Facebook

Because i got some messages asking why i blocked people on facebook, to anyone interested, I didn't block you but i permanently erased my facebook account. I am on twitter (christodec) again if anyone interested

Twitter for me is an extension of Facebook. I don't write tweets but my Facebook feed is shared on Twitter.

-Erik-

Isn't Twitter a completely different thing from Facebook?

It's more like a mini-blog, a way to make public your writings (opinions or diaries or whatever) and share information.
It's also a way to discuss things, even though it's not the most suitable tool for it.
(And yes, it's also a great tool to spread wrong information and pseudoscience about radiation effects )

Facebook seems to be designed for more private use. It's more like sending a private mail to multiple friends...

But maybe, I think so because of my language... with 140 characters you can tell more in Japanese than in English (and probably other European languages). You can tell even more with 140 Chinese characters on their fake "Twitter" (aka Weibo)

Anyway, they're just tools, so it depends on how you use them.

You certainly are.

Miya, I am completely ignorant about the Japanese language and I assume that individual characters in Japanese have a lot of meaning in them?

Cheers.

Last week we had a discussion here about facebook. Well, not here, I think it was the Zimmer topic, but anyway...

Then this week I got an e-mail from the writers club I'm in and we use a private forum to share writings and give feedback, but then some of us thought since most people use facebook, we could make a group on facebook and use that too or instead.

Some people replied that they didn't have a facebook account and didn't want to sign up just for this.
Some people said they have facebook but hardly use it or don't want to mix that with the writing stuff.
And some said they use facebook all the time so no problem starting a group there.

The replies were extensive and interesting so I asked if it would be nice to write an article about facebook, how we all use it and why it's a good thing or a horrible thing, etc. So I'm curious for your opinions too, although it has been discussed before probably.

Like I said, I prefer to use it in a way that brings only positive things such as inspiring videos, photos and links. I avoid sharing too personal things and I don't want a facebook app on my 24/7 mobile phone. Sometimes I wonder if I could quit. Recently some interesting links and videos have been posted that I wuold have missed if I was not on facebook! So that makes it worth it for me.

Who would like to discuss this?
How do you use facebook? Do you know all your 'friends' or do you add people you want to follow too? How personal are your own updates? Are you bothered about privacy, especially from the marketing point of view? Etc.

If you reply I'll probably use it in the article without mentioning your name of course, but let me know if you don't want that. It's for a magazine from the Young Dutch Humanist Association, it's called the Spino, and there are only 200 prints, 3 times a year. (Dutchies who are interested can have a look at the website, the Spino's are there in PDF too.)

Wise, wise words indeed.

I check it frequently, desperate to find something of interest, but most facebook friends don't really post too often. Luckily a few do, and it's nice to read about their experiences in life. Even if I'm not a good socializer in real life, people do interest me, and I like to know what they get up to. So facebook is a nice and easy way of "spying".




I know most, online and offline, some better than others, but I have added a couple of composers that I don't really know in real life. Perhaps I'll unfriend them as I'm not really too fascinated by what they have to say.




Nothing very personal. Just a few videos with some comedy stuff or music. I'm more of a facebook lurker.




The only marketing I'm concerned about is someone sending me spam because they see my mail address on facebook. That's why I recently made my account for facebook friends only. I don't really care that someone records my interests and sells them to a company, and I'll end up seeing a banner or something on some website, as I'm unaffected by online ads.

Peter

Thank you all for your extensive replies! Interesting to read and it will help me write my little article.

I was thinking about this yesterday: I use facebook differently now than the first years. Back then I uploaded a lot of private things like photos of family stuff. Still, even now that I don't feel the need to do that anymore, I also can't be bothered to take some albums off. So the photos are still there. But I don't seem to care.

Also I was thinking about how well I know the 'friends'. Perhaps Demetris was a bit more right than I thought when he said 'of course you don't know everyone in the friend list'. OK, I don't add strangers just for boobies (!), but I do add strangers I'd like to follow such as composers and comedians. Once they are 'friends' they can see everything in my private profile while I don't really know them... Also, people from primary school for instance are not strangers, but really, do you still know them after 20 years?

By the way, we saw a comedian last night in the theatre, Micha Wertheim, who talked a bit about facebook too. He was saying everything bad about it, but then explained that's how it works. Comedians make fun of everything that is new. And then when everyone uses it, the joke is gone and they make new jokes about what is new then. He is on facebook too. Interesting show by the way, he is a clever comedian.

Just thinking out loud here.

Question 1: how do you post videos in a reply / comment, so that the video thumbnail is visible?

Question 2: why are some video thumbnails not visible or... small and weird? Anyone else having the same problem?

I had an instance where a thumbnail photo of a review CD cover did not load when it should have. This happened even when I reloaded it. I couldn't work out why this happened.