Social networking sites - do we share too much information?

cornnifer

As for the original question about posting information to social networking sites, a professor friend of mine recently finished writing a book about white supremacist groups in the United States. His wife, who facebooks, was strongly advised to remove any and all personal information from her facebook page as it would make it easier for pissed off neo-nazis to target his family.

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It's just another tool. It's how people use it that matters.

catefrances

Drowned Out wrote:

...I don't understand why people feel the need to justify not using it. The justifications never make sense to me. We don't care if you don't use it...but dont' act like you're above it...

not everyone who doesnt facebook feels the need to justify why they dont.

Jeanwah

cornnifer wrote:

As for the original question about posting information to social networking sites, a professor friend of mine recently finished writing a book about white supremacist groups in the United States. His wife, who facebooks, was strongly advised to remove any and all personal information from her facebook page as it would make it easier for pissed off neo-nazis to target his family.

Makes sense. I think a lot of people don't realize that everything you put on FB is public property. Your pics, personal and work info, etc. If you think about it, anyone who divulges lots of personal info on FB (or any other social network) really becomes an open target. You're not just a number anymore, but you become a public entity. If people in support of FB are ok with that, then so be it.

I know you can privatize so much on your profile, but really, privatizing is not the point of a social network.

Drowned Out

cornnifer wrote:

Drowned Out wrote:

cornnifer wrote:

i have a huge problem with social networking sites such as facebook. Personally, i think they're stupid. If you're not important enough to me, or i'm not important enough to you to call up on the phone, drop by your house, or meet for beers, then i probably don't give a shit what you've been up to lately. i always laugh when people say something like "man, i've got 3,234 facebook friends"! Wow, you're popular. How many REAL friends do you have? How many of those people can you rely on when you need something? "Dude, i contacted a guy on facebook i haven't seen since the first grade!" Dude, you're in you're mid thirties. If you haven't seen the guy since the first grade, why the fuck do you need to fill him in on you're life right now? He's obviously not that important to you.

To each his own, i guess. i'm not judging. The real problem i have with facebook, etc. is that, really, let's be honest, all they're really for is to make it easier and more likely for husbands and wives to cheat on each other. i don't know a ton of people, but even i know more than a couple families that have busted up because of infidelity that began on facebook.

Fuck facebook.

I’d say you ARE judging. You’re inferring that people only have facebook so that they can cheat or stroke their egos….which, to me, comes across as projected insecurities...
’I don’t care to talk to those people’….well then, don’t. You don’t agree to talk to every person that talks to you by signing up.
Some people I know use facebook as an actual NETWORKING site…they add as many people as possible to gain a larger audience for promo purposes, or to spread their beliefs, or who knows why else…Some people add every person they've met....others add only their immediate family. Sure for some it's an ego thing...doesnt' mean it is for everyone.
The privacy settings are customizable; even if you add thousands of people, you can control what each of those people sees on your page. I won't bother getting in to all of the ways the site can be used, but if you really think it's just for infidelity and ego strokage, you're very mistaken.
As for the infidelity....you can't possibly blame a website, can you? Does the person using it have no accountability once they sign up? .....trust?
I don't understand why people feel the need to justify not using it. The justifications never make sense to me. We don't care if you don't use it...but dont' act like you're above it...

Plus, its kinda cool for people to be able to see your face and read all about you on the internets...

All joking aside, do you know something else i've noticed about facebook? Facebook people tend to get REALLY defensive when people question facebook. Seriously. Its weird. A good friend of mine uses facebook. i tease him pretty hard about it, but i had to stop. He got all red faced screaming and hollering defending his facebook usage. Another time i heard a couple of coworkers talking about facebook. One asked "why didn't you facebook me last night?" When i queried them why they needed to communicate via facebook when they see eachother EVERYDAY at work, they got seriously pissed off and defensive. Then there's your post in response to mine. Lighten up, Francis.

You made a bunch of judgements about people who use facebook, while saying you weren't judging...I called you on it. If that's being 'REALLY defensive', I guess we might as well stop having conversations on the internets you speak of. I'm light man, no worries....it's fucking facebook
But now you've sidestepped the counterpoints I made, and projected more of your weird friends' behaviours onto normal FB users like me
My point was (I guess this applies to jeanwah's last comment about social networking too), that the platform is so customizable that it doesn't make sense to make broad generalizations about its users and uses...The 'point' of social networking is pretty much whatever you want it to be....sorry for getting all heavy on the train

decides2dream

scb wrote:

It's just another tool. It's how people use it that matters.

absolutely!
i don't use any of the social networking sites. yet.
i have come to see some of the good of it (i always recognized the bad side ).
honestly, if not for pearl jam, friends and touring...i'd probably not even consider it. i have ZERO desire to be tracked down from people in my past, past/future employers checking me out on the web, etc, etc. but for touring/keeping in touch with pj friends around the globe...i see some good. so yes, i am considering an account with a username. no need to get too personal on the net.

catefrancis wrote:

not everyone who doesnt facebook feels the need to justify why they dont.

i never thought so either, but man...at times it's like, WHY aren't you on fb? :? sheesh. just call or e-mail, ok?

_

Drowned Out wrote:

My point was (I guess this applies to jeanwah's last comment about social networking too), that the platform is so customizable that it doesn't make sense to make broad generalizations about its users and uses...The 'point' of social networking is pretty much whatever you want it to be....sorry for getting all heavy on the train

Whatever happened to that thumbs up emoticon??

norm

scb wrote:

Drowned Out wrote:

My point was (I guess this applies to jeanwah's last comment about social networking too), that the platform is so customizable that it doesn't make sense to make broad generalizations about its users and uses...The 'point' of social networking is pretty much whatever you want it to be....sorry for getting all heavy on the train

Whatever happened to that thumbs up emoticon??

:thumbup:

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norm wrote:

scb wrote:

Drowned Out wrote:

My point was (I guess this applies to jeanwah's last comment about social networking too), that the platform is so customizable that it doesn't make sense to make broad generalizations about its users and uses...The 'point' of social networking is pretty much whatever you want it to be....sorry for getting all heavy on the train

Whatever happened to that thumbs up emoticon??

:thumbup:

Thanks! :thumbup:

Pepe Silvia

this episode on facebook is hilarious and too true

http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/267112

unsung

I'll never Twitter. Period. All I do is think of that douchebag Ashton Kutcher when I think of Twitter. Every 15 minute celebrity uses it.

I have a FB but no personal info is there except for my name. I only have it for people to contact me and they can only do so through the messaging as I turned off the ability to post on my wall. I only have one picture of myself, just to show the account is real.

Starfall

unsung wrote:

I turned off the ability to post on my wall. I only have one picture of myself, just to show the account is real.

I'm seriously considering doing the same thing. It's infuriating to clean up all the spam from all the stupid apps that get posted on my wall. I might also restrict all access to my pictures too, and just leave my profile pic up so people recognize me.

mikepegg44

g under p wrote:

I joined Facebook 3 weeks ago only because that was the only way to get more info on the band Living Colour. Other than that I can't stand ANY of the social networks.

Peace

best reason yet I have heard as to why someone joined facebook!!!!

_

Starfall wrote:

unsung wrote:

I turned off the ability to post on my wall. I only have one picture of myself, just to show the account is real.

I'm seriously considering doing the same thing. It's infuriating to clean up all the spam from all the stupid apps that get posted on my wall. I might also restrict all access to my pictures too, and just leave my profile pic up so people recognize me.

Why don't you just block the apps?