[Closed] Facebook - do you still use it?

Yes, chat to about four mates on it using the chat function. Sometimes troll the local newspaper page. Don't bother looking at my news feed as it's half full of shite.

STW is my Facebook, and You P-jay are my facebook friend.

yes, to talk to mates, who dont ride bikes. and some who do.
quicker and easier than phone calls for organising bike trips and beer trips.

Facebook is one of the most dangerous, insidious and powerful forces on the planet. I still have an account which I keep alive but rarely ever use anymore, in much the same way I might keep a hideously disfigured clone alive but locked in a basement.

Never used to but over the past 2 years have steadily increased my usage unfortunately. 1. Working away more and being board in hotels. 2. Getting involved with a local group (bike related), which means when I am away I just want to be riding even more and looking at what I am missing.

The ability to unfollow people so you don’t have to see their inane shit without unfriending them has helped massively. As such I’ve got quite a streamlined feed now, I only see updates from pages and people I’m interested in reading, and like it or not with friends and family spread far and wide it’s a great tool for keeping in touch....

Never have ..never will

I have an account, but barely use it unless prompted to like something that the eldest daughter has posted on there.

Never have ..never will

This

Today marks 7 days since I “quit” Facebook,

Do I still use Facebook? Well i did until this devastating news.

Never had an account, can't stand the thought of it. Why would I need it? If I want to catch up with mates/family I have a phone/email or heaven forbid we might actually catch up face to face. If i need to know things that are happening in the world I have Google and a tv. Facebook serves no purpose for me. Why would I want to put my life on the internet for others to see.....i just don't get it.

Odd in that I’ve had an account for about 7 years and it’s only been the last 18mths that I’ve used it.
I don’t post “globally” but I do post on a couple of Surf Groups because that’s where we organise and share conditions and stuff.
Everything else is turned off, but sure there will be some leakage or other.

One thing that really gets my goat, it’s the feed main page.. supposed to be all new updates and stuff but in reality it’s just stuff FB want you to read, then you have to go into Feeds and seek out the updates I want to see.. bloody odd if you ask me.

But that’s it, and it’ll stay that way.

I hate the “what are you feeling” crap.. I’m simply not interested in anyone who promotes self ...

are the wheels coming off it, should i get an account before its too late? ...NAAAH

Seven days?

Haven't used it for about five months (I used to be a multiple-times-a-day user) until this evening when my wife told me an alert about a member of my family being at risk had been posted.

I stopped using FB because I became very bored of the constant inanity of stuff being re-shared, liked, advertising etc.

Instagram for photo's, and i sent private messages to the various people that I didn't want to lose touch with.

But, IMHO, FB is a sack of corporate cack.

[s]Facebook is[/s]People are one of the most dangerous, insidious and powerful forces on the planet.FTFY

I love fb, I think it's great. Get to talk shit with people with common interests and share photos very easily (compared to here) I get to make jokes and make people laugh. I get to laugh at their jokes. I get to see what my favourite musicians are up to and when they're touring. I don't use Twitter or instagram.

Had an account for 10 years. Log in about 3 time’s a year and then back out less than 5 minutes later.

I find it messay to look at and hard work to navigate - and I’ve only filled it with people I used to know: it’s like a graveyard of ex friendships.

I ought to delete it.

I’ve pretty much given up on Twitter too - another one I’ve fillec with too much crap no longer relevant to me.

I use Instagram a fair amount now, but can see that going exactly the same way.

I’m sorry social media, it’s not you, it’s me. No, actually, it is you....

You ok Hun ??

All the time.

Keeping up to date with friends scattered around the world.

Organising rides and stuff.

Keeping up to date with local affairs, travel, weather, sky conditions.

Selling and buying stuff.

Following musicians and events.

And all in one place.

No.
Joined in the early days as a means of maintaining contact with other - geographically widespread -volunteers in a charity I support. That migrated to being a dedicated user without noticing that it - FB - had turned into something different; more corporate, monetising, overwhelmed by inanities and nonentities.
'Bye FB - and Twitter for the same sorts of reasons.
I have an email address, mobile and landline numbers, various pens and writing paper and stamps; that's good enough.
I seem to have replaced it with STW forums - or is it fora?

I’m sorry social media, it’s not you, it’s me. No, actually, it is you....

Not on Facebook
Not on WhatsApp
Not on LinkedIn

It’s ace

Rachel

This is social media...

Only using it in ernest for Inktober.

Your post has pulled me back from the brink. It is totally shit, clean and delete stuff and logoff.

Must step away.

still got a facebook, purely for the purpose of autologging into sites, other than that nah, I even deleted every person off it, use it for no other reason.

I use Facebook - mostly to see which bands are playing where, or have new tracks/videos out. I'm interested in what they're doing. Can't imagine anyone would be interested in what [i]I'm[/i] doing, so I never post on it.

Yes.Or the only human interaction I'd have for 4 days a week would be saying 'card' when asked card or cash? (not that I'm saying that in itself is a bad thing).
Here does'nt count because you're not real.

Still use it. Great way of keeping in touch. No idea why people let others post rubbish at them. It's easy to filter out. It's just a communication tool for me. I use it how I want to.

Messenger is useful for having affairs and arranging bike rides.

I turned off notification for FB a while ago and its become insignificant since.

You ok Hun ??

For the love of god can this meme be taken round the back of the barn and shot.

*predicts reply*

Facebook taught me that most of my old school friends are brexiters.

So I don't use it any more other than to see the odd crap they post when I'm bored. And even then the sponsored adverts make me sad.

Closed my FB account a year or so ago. Don't miss it a bit. I never really got it tbh.

Jamie

txt me

Rachel, thanks for chucking Linkedin into the mix; FB for business that's for sure.

So many 'recruiters' who should have networks of known and proven candidates - who have been interviewed, profiled and verified - rely, instead, on LinkedIn profiles and keyword searches; no personal contact, no professionalism, lazy ineptitude.

Quill pens and parchment - that's the future.

When the cyber universe crashes - temporarily? - carrier pigeons and the mummers will save us all. I'm not totally joking......

Facebook doesn't do stuff for you, you have to make an interesting feed.

1) Like pages that produce interesting content, not just whatever companies you like. Most of them are just marketing. Sure, I might like BMWs but there's not much point in liking their page (as far as I can tell).
2) Hide the crap you aren't interested in
3) Post stuff rather than just reading, so that your friends reply and you have chats. Think of your friends and post stuff you know they'll like. You know, like the old Royal Mail ad - "I saw this and thought of you".
4) Reply to other people's post. If necessary friend more interesting people.

Can I Friend you molgrips?

Used to use it to talk crap with mates, was good.
Turned off notifications a couple of years ago, was better.
Now only use messenger, and occasionally post videos of kittens. The best.
Is handy for keeping in touch with friends from Around the world tho.
I was chatting to a school friend last year, and aftr a while she said, ‘oh I’ll have to go, the bloody kangaroos are in at the bins again!’ *
Which kept me smiling for the rest of the day.

*not a euphemism

Yep 🙂

That's you with the profile pic on top of a mountain wearing a Helly Hansen top?

Never used it and neither do most of my friends. Just don’t really get it to be honest. Same thing with Twitter. I’m quite private as a rule and this place is pretty much it as far as socialising online goes.

I use Twitter, but mainly for interacting with businesses, as for some it's the best way to get stuff done.

*glares at Virgin Media*

Don't have FB. Instagram looks interesting, but not on that either.

Got 2 accounts for differing clubs/hobbies and occasionally to see what my lad is upto as he never tells me! 😀

I'm a fairly private person and I just don't feel the need to constantly tell people the intricacies of my very average life, nor do I want to know the same about my friends.

The trivializing of things gets my goat too. Sharing and liking RIP's, such and such tragic event, such and such campaign.... With no real intent or emotion behind any of it.

Having also gone to Cornwall years back with a friend that hardly tore her eyes away from her mobile to actually see the beautiful Cornish REAL world around her... That holiday convinced me fb really isn't for me.

So yeah, check for the odd bit of club news or pics of my lad on his adventures in life and that's plenty for me. About 30 mins a month if that and I'm already hating it again. 😀

I used it a few times a day.I found it good for arranging rides, going on the beer or going to gigs etc,but my news feed was just full of inane shite.
When I'd trawl through it all there would be the occasional excellent post but the vast majority of updates were of very little interest to me.Mates posting from the pub,others posting from where they've been riding,and that's before I get onto the non cycling relatives posting crap I've no interest in.
I ended up unfollowing most of my relatives & a few 'friends'..
The final straw came when I went trekking in the Alps for a couple of weeks this July,I'd told everyone before I left that I was going off the radar for a fortnight so unless it's really urgent don't bother contacting me.It was great not going on FB for a whole two weeks,never missed it for a moment.
When I got back I posted some holiday images & as I hadn't been on there for a couple of weeks there were lots & lots of notifications,of which I reckon 90% were just inane crap.I went on there again maybe twice,last time was the end of August,can't say I miss it.
No intention of using FB again,messenger's useful though.

I use it but mostly as an address book/easy way to contact people, not as a thing to do.

But I run a couple of accounts for work and that's actually pretty fun- for 30 minutes every day I am a beligerant anthromorphic cow, picking arguments with astronauts, civic buildings, and other university mascots. University of Lincoln absolutely shat it when i challenged them to a swan duel, frinstance.

I may have made some bad career choices.

[quote=scotroutes ]Can I Friend you molgrips?

I'll be your friend 😉

I use it all the time, and it's great (apart from when I get involved with arguing with motorists on a cycling safety article). But then it's what you make of it and if you're finding it a negative thing, then it's probably you.

I use it about once every month or two. Most often I end up costing people's grammar and spelling (your/you're, two/to, etc), leaving snide remarks about people's achievements ("I ran 3km today" "for(sic) days into Stoptober!" or "I've lost the pounds!"..... Really well-f-ing done. Your levels of self control are beyond belief, shame your level of indulgence has exceeded it for the past twelve years....) or calling people out for being racist.

Then two days later I get to read all the private messages where my sister or my cousin's call me derogatory terms rhyming with 'brick' or 'runt' for calling people out.

I find it a good to for filtering out those people with whom I would like to genuinely keep in contact with.

In the last week Facebook has...
Reminded my one of my local pubs was open Wednesday so I caught up with some friends there
Kept me up to date with a bunch of friends around the world
Communicated route changes to the enduro I'm doing Sunday and published the start list
Connected me with some of the guys I rode with on the weekend so I can share the pics and vids
And plenty more, like any tool the power is with the user.

Yes, I use it- pretty much how molgrips, aracer and jekkyl describe.
It's a good way of keeping in touch in these days of long working hours and everyone apparently either rushing around being busy or watching box sets, when most folk aren't into having you drop round unannounced for a brew. You have to put some effort into making it good.
Unfortunately I think email is becoming unusable, I have 17,000 emails in my inbox and it's out of control. I don't use Instagram or Twitter, and as already mentioned above, LinkedIn is becoming purely for lazy recruiters to spam everyone with poorly written, poorly targeted mass messaging.

All the time.

Keeping up to date with friends scattered around the world.

This. If you still live in the village you were born, prob'ly you can easily keep up with friends by bumping into them at the pub, WI cake stall or whatever. Otherwise fb helps.

Yeah, a bit reluctantly though.

I shut my account for knocking on three years but reopened it just over a year ago after my parents died and I realised the only practical way of keeping up with my wonderful nieces and friends that I'd increasingly been out of touch with. Yeah, and those friends that have moved even further away than I have.

I refuse to have it on my phone though, or have any notifications active.

Oh, I also get to chat with ScotRoutes (eat yer heart out suckers) which is nice 😉

hateful piece of software

never going to be on it

the wife uses it but can't actually explain why. When she is sucked into the digital world her eyes glaze over and the real world (i.e. the kids and me) cease to exist. She is grumpy as hell when she is forced to come up for air

Use it every day, very handy for keeping in touch with people.

Sure there's a lot of crap posted but if the crap threshold gets too high from certain individuals then they can be blocked/ignored.

Like exploring the tech too, created a Facebook messenger bot over the w/e as a work proof of concept.

...which was nice...

stopped 7 months ago as it was just getting to be a habit

same with Twitter

I still instagram though

I can't believe some people don't like WhatsApp. Much better than txt. Encrypted, possible to call, possible to set up groups much better than SMS.

Yep still use it quite a lot.

Lots of clubs/events/groups have facebook pages that don't have a website because then they don't need a webmaster to deal with it, just an admin.

Slowly culling friends I've not seen since school and have no real interest.

I deactivated my FB account about a month a go; too many ‘friends’ still moaning about Brexit, or other talked to death topics.

Deleted strava off phone too; too many people putting pretend rides like Zwift on there, or uploading their walk with dog/wife/kids on there ... how interesting do think it’s gonna be??

Instagram I am now contemplating getting shot of too ...

Never done Twitter.

WhatsApp keeps me in touch with friends if I don’t see them often.

stopped 7 months ago as it was just getting to be a habit

same with Twitter

I still instagram though

Binned it about a year ago, don't miss it at all

You ok Hun ??

+1 Jamie, its become a proxy for identifying idiots though, so it has its uses

alpin - Member
Most often I end up costing people's grammar and spelling (your/you're, two/to, etc),

🙂 I spotted that as well and had a chuckle.

Well... if we’re expanding out into Twitter and Instagram then I’ll update.

FB you know of, Twitter I finally created an account November last year.. for what reason I’ve yet to quantify. So I sought some interesting folks out to see what was going on and most of it was promotional guff, but that’s fine because I didn’t know one of my all time favourite artists was touring .. so I went to see him.
But then as the day wore on it seemed just a random set of gossip data, no real cohesion to conversations or themes and intermittent political bullshite. And I stopped using that S&M tool in March.

Instagram I like though. I post pics, have a few followers now. Some folks have an excellent creative eye, some folks have an over absorbing self click bait selfie self.. but it’s kinda what it’s all about. There are some fabulous photos on there, some absolutely amazing graphic artists and I find it’s a tool for them to show off thier work. I just post pics that interest me or something I’ve been involved in, some of my bike shots, some surf shots, some running too. I’m hating the intrusion of adverts posted as “posts” and I hate the banal videos of dick heads pulling wheelies on motorbikes or crashing( quite why I see this guff is beyond me because if the feed is tailored to stuff I like then they’ve got some algorithms crossed with some motorbike nutcase)
I even like the rather odd photos of girls posting shots of thier legs and shoes on beaches or tiles and such, I find that quite weird so I must have a perversion that i didn’t know existed. I’ve never contacted anyone through it, didn’t know you could and no one has contacted me through it either.. oh, I love using filters on my photos, I love to obliterate them to see what I can achieve.. no doubt this annoys some folks because I love the tags #nofilter posted on thier shots... it makes me laugh, like I care that they think thier so “worthy”.. anyway, it’s a fun S&M tool for self image flagellation.

I don't even own a smart phone, so FB and all that sort of stuff isn't for me.

There does seem to be a gulf between old gits like me and younger people who walk around with their face in a phone.

I went to the Red Bull Hardline event a while ago and laughed at everyone one watching it via their smartphone as they filmed it. I imagine they will post that crap vid on their FB page as a sort of show off thing.

Seems FB is mostly about pretending to people you sort of know that your life is amazing. Its almost like a mental illness.

To follow mtb related stuff yes. To comment on what someone I barely know had for tea, no.
Dont see the point in twitter or instagram though.

Instagram is the worst and I hate it with a passion you can only dream of

I use facebook, twitter and instagram :).

I mostly use facebook for the chat facility but it's also handy for organising trips and for sale/swap groups etc...

Twitter I use as it throws all sorts of interesting stuff my way (so does facebook to a lesser extent) and I partially use it as a modern day RSS feed aggregator (is that a word?). I follow things like reuters news, new scientist, anything/anyone else I think are interesting.

Instagram I only recently got into. I like looking at the pretty pictures and now use it for my photo a day as it's easier to post on than my blog is.

I took a break from this place for much of this year due to the amount of bile etc... in quite a few threads. I don't experience that in the way that I use other social media unless I expose myself to it on purpose. I guess that in a way on other platforms I choose the content I see, on here anyone can post things that everyone sees (obviously I can not click certain threads).

slowly started blocking more and more people on FB including family members as I grew increasingly sick of their bullshit lives. decided it was time to stop, it was becoming frustrating. It had zero value in social interaction with distant friends. Indy Ref was the turning point for me- what was once frivolous became bitter and acrimonious. Instagram i enjoy because i can keep it focused to my interests. Twitter valuable to react with services and news outlets.

Not on (and have never even visited the websites of) FB, Instagram, Whatsapp. Never did the Friends Reunited, Bebo, etc. stuff either.

I'm "on" Twitter, well I'm a registered user but haven't visited the site/used the app for well over a year. (I joined when my wife was doing LEJOG as a way of checking progress.) A mixture of losing interest and having got to the point where I followed enough people (not really that many, less than 100) that I would have needed to spend several hours a day keeping current with what appeared in my feed. Once I gave up doing that there seemed less and less point to keep up to date and my usage just tailed off.

I saw an analysis of FB that came up with a figure of around 50% of a typical page's content being adverts or sponsored posts and features. Obviously since I don't visit the site I've no way of proving that one way or another. Add to that 50% whatever proportion of posts are tosh, the "this is what I had for breakfast" sort of thing and what you are actually interested in is a small amount. This tallies with conversations with club mates and others on FB: after the "Why aren't you on FB?" type questions invariably they'll say something along the lines of "you have to filter out loads of crap". Really selling it to me!

I've a landline, mobile phone and email so if someone wants to contact me or vice-versa then it's easy to do so. If they haven't felt the need to contact me then adding FB or Messenger, etc. to the list isn't going to change things once the novelty wears off.

I use it loads, it's become a sort of Newsfeed aggregator. 95% of the stuff I look at isn't from friends, mainly news / technology links.

I also post photos on it whenever I shoot a local hockey match and they get a lot of traction from the teams and their clubs.

Made a conscious decision to stop using it about a year ago.

However the local running club use it to post infinity on training / races etc which is very useful. It’s more of a message board and not a ‘look at me’ thing

Anyhow it’s only middle aged folk that use it anyhow kids don’t use it apparently

Anyhow it’s only middle aged folk that use it anyhow kids don’t use it apparently

So I've heard. No idea what young people use...

I use facebook in fits and starts. I mostly post articles I am interested in, or personal/family pics for the enjoyment of family and friends abroad. I still have cousins in Canada, for example, and other relatives that do not live in the UK.

But I never found it addictive. I can really take it or leave it. Now food, on the other hand... 🙁

When she is sucked into the digital world her eyes glaze over and the real world (i.e. the kids and me) cease to exist.

That's not Facebook's fault, that's your wife's fault.

It's like booze - you can enjoy a nice craft beer or two with friends once a week, or you can be an alcoholic. Or anywhere in between.

They(social media co’s) do spend a very large amount of money coming up with new and cunning ways to suck you in though.

Its a problem IMO not a sign of personal weakness.

I saw an analysis of FB that came up with a figure of around 50% of a typical page's content being adverts or sponsored posts and features

Snapchat.. now there’s an S&M tool for seeing what your kids are posting... 😆

They use various, depends on what type of parental control you feel you need but here is a list (in no order) that da Yoof Use Innit Blud.

Kik
GroupMe
WhatsApp
Musical.ly
Tumblr
Instagram
Houseparty
Live.ly
Live.Me
YouNow
Snapchat (mentioned)
Whisper
Monkey (mostly dating for teenagers)
MeetMe (dating again)
Omegle (uses other chat feeds to align teenagers with each other, mostly dating)
Yellow (sex/dating/porn for teenagers)

Now your all in a sweat, I’ll leave you to scan your teenagers (and under)’s phones 😆

Just going through my activity log on FB. The crap posted was overwhelming and thats just October.

Deleted virtuality everything now back to 2010. Thankfully I did'nt post much in that period.

About to logout, probably on the 31st being the last day of Inktober.

In my 15minute thought period, I think I will scrap Facebook by the end of the day for inane drival use.

PS I'm OK Huns 😉

Nah, gave up on FB this year, just too much junk, even when I had filtered out a lot of the unwanted stuff. Yes, it's good for keeping in contact with scattered friends, but the phone still works.

Twitter I ditched a couple of years ago. Just couldn't give enough of a damn.

I use Instagram for posting photos, but actually falling out of love with that too. It's just not that good, so I'll probably end up deleting that too, and concentrate on building a decent portfolio of my photos on a proper website.

EDIT : For the record, I actually feel a lot better and happier for deleting a lot of social media. I finally realised how much of a crap distraction it was in my life, and was really just killing time that could be much better spent.

Colin, like I said it was an/one analysis and since I don't go on FB I'm unable to confirm one way or the other. You're probably right, most people will just go with the defaults and not keep on top of the ever changing rules/exceptions/conditions to manage things properly.

Reading various tech news items, every "feature" that FB et al. come up with are just the things that keep me from joining.

@trailofdestruction
Thats what I'm planning as well.

But keeping the FB business part going, and never post as an individual. Well try anyway 🙂

Yes, it's good for keeping in contact with scattered friends, but the phone still works.

Facebook is a totally different thing to a phone call.

I doubt my mate would have phoned me to tell me his kid did a great drawing in school yesterday, but I saw it (and the drawing) on FB and it was nice to see and made me smile. It's as if I'd popped round and seen it on the fridge, except they are at the other end of the country so that's hard.

Likewise my sister in law in the USA wouldn't have called me to say they went for a walk to the park and saw some lovely autumn colours, but she did post it to Facebook and I got to see pics and exchange a few words about it.