Facebook...The Good or the Bad...Your Say!

[blondguy]

Hi Everybody

Without a doubt Facebook is one of the best social media sites. I have been on FB for a long time and found it invaluable yet very stressful at times whilst having anxiety and/or depression or even just checking it every day.

Your views on FB, its impact on your mental health, well being, whether good or not so good are more than welcome.

Thankyou for reading my thread topic!

my kind thoughts

Paul

[blondguy]

Hi Krystalramone

Thanks heaps for the positive vibes....always appreciated Krystal!!

I still dont understand why not one of the Directors and CEO's of Facebook dont have a Facebook account ....There are approx 30+....and they say that its 'their decision under freedom of speech in the US constitution'.

My Kindest

Paul

[Sad_Mushroom]

Hi,

Maybe I can shed light on why FB's Director's and CEO's don't have FB accounts.

FB is and always was an 'advertising' site. It is free because thousands of companies/businesses pay FB to relay "tag words" from posts, to the companies for marketing purposes. (eg. someone mentions in a post they had coffee at Gloria Jeans and hey presto all the coffee companies get a "hint" that you like Gloria Jeans coffee. Sooner or later you and your friends will receive advertising from coffee companies)

The Directors and CEO's don't want the companies/businesses knowing their day to day activities/preferences and they certainly don't want to be named on any marketing lists and receiving unwanted phone calls from someone selling them pet insurance.

With all the warning of Identity theft on the news, people STILL put their real name and date of birth on FB accounts. Which means everyone who can see it now knows your real name, date of birth and where you live. Worse is people then begin drawling out their life story and hey presto, within a few months, your autobiography is online free. FB is about the easiest place for ID thieves to start.

Photo's. People should pay attention to what has happened in America and other parts of the world. How many children have been spied on via FB and then been attacked? Not teenagers putting up their own information but little kids whose parents post photo's of the kids and their names and birthdays etc. Perverts from all over the world scan sites daily looking for photo's etc which they collect and share and some of these perverts become obsessed. The worst thing is, with FB, the obsessed perverts have a non-stop feed of information and photo's of not only the kid but their families and daily life, which the 'experts' tell us makes the pervert feel as if they are being 'welcomed' into the family and loved by the kid. I do adoption/lost person traces and most people I find are found on FB. I generally find them using other means but then look on FB for them to make contact as believe it or not, people are more likely to listen and reply if contacted through FB.

Blocking people is fine but there is nothing stopping those people making another account under a different name then 'friending' you again. Don't give out too many details and don't think ONLY the person you are talking to is watching...hundreds of people could be watching and they aren't all NICE! Use all the privacy settings to keep safe.

[blondguy]

Thankyou Sad_Mushroom for your great post!

All the directors/ceo's of FB had to report to congress in the US and explain why they allowed people under 13 to become members....(as the US has strict laws on age appropriate social media...we dont!) When a congresswoman asked all the directors of FB why not one of them have a FB account they all referred to 'freedom of speech' under the US constitution and they 'chose not to have a account'....unbelievable

If I can thankyou for what you mentioned....

Sad_Mushroom mentioned "With all the warning of Identity theft on the news, people STILL put their real name and date of birth on FB accounts. Which means everyone who can see it now knows your real name, date of birth and where you live. Worse is people then begin drawling out their life story and hey presto, within a few months, your autobiography is online free. FB is about the easiest place for ID thieves to start"

I was on FB for nearly ten years....and then had enough for my own personal reasons....When I tried to quit my membership there are many pages of what Facebook owns....including all text...and photographs that I posted

An interesting Google Search is 'How do I delete my Facebook account' Mine was still there after 2 years

Your clarity is greatly appreciated here Sad_Mushroom and thankyou for the heads up!

My Best

Paul

[Mathy]

Hey all,

I have just been reading this thread.

The age old question, “is FB useful or not?”

A lot of people don’t seem to understand that you can lock the privacy settings very low on FB.

Like many, I learnt the hard way, after making a very oblique remark about something that happened at work. Next day, I was hauled upstairs for a discussion about my FB post. This is in the context of the fact that I do NOT display who I work for, so it was a bit of a beat up on me 🙂

Since then I have done the following:

1. I do not “Friend” anyone from my workplace, unless I know them very well AND we share the same moral and ethical principles - sorry, this means that you have to KNOW who you are going “Friend” on FB, if they are from your workplace.
2. My Privacy settings are locked to “Friends Only” for absolutely every interaction I can have with FB.This includes my posts, my photos and videos. There is plenty of information available on how to do this.
3. Don’t give FB your Mobile number when they ask for “added” security - you are giving away an important piece of personal identification. Your security will be just fine without FB knowing your Mobile contact.

Point #2 above relies on you being a good judge of Friends - because, they can share/repost something from your Timeline.

However, Point #2 does allow you to enjoy the benefits of FB, as it was originally intended.

Hope this is helpful, cheers M 🙂

Lastly, there are “extensions” you can add into your web browser, which block the advertising that is constantly in your face when using FB - just google “FB ad blocker” - and something should pop up for whatever browser you are using.

[blondguy]

Hi Mathy

Its great to have another positive post about Facebook and thankyou for helping out where the privacy controls are concerned.

Mathy mentioned a great point where tracking is concerned "Don’t give FB your Mobile number when they ask for “added” security - you are giving away an important piece of personal identification. Your security will be just fine without FB knowing your Mobile contact"

Thankyou Mathy for your help on this one 🙂

My Best as always

Paul

[Moonstruck]

Hi Paul....

I don't know if this thread is to talk mainly about the technical aspects of F Book, how it works, privacy controls etc....it caught my eye mainly for how it has been affecting me emotionally lately. It sort of crept up on me without noticing it. For a while I only checked in with family, close friends etc...seeing photos of grandkids etc...great to catch up that way.......

then I joined in an organisation with lots of members..who all requested to be my "friend" I agreed of course...they are nice people - no difficulties there......then I realised I was developing the dreaded FOMO...Fear of Missing Out.

They seem to be "going, doing, being with....other fabulous people, always happy and smiling, trying out new cafes etc....going on holidays...meeting up for coffee - some literally have somewhere exciting, fulfilling and lovely people to do these things with Every Single Day......it began to make me feel quite dull and boring.

Where is MY fun times? I felt quite low after reading all their happy times......as I said they are nice people and occasionally I joined in and they welcomed my comments etc.......But I cannot deny, their "beautiful lives" were getting me down...not jealous...but the feeling I was missing out.

I put a note to myself on the fridge saying 'NO FACEBOOK"......to try for a while. After a few days to my amazement I realised my mood had elevated somewhat. I wasn't as depressed....could there be a link?

[CMF]

Moon,

I believe there is a link. Only have relatives and a few friends on fb. I used to see posts from a relative who is divorced but has a new partner. they are always happy and smiling, going away, out for dinner, they spoil each other and put it all on FB. It used to upset me as I thought why couldn't i have met someone like that. I was finding i would post things to make myself look happy or clever or 'useful' even though i was feeling lonely, useless and wishing i had someone who loved me and helped around the house. I was and am proud of my achievements ie building a garden shed, painting the house but why did i feel i needed to share it with relatives i never see?

I don't use it as much anymore. I log on and skip through, don't post much and try to focus on my life and not everyone else's.

[Guest_1584]

l think it'll end up the curse of the modern age.

Sooo much rubbish and bs related to FB. Kids are stressed and growing up with all these fake ideals and pressures from it.The total crap, some of my daughters friends go through with , 2 or 3 of just her friends alone have tried to suicide due to FB stuff, and others have been through hell.

People go in a snoop into business they could never have ever seen or found out about 20yrs ago, into peoples lives and friends nothing to do with them, or people other people know , and then their people and then theirs.Married people track down and follow ex's and before ya know it , boom , she or he is in an affair with them. Sooo many things about that damn thing l despise it an what it does to people with a passion.

l'm not even on it , l refuse , yet still it's managed to near ruin my life 3 or 4 times now, and my daughters.

So yep , big fan of the ol FB.

[blondguy]

Hey Everybody!

Hi Moon 🙂 You have a really good point here. Feeling like I was missing out or 'not being included' was a pain for me too. Having depression/anxiety means we are over sensitized which can be exacerbated by an 'unmoderated' social website like FB.

Moon mentioned "I put a note to myself on the fridge saying 'NO FACEBOOK"......to try
for a while. After a few days to my amazement I realised my mood had
elevated somewhat. I wasn't as depressed....could there be a link?"

I felt the same after closing my FB account....an elevated mood...:-)

Hey CMF, I am with you and felt the same. Having some relatives and 'real' friends is a lot easier on the brain than the competitive nature of being a super active FB user. I found myself checking my account everyday and I thought...what am I doing??

Have a good Sunday x

Paul

[Sad_Mushroom]

Hi all,

I really like Moon's comments.

I have seen more than once people who post nothing but lies on facebook and it aggravates me to no end but apparently if you say anything you are a bad person.

I did join a group. It was advertised as talk relating to a specific breed of dog. Thought that would be great to talk to people with breeds the same as mine but 90% of the posts are about other breeds and mixed breeds (muts) so I kept getting notifications about crap. Then when I asked could we keep the posts limited to 'that' specific breed of dog, that the group was based on, I got abused for "thinking my dog was better than their dog". NO, I joined a group relating to a certain breed and wanted to talk about that breed. Some of the posts were about other pets/animals and had nothing to do with dogs at all.

Hope everyone has a great day. I'm off to work to load the truck...my favourite job believe it or not.

SM