Facebook - to join or not to join

[Thurston Garden]

An old friend visited this weekend. We only see each other about once a year. He was trying to encourage me to sign up to facebook.

Now there's some pretty damming info on tinternet about facebook and security and I am reluctant to sign up because of that, but at the same time I am intrigued about it.

I would be interested in other folks view on facebook - to join or not to join?

TG

[spider8]

I am thinking along the same line as yourself as I don't want to be open to any security problems because of it. I am also extremely curious about the fate of people from my past but.....some out there I most certainly do not want to contact again or let them know where I am etc. Nothing nasty, I just don't want the people who have been pains-in-the-butt to bother me again. So, all in all, I guess I won't bother .

[thesunflowergal]

Lots of us here are on facebook.
Like all things in life you need to be a bit careful. You do not need to put your dob, tel no, location etc on it but some people choose too. There are lots of different setting options, so you do not need to allow anyone other than your friends to view photos or anything about you. So unless I have agreed that someone is my friends, then they can not see anything about me apart from my name and which ever picture I happen to have up at that moment in time.
HTH

[Rosendula]

I'm on there too, but under my real name. If you can't find me and you want to, PM me and I'll send you my link.

Just start off slowly, not putting in any info you're not sure you want to share. Take your time and add a few of us Ishers and get chatting. Once you have found your way around you'll be able to give away a little bit more about yourself, but only to those you want to share it with.

Look forward to chatting with you

[Darroch]

I'm on facebook and I agree with the others, only put the info in that you are comfortable sharing. I have no dob email address, tel no, really nothing personal at all. I post photos but only those that I don't mind who sees! And also very careful to keep up to date with the privacy settings.

I feel I have nothing to hide and nothing all that interesting to say really!

What I've absolutely loved about facebook is that it has allowed me to catch up with almost my whole class from school, which has been great.

[KathyLauren]

Facebook is fine for keeping in touch with people you already know, provided you are careful about what information you make public.

If you are looking to meet new people, it is pretty useless, because almost everyone is careful about what information they make public. You can't tell if someone (even an old school friend you used to know) is someone you want to get in touch with now, because you can't find out anything about them unless you "friend" them first. For meeting new people, forums like this are superior.

I am on Facebook, but I am pretty underwhelmed by it.

[Mrs H]

I am a facebookaholic!!! I hav it on my mobile as well so can update all the time!!! Its a sad life. Its great for keeping in touch with people, I post loads of pics of the kids on and all r friends in kent can view them. As long as u r hot on security I think its ok. I've heard some scary stories but stick with people u know and it will be grand. Goodluck! Xx

[red]

I've chosen not to so far. not that i dont use various tinternet things.. just not found the need for FB

[oldjerry]

I'm not sure what facebook is,but Mrs. OJ seems to turn to it whenever I come up with a new brilliant idea.

[Marmalady]

My 86 yr old mother has just joined facebook - to keep up with what the grandchildren are doing!
We have also managed to get back in touch with some relatives in Argentina we had lost contact with.

Facebook in itself is not bad or dangerous -- it is what people make of it.

As others have said - dont post any more than you want to share with the world. Start off slow -- just post your name and set the privacy at its highest level - then as you get more familiar with it, add more info if you wish or decrease the privacy level.

[Big Al]

Well I'm on facebook and I was really reluctant to join because it was back in the old days of 34 years ago when we wanted to keep in touch with our son who was at uni. Since then I have gone on it very infrequently, deleted the account frequently as "not needed" but then re-introduced it again a few days / weeks later.

As for the security aspect there is a shed load of info out there on the web now these days about all of us and to prove that I reckon I know Thurston Gardens real name and job title. I Also know what high school and university you went to and when. Also where you are now and how long you have been in this job.

I would be interested to know if C ? P means anything to you Thurston Gardens and if it does then the scary part is that it took me less than 6 minutes to find on the internet.

Big al.

[dragonoak]

IMO FB is either a love it or hate it thing. Personally it wasnt for me, i lasted a week and all the old memories of bullying and nastyness came flooding back I didn't like the people at school and I found that I didn't like them 10 years later. Then again, if people were fortunate to have a better school life then me- I really can see the appeal. Try it out for a few weeks, take it slowly and if you decide to stay or go- it's very simple to leave (and re-join after so i'm told :) ).

[boboff]

Agreed, why not try it?

Be as anonomous as possible to begin with.

Some of the games on it are very addictive, bejeweled bllitz is a firm favorite, and recently Tetris Batle has proven a real house work stopper for me and the OH.

Personally I find it good for keeping up with family especially cousins, and letting the GP see pics of the kids.

[Millymollymandy]

How on earth do you find your old school mates if they are female? Most are probably married and if you don't know their married name you are stuffed! Friends Reunited was much better for finding schoolfriends or just to read what they are up to now even if you don't want to be in touch.

I find I am mostly just chatting with people from Ish or the Brittany forums but to be honest I would much rather chat to them on our respective sites. It's a shame some Ishers are only using FB now instead of Ish.

As for privacy, I have nothing there other than a photo of my house for friends to see, and no email address or birthday or anything that even my friends have access to. Non friends have access to nothing - my name and a photo of some flowers.

It was nice to get in touch with some old real friends though, although I've found the majority of non forum people who I know or are related to don't actually USE facebook, apart from maybe once in a blue moon, in which case why the hell did they bother to become friends, or even sign up for it in the first place? To me those are the people I'd most like to chat to!

But I noticed a few function called groups which I haven't had time to explore, which I think is really good, as I find it odd to be talking to ish people, Brittany people and real life people all in the same place. I'd rather keep them compartmentalised where they belong if that makes sense! So I could talk Ishy stuff to the Ishers and French stuff to the Frenchies and private stuff from my real life with my old friends from real life. But that's just me, I'm a private person and not everyone is the same.

[Susie]

It was nice to get in touch with some old real friends though, although I've found the majority of non forum people who I know or are related to don't actually USE facebook, apart from maybe once in a blue moon, in which case why the hell did they bother to become friends, or even sign up for it in the first place?

You see, this is what I'm like, I have facebook and never use it. I'm more a bloggy person. I always worry my facebook friends are thinking, God why does she never update, she is really rubbish value. !

(I do keep in touch with people in real life, though ).