A millennial who never joined Facebook

[PetraG]

Our family got a Facebook account because it was how the boys’ school communicated about a trip they were on. Besides that, I feel we have missed nothing. We go on vacation; no one knows. I think that is a good thing.

 

[ConfusedLucy]

If I wanted to exchange the level of information I do on social media by phone I’d be spending several hours each day doing so and would probably need a spreadsheet to keep track of it.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

If I wanted to exchange the level of information I do on social media by phone I’d be spending several hours each day doing so and would probably need a spreadsheet to keep track of it.

Exactly. Although I personally know almost everyone I interact with, I have extremely limited telephone and chat time, and some of the interactions revolve more around a charity or animal rescue or prayer group we are involved in together than me calling up an equally busy person to dish about our lives. Our shared interest is really the fact that the person rehabilitates bears or helps children in Syrian war zones, not whether somebody had a good time at a party the night before.

The other good thing about Facebook is that we can use it as our time schedules permit. If I happen to wake up at 2 am, I can read someone’s post from 5 pm the previous day and send them a message back. I can’t really be calling up my buddies at 2 am though, as most of them don’t have the same flexible work schedule I do and they are likely asleep, and I may not even be able to call them at 8 pm my time if they are 6 hours ahead of me and therefore it’s 2 am where they are.

I can see calling or getting together if most of your friends are local, but the vast majority of my friends are not local to me. They are all over the USA, Canada, Europe, and occasionally in other parts of the world.

 

[ConfusedLucy]

I think that’s why some of the older generations don’t see the need for social media, their friends are all local, maybe they have one or two long distance friends that get weekly calls.

 

[christofirst]

I’ve never joined Facebook. My ex-wife is on there and posts regularly. She’s a bit of a provocateur, so there are usually some spirited debates. My older sister in Canada, who is a member, reads my ex’s posts to our mom when she calls home every week. Then my mom tells me what my ex-wife posted the next day when I’m over at her house. It’s all too weird!

 

[Cyril]

The same people I know who are on the band wagon of “Its spybook” ect are the same ones who don’t have an issue bashing Snowden, Manning, DeHart or any other whistle blower.

You cant have it both ways.

Nationalism is a lie, to rebel is to care for people, your government hates you.

 

[J.T.Pauley]

I’ve got it, mainly because there are a ton of people that at least I’m in vague contact with that I wouldn’t even know anymore at all if I didn’t have it, even if it’s just that we acknowledge each other through “likes” or comments. I know that some people would say that’s superficial, but compared to the old days when if you didn’t live in the same town and weren’t close enough friends to talk on the phone regularly you totally lost contact and didn’t even cross each others’ minds for years or decades at a time, I’ll gladly take it. I know some people think if you’re not close enough to talk on the phone or write letters, you’re just as well off losing touch completely, but I dunno, I disagree. Something’s better than nothing, to me, when it comes to keeping up with acquaintances.

The dark side, though, is all the debate and argument, and the fact that on the internet people will openly say inconsiderate things that they’d either not say at all or say a LOT more tactfully face to face. So in that way I think it alienates people from friends and acquaintances they used to like. Double edged sword.

 

[JimG]

I log onto FB occasionally just to see recent photos of family in other cities and get news of weddings. But whenever I log on, it drives me crazy. I’m assaulted with photos of people I don’t even know, strange videos, links to autobiographical blogs which contain way too much info and should be private diaries, political spiels, and ads. Plowing through it for the few things that interest me is irritating. And even for friends and family I refuse to ever click on a “like” button. No point in feeding the data monster.

 

[J.T.Pauley]

I log onto FB occasionally just to see recent photos of family in other cities and get news of weddings. But whenever I log on, it drives me crazy. I’m assaulted with photos of people I don’t even know, strange videos, links to autobiographical blogs which contain way too much info and should be private diaries, political spiels, and ads. Plowing through it for the few things that interest me is irritating.

Just as irritating for me, now FB has an algorithm that filters out the posts of friends and family you haven’t interacted with in any way for a long time. So unless you go to their pages, it won’t necessarily pop up in your news feed, even though other random posts will from pages you’ve never visited.

Meanwhile, I made a page for my music and even if I share a post from it on my personal profile, my friends can’t see it on their Newsfeeds unless they’ve “liked” the Page, because FB flags it as something they haven’t shown enough interest in. This is despite that I’m their friend they interact with regularly on there and the link’s on my actual profile. I know that’s what it is, because if I just upload the same thing directly to my profile instead of sharing it from the page, they see it and respond to it. I’m thinkin’, “C’mon, Facebook!! So if a friend of yours, that you actually know, posts something on his profile from his new page you’ve never visited, FB filters THAT out assuming you must not be interested, but if it’s some random click bait page that nobody has even shared, FB makes sure that shows up all on its own?” Ugh. Definitely flawed.

 

[KS_Housewife]

There will be something better by the time you reach that age. In the meantime, AVOID. Several years ago, my other half signed up for it to monitor our teenager’s usage. When we decided to quite FB, it took many months of attempts and a complaint to the California Attorney General to finally get them to truly delete the account. Also, plenty already posted about its true nature as a data and info gathering tool.