No way, Minnie, I am not going there either. I feel like if they care about me, they will give me a different option. :)

No face book for me. I spend enough online time as it is.

Moni

I joined for a while, but it just bothered me. It feels so public. I unjoined, but sometimes I'd like to go there to look someone up. Can't now, but I'm happy not to be a part of it anymore.

My husband and I were just griping about that too! I'm just about sick to death of FB this and FB that and like us on FB so you can enter to win a million dollars and blah blah blah blah. I have a FB profile and I just don't get the big excitement of it all! I have no desire to put myself out there and have all the people I went to school with some 30 years ago add me to their "friend's list". I was never so darn happy to get out of school, I don't care to rehash that NOW! HA! I only have very close relatives and I don't use my maiden name so nobody can find me because they don't know my married name since I'm divorce and since remarried.

I like FB because it keeps me in touch with family on the east coast...it's great. The cousins in the family all over the country talk to each other and share pictures of their families with each other on FB. Most of them have never met each other in real life, and the only way they communicate is through FB.

I'm not pubic on FB at all, it's all set to private except for my family.

Facebook is what you make it.

Please pardon my typo LOL - I can't correct it.

I'm with you oldgardner. It's what you make it. I love FB and use it to stay in touch with family and friends. Don't do any of the games.

I enjoy FB, but I have to say there's some truth to the "forced" issue, at least in one industry. Writers are expected to have an Internet "platform" these days; that is, editors/publishers insist that their writers maintain a presence on FB, have a blog (with a following), etc. It's easy for some, not so simple for others.

I enjoy facebook to a limit.It is what you want to make it as somebody stated .It gets boring sometimes but all in all I like it. I have a twitter account..totally don't understand that thing at all. LOL.

I don't get nearly the emails I used to from friends and family. They are all on Facebook, and it seems like they're saying "Well, if you want to hear from us, join!" ugh.

I'm with you Minnie. I'm trying to stay as private as I can, and register to websites that I really need to. All those hackings into certain websites that I hear are enough to give me the creep!

Frankly, the cable and satellite networks can't even get me to pay them for watching TV! I got a good roof antenna and pick up Over The Air (OTA) channels. I get true High Definition channels because they're direct and not bypassing by some company. Then, they compressed the signals. Bby the time the channels reach to your home, the clarity of high definition is somewhat lost.

Every time, my family comes over, they oooh and ahhh about how clear my TVs are. I giggled and for a long time I didn't say anything because they're the type that often boasts about their new latest electronic purchases. LOL... I finally told them about cable vs. OTA channels.

In Houston, my antenna can pick up about 61 channels. I got plenty of channels to entertain me all day long and all... for free!

I know young people who don't even know what TV antennas are --they think you HAVE to have cable to watch TV.

When I told them about antennas, they assumed it was some kind of new technology. Cracked me up.

I agree - I'm sick to death of FB. Tried it and too much of my personal info was obtained without my approval - apparent in what people it suggested I might want to friend. People I'd crossed paths with for various reasons were presented as possible "friends". I'm sure they had no idea pictures of them were coming up for my review. You think your info is private - maybe until they add something new and it defaults to public. I use LinkedIn for professional reasons and it's all I can do to keep up with that including limiting how much info is available to all my contacts.

Your lucky to get so many channels! Wow! We can get quite a few, but weather can really mess them up. Sometimes it is a beautiful day and the signal drops. We get scrambles in the picture on a daily basis. We have Dish Network, but also get the HD locals over the antenna and can record those to the DVR too....but I don't choose those unless I have to since they almost always have some signal loss.

I will never be on facebook no matter what or who urges me to do it. I strongly dislike it and the people that are behind it. They continue to make billions on data mining all the info from the people there. From a security standpoint alone it is rife with scams, infections, and hacks and poorly written code and script. It is much like going to visit porn sites in that respect, a good place to get infections and worse.

I don't do either and likely never will,

I enjoy FB for the way it keeps me in touch with people. I don't do games and other apps. FB is as secure or more secure as any other site. Certainly more secure than this one. It is what you make it. You get to control it unlike here where anyone can read, we have people "saving" things for us that we can't remove etc. FB has privacy settings. Message boards like this and others really don't. Everything you post here can be snagged including pictures. Posters do not have any control at all. So I don't understand the "fear factor" of FB.

Well put WildChild! I am sometimes amazed at the amount of info put on this site - it can been seen by anyone is out there and is Google land forever!

I think because it looks simple and plain here - many think that it is "safe" to post very personal info.

Employers, attorneys, etc. could have a field day if it came to that for some.

lol if it wasn't for fb i wouldn't have a clue what my kids and grands were up to..my dds havn't called me since the first of the month! and i refuse to call them! half the time if you don't text, they don't answer, and i don't text, sigh...

I have thought about FB and even posted here for some help, and I know that 2 GK would email me, but I am concerned about the privacy. Also right now my junk mail is way down and I really want to keep it that way. DH has some relatives that refuse to keep in touch unless we do FB. So, I guess we won't hear from them much. I think there are good and bad in everything.

I shouldn't say anything about FB because I've never looked at it. What I *think* I know (lol) is that people use it to express their egos by writing their mundane activities and random thoughts. It sounds like a public 'Dear Diary'.

Did you ever keep a diary? Ever read what you'd written and think it was boring and stupid and feel grateful nobody else knew what you'd written? Very few people write insightful journals.

I joined FB a couple of years ago at the urging of several friends on another forum. Immediately I was bombarded with invitations to play this game or that, accept a flower from a friend, and on and on.

To me, FB is the equivalent of those (yawn) holiday newsletters, which I detest. As for staying in touch with people, I can more effectively do that with an email, or (gasp!) a real letter or phone call.

The final straw was when my brother told me that after he accepted my invitation his computer was blasted with a virus. Maybe my doing, maybe not. But I had gotten messages from others on FB saying that if I got weird messages from them, that it was not really them sending them, but something through FB. I didn't want to be responsible for doing that to anyone else, so I closed the account. Don't miss it at all.

My goodness. I've been on Facebook for a couple of years and have absolutely no problems with viruses or spam.

It's just any other website--you have to be careful not to click on suspicious things wherever you are on the web. If you're web-savvy you shouldn't have any problems with it whatsoever. I don't.

I like facebook. I'll admit, the novelty has worn off some but I still enjoy it.

I just block all the game requests and have my page settings to "friends" only.

I get very little spam these days, too.

I have been on Facebook for years and have not have problems with spam and/or viruses either.

And like charlee, I block the games (and other apps), and I am set to friends only.

Myspace, facebook, twitter and the rest - I won't sign up for any of them. There's enough other ways to keep up with what's going on with people about whom I care and those who care about me will have to find alternate methods.

I won't do either one. I like to keep in touch via phone calls, e-mails or better yet, in person (if they live close enough).

Sadly, the art of conversation is becoming non-exsistent, especially this generation.

I'm with you Matti5.

I find that all of those FB, MF, Twitter, etc., make more sense at a business and commercial levels. As for a more personal level of communication with my friends and family, I too, chose a more personal approach, the old telephone.

I recently, purchased a new notebook that has a webcam and Skype installed. Now, this is a technology that makes more sense to me!

I think the fascination and appeal of Facebook will wane - like lots of other new technologies do. It cracks me up that people have 500+ "friends". A whole different meaning to the term friend compared with my definition. I think Facebook is a textbook example of herd mentality.

I'm puzzled as to the dislike of Facebook--it's just another means of communication, like using the phone, emails, snail mail, etc.

I don't believe I have a "herd mentality" because I use FB to keep in touch with family on the east coast. FB is free (not like long distance phone calls), it's easy to use and you can share pictures of family on it with distant relatives. I think it's a great convenience.

Absolutely herd mentality! I'll second that! Whatever's the new thing, all the sheep just follow blindly!

Alrighty then.

As an alternative to Facebood, oldgardener, your family may enjoy having their own web site. My large family, our kids and now sometimes grandkids and also cousins have a secure website through myfamily.com. We do have to pay a yearly fee, but we take turns paying it. We can share pictures, news, recipes, books we're reading and take polls (the guys love this during sports events). It's a great way to stay in touch and between that and e-mail, it's enough for me. I cancelled my Facebook account because I just didn't understand it. Bits and pieces and never the whole story.

I don't Facebook or Twit. I like emails, thank you very much.

On our local news show there was a book they were giving away and you had to Twitter them. Not send in an email, but had to go to Twitter. You used to be able to send in an email. I was ticked.

I see so many websites now with live Twitter action down the side. It uses up speed, and I have no interest in reading them.

Well, I for one like FB. My step daughter is really bad at not keeping in touch and last time her Dad, my DH,tried to call her on her birthday, she told him she had company and couldn't talk and would call back and of course never did. He hates to talk on the phone and for him to call her was quite an undertaking, needless to say he has never called her back and just sends her a card.

Because of her rarely keeping in touch I never know what is going on with the 4 GDs. Being on FB I found out one of them was in RN training and going to get married and was able to contact her and my DDs and family and myself went to the wedding in Al. this spring.

I have lots of nieces and nephews and they do not keep in touch but this old aunt does like to keep up with them and can do via FB. I don't want to talk and chat with them as we have nothing in common but do like to see their pictures and know about their kids and grandkids.

I block the stuff I don't want am just open for friends and relatives and if they start getting out of hand I just block them.lol.

I'm with Oldgardener on this one...been @ FB since almost the beginning...very few issues with it at all.....

Place my name with Wildchild's post and others who like FB. I have been able to stay in contact with friends, family and sorority sisters, and classmates, cousins. Plus it is so nice to see the pictures of family members, and friends. FB has security settings, this site does not. I go to FB quicker than I do the forums I use to frequent, because it is alot more personable, and also I KNOW personally friends and family on FB. I have not met anyone on any forum in person. Since I have joined fb, I have had a reunion with some of my sorority sisters, second cousins and friends. No, I won't be giving up FB anytime soon. :~D

Facebook is what you make it. You can be just as private as you want to be, or just as public as you want to be.
Anyone who wants to join FB, but has no clue should get with a friend who knows it and have them help with the account set up.

I enjoy the pictures and I had a lot of people tell me how much they appreciated and enjoyed my pictures during the flood. Especially people from here that have moved away.

I did giggle at this topic because Glen used to say the same thing about www.!

I'm on facebook but I don't "get into it"...I have allowed just a few friends...mostly family.

I think it's kind of scary the way every single business belongs...

I've mentioned that to my husband several times.

patti

Facebook has 750 million users. From a business perspective, it would be extremely stupid not to be on it. That's a lot of free advertising with the "likes" and overall exposure to that many active, engaged users. It's crucial for businesses to keep up with the times and what their customers are doing and right now that is Facebook. In a few years it'll be something else.

I've been on FB for three years and have no problem with it. I don't do Twitter though. I keep up with grand kids on FB because today's kids don't use the telephone. They either text or FB. I reunited with three college roommates thru Facebook. ..and a few old neighbors.

I like Facebook a lot, and find that you can be as private or as open as you like. When I Google my name, nothing from Facebook comes up.

Aside from keeping in touch with friend and family, one thing I love about Facebook is all the quirky little comments that people make, stuff they'd never call to say. It gives me a much more textured view of their lives.