Who has a FB account? Who doesn't, and why do or don't you have one?

[SerCay]

I'm curious, little research project of myself into social media madness, trying to figure out whether it really IS impossible to have a complete life without it or not..

 

Those of you who do have an account, what are your reasons and those who don't...what are yours?

[ASG]

I do. Reason? Because I actually love it. It's great to keep in touch with people I wouldn't otherwise see or hear about.

 

Also, I moved abroad, so this is an easy way to keep in touch with friends and family back home.

 

Not to mention the ease of organising events now!

 

My brother does not have one and while his life is not incomplete, he does miss out on some things, as he doesn't get invited to things purely because he's not on FB and people forget to invite him.

[Emilia]

Of course you can have a complete life with or without.

 

I have one because I've met people while travelling that I want to keep in touch with and they live in different parts of the world. I like seeing what goes on in their lives.

[Frank13]

I've never had one and never will. I am not so narcissistic as to faslely believe that other people care about my life, and if they did, I wouldn't want them stalking me.

 

Also Facebook violates your privacy, but narcissistic people are willing to put up with it to have a bunch of fake friends they have never met, just to look popular in their own mind.

 

Email, texting, and phone allow you to keep in touch with family and friends. They don't have time to wade through your Facebook page.

[rester]

I have one and stopped looking at it about a year ago. I don't like how people inflate and exaggerate their lives just for the attention. I've also seen a lot of good friends use it as a way to pretend to be someone they are not, rather than show people who they really are. It gives me the creeps.

 

I suppose I just don't find it to be very real. I prefer real life interactions.

[stillafool]

I don't and never will. I'm way too private for that sort of thing.

[CaliGypsy]

I have it, I enjoy it. A lot of my family lives on the East coast and my older son lives in WA and it's a fun way to interact. I like the photos people share, the funny memes and yes, the really dumb quizzes. I'm a fan of a couple of my favorite authors and I enjoy reading things they share as well.

 

I don't think that there is anything wrong with not having it either. Personal choice for the individual.

[Timshel]

Deactivated mine. No FB, no OLD, no Twitter, Instagram, NADA.

 

Of course I'm a weirdo but I'm happy. It's Famalia, close friends, work and you's.

 

I read a lot too, hard copy and kindle.

[Toodaloo]

I have one.

 

I deactivated it and didn't miss it at all. I emailed and phoned friends etc. yes it was harder work for them but we actually spoke more.

 

I reactivated it as many of my friends missed my little comments and dittys that I would put up. After about the 20- 25th person asked I logged back on.

 

My reasons for deactivating were that I was sick to death of people using others happy memories to take the pee and be mean using the excuse of "its just Facebook" as their reason for setting up groups that were basically to bully and belittle others. I also had a stalker who was using it to track where I was going to be so harmless comments during a chat about a photo (are you still coming round for supper tonight? you haven't forgotten your doctors appointment have you?) etc gave him indications of where I was going to be.

 

I don't go on often. Its great to see peoples pictures and stuff and others are still missing my little notes and dittys as I just can't get back "into" it. Its a communication tool for me now for a select few. My privacy settings are pretty strict and I reduced the number of "friends" drastically when I reactivated.

[SerCay]

I think I tend to side with the group not having an account.

 

Of course it's great fun chatting with friends, commenting on pics etc, and my uni posts info that I find out instantly through there.

 

But I also get annoyed....the fakery annoys me to death.

It just doesn't concern me what people have had in the restaurant they went to..it also annoys me when I see the 10th selfie in a day coming by..

 

I just cannot see the importance of showing that to others?

 

Then I come to 1 conclusion...likes equal validation in general, nowadays.

 

Am I wrong?

 

 

(I'm talking about the majority of FB'ers not ALL of them, before I get attacked here )

[ltjg45]

I have a FB account but I operate my everyday life as though I don't have one.

 

I hasn't posted anything directly on my FB account in for over 2 years now. Anything else that appears on my timeline after January 2013 came from me posting on other sites.

 

As for what my account is good for now, it is only there to play FB games and maybe do business with trading cards. Outside of that, I might as well deactivate it.

[dichotomy]

Up until last year, never had one, did not want one. Too many issues, including FB's role in infidelity. However, the reason I got on was that a new major activity/hobby/interest of mine uses this to communicate and share information with my fellow members. I use it primarily for this reason, but find it otherwise an unhealthy thing.

[Michelle ma Belle]

I have one but have been seriously thinking of deleting it.

 

Like anything new, I was obsessed with it in the beginning (many years ago now) and friended anyone I found or who asked. After a while and some life experiences later I realized just how shallow and cruel and deceiving ALL social media can be.

 

I've since done multiple clean ups of my friend list over the years and have become VERY selective about who I actually friend, have my privacy settings set at the max and block/hide most of my friends postings so I'm not bombarded with the daily rantings of what they had for dinner the night before. Ugh.

 

As for WHY I have it/keep it, it's really for two simple reasons; I need a Facebook account for work purposes (although I'm looking into seeing if this policy really is necessary) AND I have a lot of family and good friends who live far away and this really does make it easier to stay and feel connected despite the distance.

 

As for having a life, you absolutely can have a life and be on social media BUT it may take a concentrated effort. Unfortunately, many people (especially younger generation) don't seem to have that kind of discipline and/or feel lost without that kind of constant connection to someone or something.

[carhill]

I've never had a Facebook account, though I've used the internet for nearly 20 years now. I connect socially with people in real life. I participate in hobby forums to discuss hobbies and socialize with some of those people in real life. While married, due to my then wife's interests, mainly in music and musical artist tours, I established a social media presence on MySpace back when such stuff was in its infancy for us to better connect with that particular group of people.

 

These days, I simply don't have the time nor interest in being 'popular'. I have a commercial web site that is easy to update with any stuff I have going on. That's pretty much it. I get periodic 'invites' from FB due to them data mining friend's and colleagues and past ex'es, etc, e-mail accounts. Pass.

[AVarma]

I used to have it and deleted it. I mean who needs 1000 "friends" anyway?

[Lokin4AReason]

I have one to keep in touch w/ family aboard.

 

 

besides that I just post dumb photo(s) daily on it ( at whatever I find on the web )

 

 

I just don't take it serious being on there. all I noticed w/ that site, is people slapping up selfies and commenting on drama ( at what they post on their profile ). =0/

[Ieris]

I stopped using Facebook 4 years ago and don't miss it. I didn't post much up and wasn't really interested in looking at other peoples' pages either so it didn't affect my life much when I stopped using it.

 

It's funny though when you meet someone new and they ask to add you on Facebook, when you tell them you don't have one they look at you like you've just crawled out under a rock

[JPMC]

Deleted mine 4 years ago and never looked back. Garbage

[SpiralOut]

I have one. I mostly use it for playing fairy farm (yes I know that's sad) and for clicking "like" on things. The fitness group I'm a part of just switched from Meetup.com to the facebook group in order to save costs, which is kind of annoying. If I want to see their events I need to log in. I guess I'll keep doing that until I know people well enough to have their cell numbers and make plans with people outside of the group. I'm still trying to make more friends (real ones, not FB ones!)

[sportygirl89]

My academic program uses a lot on facebook such as the group settings. It's more efficient then sending out an email and everyone else probably has that question as well. My church uses facebook for social events. So it is nice or I would miss out on it. I am trying to not use it as much during the day (more to improve my study habits/time).

[Keith1970]

I have one. I love getting in touch with old and new friends. It's what you make of it. I have friends all over the world. 15 years ago, I would sometimes sit and wonder what so and so was doing now and I sure missed talking to them. Now, I don't have to.

 

If people don't want to use it, fine, but I love it when they get so uppity and arrogant and say things like "I don't have time for it" or "I have better things to do" or the best "I am not narcissistic" when, in fact, you going on and on how you are not sorta makes you narcissistic. I don't post much on there. Maybe once or twice a month, at that. I comment on things and such but not a ton.

 

These people who are so above it are probably the same people who go mad over their favorite NFL team and would never miss a game or are huge into movies and go crazy over the Oscars yet WE, who enjoy Facebook, are the juvenile ones. lol.

[ASV]

I don't. Deactivated mine half a year ago. Don't miss it at all, though I sometimes feel the urge to share my thoughts or some movie/quote I've experienced lately. Then I think of all the irrelevant "likes" by those who will most likely not even put the effort to read the whole post and I just stick to good ol' email, which also challenges you and your contacts to step out the comfort zone and adopt a much more serious and "serious" register that may reflect in your daily life (work, uni, you name it).

 

Also it keeps me from spending time in useless browsing and watching updates from people I don't want to see. Yeah, I know about privacity settings and non-following, but curiosity and free times do not mix well.

 

Oh, and remember. Everything you post and like is observed. You may not care about this, but you don't REALLY want mr. Zuckerberg making business of your statistics with marketing companies. Sorry for my messy grammar, you'd rather watch a whole season of Black Mirror to deactivate your social networks for good.

[KatZee]

I still have mine, I've had it since it first started opening to colleges in 2004.

 

I don't really use it for much though, and I'm hardly on it. When I am on it, I scroll through news article pages, post funny videos. I don't update every single thing I do on there, and if I'm tagging in something, it's because someone else did it.

[BC1980]

I only keep my FB because I have cousins with children, and I don't live near them. It's a nice way to keep in touch with other family too. But I don't post on it, and I've deactivated it twice. Truly, the only reason I reactivated it was because I felt I was loosing touch with family that I don't see often.

[Bobbi7]

I have one, but I rarely log into it. When I do, and start looking at friends posts about how "great" their life is-it makes me sick. Its also a place where people brag about how great they have it. People don't need to brag about how much in love they are, or their exotic vacation trips or their yacht, or post thousands of photos of their kids, or post that their kid got all straight A's. What if I posted photos of the "new car" that I got, of the mansion that I bought or the $5,000 coach purse that I got...c'mon...people would accuse me of bragging...Also, what's sick is when women post "sexy" pictures of them, like selfies, so much so, for them to get 500 likes and 60 comments on how "hot" they look. The "like" button on facebook can kill anyone's self esteem. Heck, I can post a selfie and get 0 likes...and what does that tell you? That I'm ugly?