reasons for using/avoiding facebook?

[man on the hill]

I'd like to hear some opinions from people that use facebook and also who avoids/hates facebook. right now I am registered on there.......but thats it. no info or pics or anything about me except my name on the top of the page. I only registered on there to look somebody up a while ago and thats the only way to look at anything on there is to have an account. but right now im kinda on the fence about adding pics/completing my profile on there or just deleting it.

some of my reasons for not finishing the profile are that 1.) I honestly dont have any close friends, I dont see or talk to anybody that I even went to school with. I would just feel wierd to get on there and start sending friend requests to a bunch of people I know but have not seen or talked to in years.
2.) there are alot of things about myself that I really dont want people knowing about, and it just seems like a invasion of privacy since anybody can look at your profile. and honestly there is really nothing interesting that would be worth even putting on there for people to see.
3.) I really dont have any good or decent up to date pics of myself that I could use on there. and I really dont even like pics of myself period...I just think I look wierd in photos and im not the type of person who likes taking pics of any and everything all the time like some people I know.


probably the only good reason I would have for finishing my profile (and ive been told this by several people who've asked me why I dont have a facebook account) would be to try and get hooked up with a girl. it seems like it would be worth a shot just for that, cause I really dont even go out and try to meet any girls at all really.

 

[Anomaly]

After reading multiple times what people just had for breakfast, I gathered pretty quickly that it was a waste of my time and deactivated my account.

 

[Onur]

1.) I honestly dont have any close friends, I dont see or talk to anybody that I even went to school with. I would just feel wierd to get on there and start sending friend requests to a bunch of people I know but have not seen or talked to in years.
Fact is, this is what everybody does. Just send a few friend requests, say "Thanks for the add!", and take it from there.

2.) there are alot of things about myself that I really dont want people knowing about, and it just seems like a invasion of privacy since anybody can look at your profile. and honestly there is really nothing interesting that would be worth even putting on there for people to see.
If you're concerned about privacy, you can change account settings so that only certain people are allowed to see certain things about you. Personally though, I don't get it! If people want to look me up, hey go nuts, I never hide anything! Nothing on my profile is particularly "interesting" either..

3.) I really dont have any good or decent up to date pics of myself that I could use on there. and I really dont even like pics of myself period...I just think I look wierd in photos and im not the type of person who likes taking pics of any and everything all the time like some people I know.
I'm the same way. I hate when I'm tagged in photos and I look all weird and uncomfortable being in social situations. But occasionally a really good photo will show up and I'll use that as a profile pic. It's still good to have something up so that people can put a face to the person.

Now, I don't mean to go around giving advice and feeling like a big shot, but it sounds like you almost-kinda-sorta want to have a facebook page of your own, but you feel hesitant. If that's the case, then I feel ya. But I also met some really cool people of facebook too, and got re-acquianted with some old friends of mine. I look at it as an opportunity to interact with people in a way that's relatively safe (as opposed to parties and stuff), and to keep up to date with everything that's going down in my social circles.

I only registered on there to look somebody up a while ago and thats the only way to look at anything on there is to have an account.
Sooo, who is she??


~Onur

 

[Phoenixx]

I deactivated my Facebook account a few weeks ago. I never had a profile pic of myself so people always bugged me to put one up. I'm so self-conscious I can't even take a picture of myself. Not to mention that I was tagged in photos I didn't want to be tagged in because I hate looking at current pictures of myself. I'm constantly comparing myself to others, and I just felt depressed looking at group shots of friends, wishing that I had the confidence to be there and just have fun. Also deleted it because I've just been busy with school lately and it was just another distraction. Sorry for rambling... ::

 

[fitftw]

I'm on fb all the time. I like to post dumb **** all day long.

 

[forksandspoons]

Facebook has saved my social life. I can't really handle much face to face contact with people, so I keep in touch over facebook. I only have 2 pictures on there. Both I took myself, and were set up to make myself look good. I avoid cameras anytime I see someone pull one out so I don't get tagged looking goofy.

 

[philly2bits]

The only reason I have an account there is because my family kept bothering me to get one. I use it every so often to talk to a few people but other then that nothing. I don't post much about myself or what I'm doing, mainly because I have nothing to post about.

 

[Mr.Moon]

I've attempted the whole blog trend several times. Used to use xanga.. then I closed it. Then I tried out myspace.. then I closed it to. Then I attempted facebook.. well, I only tried it to check out some of them flash games I'd hear about, but that was it.. Never went past that or told anyone my name.

I just typically avoid communicating on them sites cause it just makes me feel depressed. My whole family uses facebook and the couple times I checked out their pages I'd see my brother or sister just talking about/posting pictures of their spouse & fam. I don't have many friends at all either.. so I felt exceptionally lonely whenever I tried it out.
Can't say my life's all that exciting either. Wouldn't have anything spiffy to post about.
I'm just silly I guess.

 

[forksandspoons]

"There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls."

George ftw. You can't slip a Carlin quote past me

 

[blackgatescross]

I use it to fit in with others. I don't have many friends on there, and I am always nervous about reaching out and adding new people as I am quite self-conscious about being rejected and also how I am perceived on there.

I don't have many photos and I very rarely get many messages from anyone.

Nevertheless, I still maintain my profile only really for the sake of it.

Cheers

Chris

 

[lunarla]

I used to avoid facebook vehemently. It got to a point where even thinkinnnnng about logging on would make me really anxious/sick feeling'd. I would avoid it largely because I was so insecure with myself and that I wasn't really doing anything with my life. I was always comparing myself to others, and facebook would be this huge platform for me to do that. Also, I don't like taking photos of myself and have always found myself to be very not photogenic. But.. it's called faceeeee book, right? So, I just felt weird about that. 'Cause I wouldn't even wanna put up one picture, let alone upwards of 200... Another thing is that people around my age kinda creep meh out. Annnnnd, what else. Oh - the possibility of being tagged in photos. The defining reason that I closed my first facebook account was because of tagged photos.

Now for reasons for using it... Well, I've found that the more I use it, the less I get anxious about it? A big one for me was to be able to talk to my brothers and see photos of my nephews since facebook is all they really use. Plus, you can edit all your settings so that it's fairlyyyyyyyyyy private.

 

[Aussie_Lad]

Facebook is great for "liking" people / businesses. There are great inspitational people that post up messages / videos / photos of truly wonderful things, and with a click of a button, you can subscribe to the feeds from the page. You get some great insights, sometimes on a daily basis. You don't need to use facebook to have friends, you can use it just to read the feeds, and in no time at all, you will be addicted to facebook.

 

[StopCryingYourHeartOut]

I'm constantly comparing myself to others, and I just felt depressed looking at group shots of friends, wishing that I had the confidence to be there and just have fun.

Exactly this. I'm only using facebook to get updates on what my friends are doing/thinking (i never put up anything about myself) but on the other hand it makes me depressed as hell to see that everyone goes out alll the time, having loads of fun with hundreds of friends + everyones in a relationship. I have none of that...::

 

[Graeme1988]

I deactivated my Facebook account a few weeks ago. I never had a profile pic of myself so people always bugged me to put one up. I'm so self-conscious I can't even take a picture of myself. Not to mention that I was tagged in photos I didn't want to be tagged in because I hate looking at current pictures of myself. I'm constantly comparing myself to others, and I just felt depressed looking at group shots of friends, wishing that I had the confidence to be there and just have fun. Also deleted it because I've just been busy with school lately and it was just another distraction. Sorry for rambling... ::

This is the very reason that I never log into my Facebook account. I haven't even updated my profile since I was pretty much forced to join because my sister and cousin keep asking me if I'd setup a profile yet. I knew I'd made a mistake the day I decided to join

I mean, - and this is going to make me sound like a boring, old f**k, coming for a 22 year old male - I just don't "get" social networking sites. I don't. Sure it's a great way to stay in touch with people and make friends - but I have a hard enough time as it is doing either of these things.

I just as self-concious, nervous and anxious about posting on this website at times as I would be talking to someone in real life

Maybe I'm as socially inept as I think I am. Maybe it's because I never felt like I fit in socially most of my life.

 

[StandingJelly]

Hi man on hill,

I think I understand you. I've added everyone I recognise and accepted everyone I don't know, and still I get only 50 'friends'. In fact I added people from facebook games to make myself look like have more friends. But soon, I realised no one posts anything on my walls.

So I deleted my facebook account.

Now that I made a new one and been a while. Not that you should too, but these are the following ways to deal with your problems.
1. I add people I recently know and those who requested. I never add anyone, unless they are really worth it.
2. Make up things, I impersonate a character based on an interesting story line I made up where real me is slightly part of. Even the name is made up.
3. A picture to correspond with that story line.

I impersonate the character when I make posts on other people's walls, and I (pretend to) go active rarely by skipping a few wall posts and reply them late.

I also face phoenix's problem of comparing with people, despite knowing that i shouldn't

 

[vitalis]

I was among the first ones in my group that had a Facebook account, and when it started becoming popular, lots of friends started to "friend" me and do the typical trivial conversations, and of course, exhibiting their most "successful" social moments, which makes people like us sick. So I decided to delete my account, and started hating facebook, until I found it was useful for my job and had to create an account.

So my advice is something similar than StandingJelly said: first, just enter Facebook if you feel you need to; then create an account with a fake name, and that's all: FB is like Internet: it can be useful or destructive depending of how you use it; so just take the best part of it (the feeding stuff of the pages, the few people you care about and don't make you sick, etc...) and avoid the rest. And you'll probably start enjoying Facebook, just a bit differently than the rest, instead of a main social node, as a kind of google page for your interests or such.

 

[lurknomore]

The only reason I have an account there is because my family kept bothering me to get one. I use it every so often to talk to a few people but other then that nothing. I don't post much about myself or what I'm doing, mainly because I have nothing to post about.

Same here, although occasionally I'll go on posting sprees that go mostly ignored. At least half of my 50 "friends" are relatives (many that I never see or talk to)- and a good part of the other half are from this site. My profile stays private, the only pictures of me are ones I've been tagged in by my sisters (and mostly are of my kids). I talk to a few people on there- including a friend from high school that I haven't seen in years. So, to me it's not a complete waste, and right now it's almost the only way I'm being in any way social.

 

[Shift]

Basically, I have a facebook to keep in touch with a few friends and for school things (my college likes to let you know about things that are going on by making FB events). Oh, and to play stupid games. But you don't really need a Facebook account to play Robot Unicorn Attack. Haha.

You can change your privacy settings, so people can only see certain things. And you can always block people. I had to block most of my family because they were using Facebook to pry into my life and gossip about me >_>.

Aaaand... You don't even need to put up a photo of yourself if you don't want. I mean, right now it's Pokemon Profile Picture Month, so most of my friends have Pokemon drawings for their profile pics.

 

[Running_Scared]

I'd like to hear some opinions from people that use facebook and also who avoids/hates facebook. right now I am registered on there.......but thats it. no info or pics or anything about me except my name on the top of the page. I only registered on there to look somebody up a while ago and thats the only way to look at anything on there is to have an account. but right now im kinda on the fence about adding pics/completing my profile on there or just deleting it.

some of my reasons for not finishing the profile are that 1.) I honestly dont have any close friends, I dont see or talk to anybody that I even went to school with. I would just feel wierd to get on there and start sending friend requests to a bunch of people I know but have not seen or talked to in years.
2.) there are alot of things about myself that I really dont want people knowing about, and it just seems like a invasion of privacy since anybody can look at your profile. and honestly there is really nothing interesting that would be worth even putting on there for people to see.
3.) I really dont have any good or decent up to date pics of myself that I could use on there. and I really dont even like pics of myself period...I just think I look wierd in photos and im not the type of person who likes taking pics of any and everything all the time like some people I know.


probably the only good reason I would have for finishing my profile (and ive been told this by several people who've asked me why I dont have a facebook account) would be to try and get hooked up with a girl. it seems like it would be worth a shot just for that, cause I really dont even go out and try to meet any girls at all really.

I have had 2 facebook accounts in the past, and my reason for deleting them is pure paranoia! This kid who I am afraid of asked me for a friend request and I panicked and ignored him. Then my OCD came on thinking "Omg what if he knows I'm ignoring him?" "What if he does this or that?" You know... Well that's why lol. I really wish I could have one though...

 

[Xylia]

It's the only way to keep in touch with old friends / classmates and new friends for me... I was never good at returning emails, remembering birthdays, etc. FB makes it so they're all consolidated into one area which makes it a little bit easier for me

Although, I have to admit it's a little depressing to be on there at times. I know I could be doing much more with my life if it wasn't for anxiety. But yeah... I usually just post things I find interesting and then I go back to my gaming!