What's your opinion of facebook

[sunnygt]

When used maturely and respectfully, Facebook is an awesome way to keep in touch with people you might not be able to see or talk to regularly. I love seeing what old friends from high school, who I might not hang out with or talk to often, are up to… their babies, wedding photos etc. Of course, you’re always going to have at least one friend who posts annoying, whiny statuses or views that you don’t agree with, but that’s life in general. If you can’t handle it on facebook, I don’t imagine you would handle it well in real life either!

I don’t generally post religious-orientated things on Facebook myself. Just not my style.

 

[LongingSoul]

I have a facebook account but rarely sign into it. I only have 11 friends that are strictly family. Strangely, none of my friends have got into the facebook thing either so I don’t feel left out and I don’t have any great urge to connect with people from the past. It’s just a place that leaves me feeling a bit flat and I do think a lot of people feel validated by seeing their lives in lights like that every day.

 

[Miss_Felicity]

Facebook is such an ingrained piece of my life I’m just used to it. None of my career aspirations either in Marketing or as a writer are really possible without intense social media. What I used to hate beyond reason was twitter but I have even been able to stomach that better than I once did. I have almost 450 friends and strangely I know all of them, I don’t “do” facebook strangers.

I find that if something gets overwhelming, then I log off and do something else or go deal with why I feel that way. I can’t blame the networking tool for how people use it or what my issues or insecurities are. I play fair and tend to run in virtual circles of people who do too.

 

[Nelka]

No interest for me.

My wife does because she found one thing that was good for us poor people. When our children were babies she found groups of women in our area and other areas selling cheap bags of children’s clothes which they no longer needed.

I do know a few women though who have facebook messages sent to their mobile phones, they are obsessed.

 

[ineeda]

I have temporarily de-activated my account. I don;t have a lot of friends, either. I have family, former colleagues,(for professional reasons) and close friends, only.

I like facebook for keeping up with friends that I was once close to, but they moved away.

I don’t like facebook fro when people put their political views on. I usually disagree, but I remain silent.

Also I do not like facebook when people pollute it with selfies. I do feel sorry for those people, as they must have very low self esteem. They are obviously fishing for compliments.

I do not like facebook when a family member puts all of our personal business out there. And, family member uses facebook as a journal. Clearly, they need therapy and not facebook. And, I see many photos of a mother with her child, saying he is her world. It is like she is trying to convince the world. And, what mother does not love her child? Does it need to be announced on facebook.?

So, I like it for a few reasons.

 

[yellowbird]

I love it. I have around 700 friends - family, close friends, distant friends, theater friends, running friends, church friends, school friends. 700 sounds like a lot and occasionally I got through the list looking for people to delete … but I only find one or two. I know and like a LOT of people.

They come from all walks of life - different beliefs politically, socially, spiritually. I’ve never experienced any drama - to each his own.

I post religious stuff sometimes… one friend I know very casually told me that although she’s been away from the Church for a long time, my posts have made her wonder if she should return. That was a good Facebook day.

For me, FB is one big love fest compared to coming to THIS site. I can only take this site in very small doses…

 

[runwaymodel]

I love FB. Any “drama” encountered on there is just part of life. Realize that life may be very good for some people (which OP mentioned made them a bit envious) while others over share information. Welcome to my generation.
But overall I think it’s wonderful because I don’t have any family that lives nearby so that is how we stay in touch. If my mom doesn’t like something I post, she calls me that very day and makes some inquiries, which I think is cute.

 

[pianistclare]

I recently went to a seminar given by a priest on Theology of the Body and he showed us this video entitled “The Innovation of Loneliness”.
Here’s the link:
vimeo.com/70534716

Check it out. I believe it speaks to the point that the OP is making…
Peace

 

[Book_Worm]

That video, while it may be true for some people (I would guess younger ones in general), bears absolutely no resemblance to how my friends and I use Facebook. I have nieces and nephews spread all across the country. FB allows me to see their children and keep up with the minutiae of their daily lives. I feel I know my second great-niece better than her older sister because I got to share in so many of the little moments of her growing-up years.

I keep up with old friends who have moved away. When our town suffered a devastating flood, I posted pictures because I knew they would be interested. I followed a friend and her DH on their long cross-country vacation last year.

We don’t indulge in drama. If a post annoys me, I SOB.

I doubt that I or most of my friends spend more than 15 or 30 minutes on FB every day or so. But I would definitely miss it if it didn’t exist.

But then I’m pretty boring and so are most of my friends.

It’s like so many things in life, pretty much what you want it to be.

 

[GusIsAGirl]

All of my Facebook friends are real life friends and family I’ve known for longer than I have not known them. It is a good way to keep up with family and friends from all across the country. And yes, you can pick up a phone, but you won’t be interacting with multiple friends at once. You don’t HAVE TO be FB friends with anyone from high school. I’m certainly not. Why would you be unless they are people you would have in your unvirtual life?

And sure people are occasionally annoying, but they are in real life too.

 

[Iheartcoffee]

I really like it. I follow a lot of Catholic pages so I have a chance to learn some new things about my Faith just by looking at my news feed most days. I keep in touch with a lot of people that I cannot always see in person as well. I also see it as a great way to evangelize. I frequently re-post things to my wall. By liking something or by re-posting it to my wall it will show up in news feeds. This is a way to spread a message without saying specifically, “Hey you, read about my Faith!”

Recently, I met a really awesome new friend at church. We decided to be facebook friends so we can keep in touch even when we don’t make it to the same Mass to say hi personally.

 

[pianistclare]

That video, while it may be true for some people (I would guess younger ones in general), bears absolutely no resemblance to how my friends and I use Facebook. I have nieces and nephews spread all across the country. FB allows me to see their children and keep up with the minutiae of their daily lives. I feel I know my second great-niece better than her older sister because I got to share in so many of the little moments of her growing-up years.

I keep up with old friends who have moved away. When our town suffered a devastating flood, I posted pictures because I knew they would be interested. I followed a friend and her DH on their long cross-country vacation last year.

We don’t indulge in drama. If a post annoys me, I SOB.

I doubt that I or most of my friends spend more than 15 or 30 minutes on FB every day or so. But I would definitely miss it if it didn’t exist.

But then I’m pretty boring and so are most of my friends.

It’s like so many things in life, pretty much what you want it to be.

Yes, it’s intended (the video clip) as a teaching instrument to make a point about withdrawing from the world to teens.
In our area, we find that mostly middle school kids use facebook…the teens tire of it VERY quickly, and then pick it back up once they are away for college.
Our parish considered a FB page for the Youth Group, but most of the kids said “FB is lame”. LOL

I ended up deleting over 150 of my students who wanted to friend me on FB due to our Diocesan policy about communication with kids. So it’s down to one or two relatives and my college acquaintances.

 

[LongingSoul]

I recently went to a seminar given by a priest on Theology of the Body and he showed us this video entitled “The Innovation of Loneliness”.
Here’s the link:
vimeo.com/70534716

Check it out. I believe it speaks to the point that the OP is making…
Peace

That video articulates exactly what I feel about facebook. My daughter has recently been showing me pictures that have become a facebook trend… of girls posting swimsuit pictures of themselves with the fat on their inside thighs photoshopped out. Apparently that’s the sexy look now. Having a highway sized gap between the thighs. My daughter who is nearly 20, told me she knows intellectually that she shouldn’t take it on board, but having these pictures coming up in her newsfeed everyday makes her feel overweight and ugly. My gosh! My daughter has the loveliest body. She does gym everyday because we live next door to a gym. She is so healthy and rosy cheeked and lovely. It just makes me want to find the facebook plug and pull it and bend the prongs.

The other thing is the degree of affection conveyed. I feel uncomfortable when someone hugs me that wouldn’t do that in the normal course of conversations… even my family. If I said to someone in real life “I just got a scratch on my car door”… very few people I know would hug or kiss me. Sure it is annoying, but it isn’t sad making to that degree. And we don’t say I love you so much as is said on face book when people leave a conversation or just in the middle of one. I feel as though what strange unseen process is happening between the words leaving my keyboard and arriving on the others screen that has caused this overstated burst of affection. I know, I’m sounding like Sheldon, and I’m aware that I am somewhat Aspergers, but I really don’t think that this confusion is from an autistic deficiency in social awareness. Judging by the trauma that facebook causes so many young (and older) people, it has to be at best, an unpredictable filter in the business of communication… at worst, a dangerous distortion.

Ranting over.

 

[TheWarriorMonk]

Facebook is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

It is excellent for networking if one is involved in hobbies, charitable events, etc. It can be helpful for business also, depending on what business one is in.

 

[CAROLOFTHEBELLS]

That video articulates exactly what I feel about facebook. My daughter has recently been showing me pictures that have become a facebook trend… of girls posting swimsuit pictures of themselves with the fat on their inside thighs photoshopped out. Apparently that’s the sexy look now. Having a highway sized gap between the thighs. My daughter who is nearly 20, told me she knows intellectually that she shouldn’t take it on board, but having these pictures coming up in her newsfeed everyday makes her feel overweight and ugly. My gosh! My daughter has the loveliest body. She does gym everyday because we live next door to a gym. She is so healthy and rosy cheeked and lovely. It just makes me want to find the facebook plug and pull it and bend the prongs.

The Dr. Oz Show had a segment about this last week, exposing the trend and interviewing the woman who basically started it. The space between the thighs when standing with legs straight and knees touching is now called “the thigh gap”. The woman wrote a book caleed The Thigh Gap and she tells in the book how she was able to achieve a thigh gap by diet and exercise. She is now something of a “guru” of this new trend to get thinner thighs in that space. I was not impressed by her. She seemed to react like a sales person to the questioning of Dr. Oz. No real substance there.

If girls are photoshopping, that is pretty tame compared to the obsessive need some girls are now feeling to create an ever widening “thigh gap”.

They say youth is wasted on the young. Often young people don’t realize that it is simply their youth that makes them so beautiful. They don’t need to do a thing but to enjoy this time of life.

 

[PaulGH]

Facebook is something I have always avoided like the plague. I just find it impersonal and if I don’t have the time to pick up a phone and call someone to chat, they just aren’t that important to me and not worth keeping in touch with.

With that said and done, years ago a cousin asked me to join. I joined with a fake last name and after a few days just decided it was not for me.

Well, I am bored tonight so I singed in with my fake name and started looking a bunch of people up. And I must admit, it has left me depressed. Everyone is posting pictures that make them look like they have a great life and I started to feel small. Or other people have aged so much over the years, I started feeling superior which in the end is like chocolate. A fun thing in the moment but a horrible sugar crash after.

So, if people could share how they feel about FaceBook, I would appreciate it

Angie

Based on what I have seen other people post on Facebook, when I help my wife with her Facebook account, I have come to two conclusions about Facebook:

1. Facebook encourages and amplifies narcissim. You don’t see as many posts from someone who is humble and who doesn’t like to brag about his or her life, or who doesn’t like to show off, because that person doesn’t post as often. You do see way too many posts from people trying to show off and to impress others.

And people post things to a wide audience on Facebook in ways that they never would have done without Facebook. For example, a woman who we know always posts a picture of her son’s straight-A report card on Facebook for everyone to see, and does other similar things to brag on her kids. I think that this is in poor taste. Years ago, if I or one of my siblings got a good report card, my parents probably bragged a bit to close friends and relatives, but they never would have dreamed of sending a copy of the report card to 500 or 1,000 people, some of whom they barely know, which is essentially what this woman is doing on Facebook.

2. Facebook gives an exaggerated and inflated view of other people’s lives, which can make a person feel inadequate in comparison. For the same reasons mentioned above, the people who try to make their lives look great are the ones who you see the most posts from, while the people who are humble and who don’t want to show off (or who maybe don’t have much to show off about) probably don’t post as much. And without Facebook, you might never know about some acquaintance’s brand new car or nice vacation or whatever. But with Facebook, a person is constantly reminded of such things. So Facebook takes the old concept of “keeping up with the Joneses” to a whole new level.

Those are two of the main reasons why I have avoided getting on Facebook – the other reason being that I think I would waste too much time on it.

 

[Corki]

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I love it for connecting with my far flung band of cousins and for keeping up with things going on at my kids’ schools. I also am on quite a few Catholic pages which is good.

But I got hooked on a game a while ago and it was a big time waster. I also get annoyed with some “friends” and their incessant posting politics, especially politics that goes against my faith (such as pro-abortion or pro-SS"M" rants). I try to keep my own posts light and apolitical.

 

[CAROLOFTHEBELLS]

As I mentioned, I don’t have a Facebook account. My sister, who I live with. will sometimes get annoyed about something on Facebook and share it with me.

The main thing that I see that is strange is mothers of small children posting “this is my life” complaints and bad photos of their home and children, as well as the one person (a 30 something daughter in law of my sister) who constantly gives updates about her pain and then posts photos of her enjoying a night out. “Today I am in so much pain it is almost unbearable.”…photo “me and the band singing last at such and such club last night…good times”. This is the same person who goes to the emergency room four times a month and wants my sister to watch her little girl at the drop of a hat to do so.

I find that I feel the opposite about Facebook making others seem more well off than me. On the contrary, from what I have seen it is a place where some revel in the opportunity to get attention for every little pain they feel and thing they go through. On top of that, I have heard family members gossiping those people and I have found myself judging others. I think without constant Facebook posts there would be less gossip.

Facebook causes people to become stars in our own reality soap operas.

 

[oldgraymare2]

Hi Angie,

Personally, I just don’t care for it. I know how it works, have seen it, have been on it, etc.

Most of my family isn’t even on it. They are all older people, and some have difficulties using a computer.

I prefer to keep in touch with family by phone or regular e-mail or “snail mail.” Those are just my personal preferences.

 

[Ms_Manners]

I like Facebook and use it daily. I have an app on my phone so it’s really easy to post stuff.

I use it primarily as a photo album, a way to share some moments with my friends, and some fun pics. My family lives all over the country and even abroad, so we don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like, this way at least we get to see what the others are doing and somehow we definitely send more messages on Facebook than we ever did emails.

It’s also a great platform for a cat rescue/foster group, it’s not public and we can just post alerts and updates, people see them and respond, we get support if we need it.
I am in one group, but I know of many other who benefit from Facebook in the same way.

There are also some religious pages I have liked, their daily posts help me remember some things, and they have daily Bible quotes and readings.
Some local parishes are also on Facebook, so that’s convenient because I can see their news there. I suggested doing the same for our parish but it wasn’t a priority, although I am sure with all the young people in the neighbourhood I am sure it would have many many likes and followers.

But I don’t take Facebook too seriously, and it definitely isn’t important enough to make me depressed or ruin my marriage.