Let's try and get 1,000,000 replies to this post

I would be really bummed if Facebook suddenly dropped off the face of the earth that is the best way for me to keep in contact with friends and family I don't see on a regular basis but at the same time, there are always other social network sites to go to if that were to happen so it's not a complete loss.
 
In principle it's a good thing but the way that some people use it put me off from the start. I used to know someone who would sit in a group of people constantly updating Facebook on his phone and reading loads of crap on it. It got so bad that someone else went on her phone to say to him on Facebook that he was being really rude. The whole event organising thing seems to be pretty good but ultimately you can just tell people when a party is. Facebook has destroyed real communication and it's hard to get to know someone properly now because people just look each other up on Facebook.
 
I like it because my friends and family are scattered all over the country, several have young children and don't travel much, and a couple live abroad. But we can all be part of one conversation on FB. I can also keep in touch with people I know through a couple of hobbies I'm involved in. I've also met a few people on FB that I'd probably never have come across offline, and I'd miss those conversations. Not to mentioned getting back in touch with people who I've accidentally lost touch with, after school/university etc.
 
Of course there are positive and negatives of Facebook, just like with everything else. It also depends on the user. Some people use it practically and some don't.
 
I have a Facebook account, but I'm literally never on it; certainly haven't been on it this year. I agree broadly with what BW says. It would make no difference to me if it disappeared tomorrow.
 
I dislike Facebook. It has its positives but nah. Glad I closed my account two years ago. If there's a meet up to be created or someone wants to communicate with me, they can use their phones.
 
The thing is - wouldn't a thing like this have appeared anyway? If Zuckerberg hadn't invented it, it is likely someone else would. If you think about it: A "forum" where you can socialize with many friends at once, arrange get-togethers and discuss stuff, was always going to be useful. The Internet technology was well in place, with server capacity large enough to allow people to share photos et cetera. Something would have appeared.

Remember that Linkedin had already existed for years. Facebook can be seen as the "casual" counterpart to the more "professional" Linkedin. Somebody would come up with it.

The fact that it can be misused, is due to it being used by all kinds of people. Remember, half the world's population has below average intelligence :D One fifth or so have to be downright stupid! For example, I can't say I was impressed by everything that popped up in the early evening of July 22th, 2011. Several people ended up on my "ignore" list that day.
 
I remember being at school and being the social outcast because I spent my evenings on the internet. Now I'm the social outcast because I'm not on the right part of the internet. People I used to hang out with stopped even sending texts of "Coming down to the pub?" or even just stopping by my house on their way past, saw them there one day by chance and they asked where I'd been and why I never came out any more, "we always post on facebook before coming out!". Once they adopted it they just assumed all others had.

Personally, I dislike it as an incredibly passive way to keep up with your friends. Log on, read a list of what usually consists of status texts, update your own, log out. Gone are the days of meeting someone and asking what they've been up to, you already know due to 5 word tags. I really dislike the fact that I can be tagged in pictures that other people have uploaded. I could see it have a use for reconnecting with people you've lost touch with (particularly if it was on bad terms, as the "someone you know" alert can help you determine if they are receptive without actually messaging them) but that's probably it.

It's an incredibly intrusive website, for a long time it was impossible to DELETE an account only disable, iirc they were legally forced to change it. Any website with a facebook 'like' button on it will access cookies, and track where you have been, feeding the information back to facebook, which can then be combined to other websites that have tie-in's, facebook from phones can use this to actually map your whereabouts in the real-world and feed it to tracking. There was something a few years back if I recall that they were scanning every private message for a mention of failbook and blocking the entire message from being received which got them quite a bit of flak. I think the worst I've seen reported was that if someone tried to friend you, they changed the options to 'Yes' and 'Not Now', there was no decline option, and the 'Not Now' still allowed viewing access to the majority of your profile. Blergh, it provides a lot of entertainment to a lot of people so I cannot condemn it, but I certainly won't be using it any time soon (which will probably please employers).
 
Dr. Eddies Wingman said:
The thing is - wouldn't a thing like this have appeared anyway? If Zuckerberg hadn't invented it, it is likely someone else would.
Click to expand...

"If you were the inventors of Facebook, then you would have invented Facebook." -The Social Network

Quit whining, you kids, and get on Tinder (or Grinder, if that's your thing). Goodness gracious, you don't know how good you've got it these days.
 
Off looking for a new job. Kinda hard this time, I like where I work. However, the project I was brought in to do is pretty much done. So, it is in keep the system up and make small tweaks mode, which while easy, is pretty fucking boring. I like building new things. In the past, I was pretty much fed up with where I was and it was easy to leave, not so much now.
 
That is one option :) Actually I do a decent amount of work on the side as it is. I wish I had more so I could just do that.
 
Hell fucking yes LC!

It's a me,
jubiN4i.gif
 
Thousands of feet march to the beat
It's an army on the march
Long way from home
Paying the price in young men's lives

Thousands of feet march to the beat
It's an army in despair
Knee deep in mud
Stuck in a trench, no way out
 
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