This subject came up in another thread and I began to ramble.  I thought my thougts would be better placed here and not hijack the other thread:


Actually, if you have kids or grandkids in the teens to twenty somethings, you ought to get on facebook.  It is what you make of it.  You can waste a lot of time on it if you want to.... or not.

Me I don't go in for all those Farmville like games.  THOSE are the time wasters.  I use it as a communication device.  In a lot of ways it is a lot better than emailing.  I have been able to communicate with my kids and grandkids who live far away and some not so far away.  I've also been able to get to know some nieces and nephews better than I had known them before. 

When you register, just be sure to:
[list bull-greenball]

Lie about your birth date.  This is one of just two pieces of information identity thieves need to mess you up.  The other is the last four digits of your Social Security number.  The first three are defined by the state where you received your number (most still live in that state).  So if the bad guys know your current state of abode, that narrows it down from a possibility of 999 to just a hand full.  The center two digits can be deduced by your county of registration.  Again, this can  be deduced fairly quickly.  If you give up your last four, the bad guys can fairly quickly figure out the rest.

Set your privacy settings to maximum.

Don't acknowledge familial relationships when family members try to establish them.  While I love my family members and would gladly tell friends who my nieces, nephews and such are, I won't do it in this possibly public place where you don't know WHO is going to use that information.  Especially if you use grandkids' names or your mother's maiden name as a password or a verification question to re-set any password you may use on the computer or on the net.

Don't assume anything your posts are private, i.e., [list bull-greenarrow]

Don't say anything that would hurt anyone's feelings, or embarrass your mother.  Advertisers also glean your posts for demographic profiling so they can tailor the advertisements.  If they can look at your 'private' conversations, who else can?

Don't put up a lot of personal information, like hobbies, where you graduated and such.

Above all, act like somebody.
[list bull-redball]

Don't use MySpace.  The advertisements will embarrass you. :-[/list] 

So whats so bad about Facebook?
I believe all your warnings answers that question pretty good for me Pierre.
Why would I go somewhere and have to lie on just about everything to protect my identity?

My only relatives are a brother and sister-in-law, and we prefer talking on the phone. I'm actually both shy and a bit anti-social, so I don't care for what is known as social networking. Plus, I believe I'm an honest person, so I'd rather not be a part of a site like Face Book that sounds like it's nothing but one lie after another. Plus I have about a dozen assorted forums I visit every day, so I don't have the time or desire to spend on Face Book.

I spend more than enough time on the web (I'm a software developer), and I have a Facebook account but rarely bother accessing it. For me, trying to communicate anything of value amidst the status updates and wall conversations is analogous to attempting a conversation at a rock concert. However, I can understand wanting to get in touch with young relatives on their "own territory".

I can tolerate Google Plus much better, but only because I have far fewer G+ friends of whom to keep track.

There's nothing bad about Facebook, unless you allow it to be.  It sure isn't about one lie after another.  That's just a stupid statement.  Long lost friends, family members, classmates have been reunited because of Facebook.  Most people don't post the year they were born, but they will post the day and month so your friends and family will get reminders that it's your birthday so as to send you birthday wishes, well wishes, prayer requests, or just to chat with old friends and reconnect.

It's as private as you want it to be, or not.  A LOT of criminals have been located using Facebook, including terrorists worldwide!  Law Enforcement uses FB every day.

Facebook is a nice way to communicate with old friends and make new friends. Briscoe is right, if you don't want to release a lot of personal info, then don't. It's totally up to you. But I love talking to old high school friends, college friends, people from other cities I've lived in, and so on. I really do like it, just not chit chatting on it. I have friends who put their phone numbers up and some who don't put their birthdays up, so it's just up to you!! Give it a try  before you decide!

I don't like facebook because it has a high infection attempt rate of viruses,too many tracking cookies and I know too many who air all their drama laden dirty laundry on it.

I watched a 20s something couple  last year standing face to face having a marital spat via FB on their smartphones with IQs higher than theirs combined and when one of their fathers happened to read their facebook pages on his office PC, he walked into the parking lot of his office where they were "screaming their thumbs off", took both their phones and threw for distance into the pond beside his office.

As he walked back into his office he saw us watching on his security camera and told us that technology was making his son and daughter in law less productive than they were naturally and since he paid for their "smarty pants phones" on his plan it was his privelage to toss them into the pond and he was sick and tired of always hearing silly ringtones and text chimes.

As he walked out into the manufacturing area of his business , those of us with dumb phones who ironically were there to share his morning break to watch TAGS and chew the fat for a bit all turned off our phones just in case he was still rolling when he came back in for the next TAGS episode.

I agreed with him when he cooled down and said too many folks are getting to where they cant carry on an intelligent conversation because of all the typing now going on now and typing should just be an occasional  thing to kill time when at home with nothing to do.

Speaking of typing, the local elementary school in my town now only teaches cursive as an elective class.

I've never been on it, but I just don't like being present on some type of deal on the internet. (With the exception of being a member here in Mayberry).  I don't have anything to hide, but for some reason, I just feel that it could be used by the wrong folks to perhaps violate my privacy.  And I may be wrong about that.  But that's just my first instinct.  It may be just fine, but I prefer to talk on the telephone to my buddies, or even write a letter and send it by "snail mail". 

Yup, some schools have already stopped teaching cursive. Cursive has gone the way of Grieg Short Hand



"Screaming their thumbs off"  ;D  Funny... but not in this context.   :-[



Yeah, Dad did the right thing.  Seems the two married's will have to CONVERSE WITH EACH OTHER for a while.  Also, I'd get the kids a new, bare bones TracFone and a shirt pocket date calendar.