. beep!!

Facebook... I quite like it.
I have kept in touch with more friends and family through it over the past year or so than I ever did in the previous dozen years.

[robin]

My problem with Facebook is that I don't know what to say, and so say nothing (that's the kind of guy I am ). Unfortunately not everyone is like me (or perhaps fortunately for those wishing stimulation at any cost).

Sure you can block people, but what's the point ... why are they shouting at me in the first place? The model is bust - it assumes that broadcast is the right model, and it just isn't; so instead you need to develop sub-optimal filters, etc., to manage the noise. It's a bit like your television playing all channels at once and then you trying to extract just one channel from it.

I am rarely in favour of censorship; more than happy for people to surf at work, etc., but I get the distinct impression that people leave FB windows open at all times and are constantly flicking in and out of it. This cannot be good for concentration and productivity and in an ideal world I would like the people I work with not to use it during the day, though of course I'm happy for them to do what they like in their own time.

Failbook, on the other hand, is good reading.

Cheers,
Robin

[rossybee]

Ref your point with the kids - are you aware that "legally" FB is not available for under 13s (my elder bairn Sophie will be 13 in September)?

SKye is also 13 in September, but I actively monitor her Facebook and all notifications come to my email address so will let her loose when she is 13. She also has some restrictions on which computer she can use to access it and how long she can be on it for.

Iain - just to clarify - I wasn't inferring that parents who allowed their children to use FB before 13 yrs old were all irresponsible, as you have indicated some form of control

My comment was made just in case Campbell wasn't aware of the fact

[rossybee]

My problem with Facebook is that I don't know what to say, and so say nothing (that's the kind of guy I am ). Unfortunately not everyone is like me (or perhaps fortunately for those wishing stimulation at any cost).

Sure you can block people, but what's the point ... why are they shouting at me in the first place? The model is bust - it assumes that broadcast is the right model, and it just isn't; so instead you need to develop sub-optimal filters, etc., to manage the noise. It's a bit like your television playing all channels at once and then you trying to extract just one channel from it.

Brilliant analogy

[S111Y TT]

My problem with Facebook is that I don't know what to say, and so say nothing (that's the kind of guy I am ). Unfortunately not everyone is like me (or perhaps fortunately for those wishing stimulation at any cost).

Sure you can block people, but what's the point ... why are they shouting at me in the first place? The model is bust - it assumes that broadcast is the right model, and it just isn't; so instead you need to develop sub-optimal filters, etc., to manage the noise. It's a bit like your television playing all channels at once and then you trying to extract just one channel from it.

I am rarely in favour of censorship; more than happy for people to surf at work, etc., but I get the distinct impression that people leave FB windows open at all times and are constantly flicking in and out of it. This cannot be good for concentration and productivity and in an ideal world I would like the people I work with not to use it during the day, though of course I'm happy for them to do what they like in their own time.

Failbook, on the other hand, is good reading.

Cheers,
Robin

No arguments with any of that and that is from someone pro-facebook. Maybe you should be involved in the building of the next social network.

[PhilA]

same as msn - no need to block it. its a contacts list.
if the folk you work with cant do their work - then thats a different problem.
blocking a communication device, such as FB or messenger, is a problem in my eyes.

one of my friends is a contact on msn. msn is banned at my work, but i still go on it.
if it were not for him and I bouncing ideas off each other we would be alot less productive as the skills and knowledge are not available in the company - its a benefit to the company that we use msn.

you could argue the same with smokers who go outside 4 or 6 times a day for 10 mins min at a time - thats an hour gone in the day. if they still meet their targets, then no issue.

i am and have been in charge of staff at work and i never ban anything. others in the company have banned things. productivity and moral on my side of the company was higher. if they were taking longer than I thought was acceptable, which has rarely been the case, then i speak to them to ask why.
the kind of person i like to work with is someone who has respect for their professional record and does their best because they want to.

[robin]

Maybe you should be involved in the building of the next social network.

I can just see it now.

You get a black screen with a blinking cursor (for those with limited imagination, click start->run... and then type "cmd<enter>" ).

There are 100's of two letter commands that you use to find out who is online, talk to some well defined subset of them; you can have any message processing rules you like because you can write your own filters in a language that's built in to the interface .... you can leave behind avatars (some more programs that you have to write) that will react to events (e.g. somebody you're trying to get in touch with comes online while you're asleep) ... there are no pictures, movies, animated smilies, etc., etc. ... there is smart threading so that you can easily reorganize the noise into patterns and signals that you can stack (humans operate best with stacks). You don't have to have a beard to use it, but it probably helps.

Cheers,
Robin

[r055]

Failbook, on the other hand, is good reading.

Cheers,
Robin

If its the same as Lamebook, then