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 Everyone!.... new posters are always welcome too as we all need a fresh set of eyes:-)

Hey CMF..EM...Sleepy21.....thankyou for helping out with your heartfelt posts! I found the term 'friends' difficult to understand when I was on FB yet I understand a lot of people find FB super helpful too

Sleepy21 mentioned ' I just have an addictive side to my personality and felt that the constant churning of information, gossip, news - was too much for me' Same with myself....I found myself checking my FB too often

I hope everyone is doing okay!

Paul

[Littlebluescent]

Hi,

I just saw this thread and thought I'd respond because I've been struggling with facebook a lot lately. I have a love hate relationship with it. My biggest struggle at the moment is checking in on my ex gf and it seems to put me in a bit of a funk. I've deleted the app off my phone and over the years, I've deactivated my account, but it is so hard to completely get rid of it since I use it mainly to contact family and friends. I know everyone only posts their best selves on there and it can be quite easy to trap ourselves in the negative thinking and feeling as though we aren't achieving anything. I look at my life and I am achieving so much but it doesn't feel that way in comparison. I do have to remember that facebook isn't real life and it is basically a reel of people's lives. I think at times it can be a really hurtful and damaging place because what people post aren't entirely aligned with what's going on in their life. It's also a tough place to be when we're going through grief or a break up etc.

I can relate to being too addicted to it. Almost like an obsession. I really wish I could delete my account entirely, which I have tried before and failed. I was off it for a good while and then jumped back on it because my support group was on there. Sometimes I wish facebook didn't exist.

[quirkywords]

Littleblue scent

thanks for your post that many will relate to. For some Facebook has a good side as it makes us feel connected with friends and family. However there are many like you for whom Facebook is complicated and the love hate relationship can cause many problems.
it can make things worse and create more negative feelings or make one feel inadequate compared to all the happy people who seem to have great lives.

fir some they reduce contact with Facebook and others have to cle down their account and remove all contact.

if you read some of the posts here you will find how others have coped.

feel free to post here when you want to.

[blondguy]

Hi Littlebluescent (and a wave of appreciation to Quirky for the ongoing support across the forums)

Its always a bonus to have a fresh point of view and thankyou for yours 🙂

You mentioned ' I look at my life and I am achieving so much but it doesn't feel that way in comparison. I do have to remember that facebook isn't real life and it is basically a reel of people's lives'

Just for myself I found Facebook helpful for a few months (with the privacy controls enabled) until I found myself checking it lot...so I cancelled it years ago as like yourself my achievements came first

Thankyou again for your heartfelt feedback Littlebluescent. I hope you can stick around the forums....only if and when you wish of course 🙂

have a good weekend...Paul

[Guest_1584]

Hi one and all.

Just wanted to ask some FB questions actually , because l opened a dummy acc over the wkend so that l can use the buy swap sell.

l had to use my real ph no though bc it says it must send u a code to complete the reg. l didn't wanna put it in hated the idea but l couldn't find any other way it wouldn't reg me if l didn't, well as far as l could tell.. ls my ph number safe with fb ? will anyone else see it, or will fb give it to spam lists ?

Also , what's with friend requests .? l've got absolutely nothing on it , just a fake name and that's it, no pics no info, nothing. But yet in just 24hrs l've got 2 friend requests So wth are people sending me friend requests ?

Thanks for any tips . rx

[blondguy]

Hey RX....always great to see you!

my brother uses FB for buy swap & sell and hasnt had any issues with his phone number....I know that Quirky is a fan of FB..Sorry about the dumb reply RX

The phone number couldnt be displayed on FB...It would have to be like Gumtree where people have to log in before having access to your number. I seriously doubt your cell phone number would be listed publicly as the buy swap/sell thread would cease to exist

I hope someone can post a better answer to RX's post (above)

my best always RX!

Paul

[Guest_1643]

hey rx

agree with Paul that you can't see the phone number anywhere but there is a way that people who are already facebook users can type your phone number into the search bar - and ur profile will show up. The phone number and profile are linked. You can remove this though - there is an option in settings somewhere where you can make it so that your phone number won't allow people to find your profiel - I'll try look for a link on how to do it. I'm not sure if this has changed but this info is about a year old... i closed my facebook so it could've cchanged

[Guest_1643]

I think they may have changed this... but i think fb has an info page "how do i control who can look me up on fb using my email and phone number" which has the current info.
I think generally it should be pretty safe. The only annying thing is if you decide to close down the facebook account, they hold onto it for 30 days in case you change your mind (instagram doesn't do this - they'll allow you to permenantly shut down your account... immediately, no issues). It's a bit sneaky. They try and hold you there although when I closed my account I just put it at the back of my mind and focussed on other things... and wasn't tempted to reactivate within the 30 day grace period they give you. If you log in once during that time, you have to start the whole 30 day thing again.

[blondguy]

Hey Sleepy21

thankyou for jumping in and helping out 🙂

you are a legend!

my kindest always

Paul

[Guest_1584]

Great stuff thanks a heap Paul and sleepy.

Tell ya what though , that damn thing is just as plain creepy as it was 7yrs ago the last time l opened one, closed it a wk or 2 later.

l have nothing on it , no info , nothing , not even the right name, you would think l couldn't do anything on it and have no rights whatsoever. Yet l just typed in someones name l haven't seen in 6yrs , boom , there they were , large as life. Latest pics, chats with friends , from their page if l wanted to l could've snooped forever . Friends of theirs l use to know, then friends of theirs, and theirs , or anyone else l wanted to snoop on even if l didn't know them.

Nope l'm not snooping on anyone else l felt guilty and revolted just looking at that one, just tested it that's all, but the mid just boggles ! rx.