Leaving FB

[enchantedhome]

Wondering who has left FB and what your experiences have been? I'm on mostly for a few private groups, homeschool things, and checking in on old friends. But the constant flow of political articles, religious arguments, and just dumb, distracting stuff. I've never had an argument or been in a comment war, but this morning I responded to someone in a private group with an article I thought would help her, and got REAMED by another member. It caught me totally off guard how hurt I was. I'm on the verge of tears even now! I was seriously being kind and thoughtful and I got attacked. No apology, either. Why am even on FB?! 

I wonder what I might miss, but it's not a peaceful place. 

[hornblower]

I left for a couple months. You can deactivate (as opposed to delete) and see how it feels. 

You can reactivate any time (though if you do it too many times sometimes fb will lock you out for 24h before you can go back in) and all your things will be there.  (Deleting otoh will get rid of everything & if you come back, you'd need to start from scratch.)

Try it & see if you really miss it :)  

[TranquilMind]

Wondering who has left FB and what your experiences have been? I'm on mostly for a few private groups, homeschool things, and checking in on old friends. But the constant flow of political articles, religious arguments, and just dumb, distracting stuff. I've never had an argument or been in a comment war, but this morning I responded to someone in a private group with an article I thought would help her, and got REAMED by another member. It caught me totally off guard how hurt I was. I'm on the verge of tears even now! I was seriously being kind and thoughtful and I got attacked. No apology, either. Why am even on FB?! 

I wonder what I might miss, but it's not a peaceful place. 

 

You are apparently too nice for Facebook.

 

When people get nasty, it  just makes me laugh at how intolerant and small their worlds are, that they cannot even entertain opposing thoughts and that someone else's words on a screen sets them off. 

 

Maybe I just know people who can tolerate opposing opinions.  I actually don't see that much on Facebook, in particular. 

 

Edited August 2, 2016 by TranquilMind

[mamiof5]

I left fb years ago. Best decision ever. Life is busy, and it really was a time sucker for me.

 

Dh has an account, and I roam in there to check on a few folks (pictures, life, fun stuff), but I don't have an account anymore

[Faithr]

I was a long time fb user.  I even started a homeschooling group there that was pretty active.  However, eventually the negativity got me.  Life is too short to deal with pettiness and rudeness.  So I left.  I do miss some aspects of it.  My extended family has to remember to email or call me to inform me of the latest news.  And I do miss some of the people.  Some I still keep in contact with on those old fashioned yahoo groups.  But for the most part it is a huge relief.  I just posted a blog post on how I don't even want to visit lots of blogs anymore.  I am becoming a recluse in reaction to lots of social media.  I miss the days before internet.  I really do.  Except, of course I like chatting here and I still blog even though it is a very small, barely visited thing.  I have just gotten into the habit of thinking out loud there/journaling.  So I can take a little bit, but I keep having to cut back if I go over more than a little bit.

 

You can survive quite well without fb!

[G5052]

I left, and then came back. The bottom line is that there are some groups and people who only keep in touch that way.

 

I scan it once a day in the morning and zip past all the "stuff" to see how people and causes I care about are doing.

 

I only post there myself here-and-there, maybe a few times a month. Yesterday my oldest got a job, so I posted it. But I don't post about my kids' achievements or our purchases. Zero about my beliefs and values.

Edited August 2, 2016 by G5052

[bettyandbob]

I just hide or block people, depending on the level of offensive.

 

I don't usually post a lot. Based on other people's posts I can gauge how any response I make will be received. I don't get involved in vaccine debates. I don't offer suggestions of what i would to people who won't consider complimentary medicine, since I do vaccinate and use both allopathic and alternative medicine. Whatever i say on those topics could offend everyone since I'm right in the middle.

 

This is the season I usually hide a few people because I don't care for a lot of political stuff.

 

I do want to keep up with people remotely though. I cheer for the graduation pictures I cheer for my fellow mom who have dc with disabilities (feeding himself, walking). We don't have a lot time so sometimes fb can be a little bit of a support group.

 

Take a break. Deactivate. Decide how you want to use it and don't be drawn into anything else.

[SKL]

I use the "hide" feature to keep things mostly reasonable.  It kinda feels good to hide a post that really annoys me, and I also hide people I don't care to hear from (other people's friends who show up on my news feed because of their lax privacy settings).

 

Once in a while people will misunderstand and react stupidly.  Try not to take it personally.  That person is probably very stressed out about something unrelated, and is taking it out on you, probably without even realizing it.

[PeacefulChaos]

Some of my friends are considering 'deleting' their facebook.   (IRL friends, obviously lol)

 

Idk.  I don't really get it.  If I get annoyed with what someone posts re: political crap, I unfollow them.  If I get annoyed with what someone posts re: anything, I unfollow them.  

 

If I'm exceptionally annoyed at someone and seeing their mere existence on fb annoys me, I block them.  :lol:

 

 

I find FB incredibly useful.  I like posting pictures and seeing other people's pictures, I like keeping in touch with family, I like reading funny updates from friends.  I plan field trips and post about them on there; I just generally use it for a lot.  I can't really imagine letting something convince me to quit FB if it's something I can control (blocking/unfriending/unfollowing).  

 

But lots of people seem to hate fb for all the reasons above.  I can't say I agree, because again, all that can be controlled.  But whatevs.  *shrug*  Lots of people love to hate on FB and social media in general.  

[BarbecueMom]

When I realized I was sick of people's opinions, even those I agreed with, I quit using it for the most part. I have the messenger and groups apps, but I use those less and less over time. I generally only open the regular FB app to check on baseball game rainouts.

 

I guess I'm sort of out of (digital) sight, out of mind now. Social life has plummeted. People quit inviting us places when I stopped posting regular reminders of our existence. I thought I was keeping in touch with family, but no one seemed to notice when the kid pictures and updates stopped coming. Making new friends with secular homeschoolers is darn near impossible without social media, and even more so when you don't want to talk about Deeply Held Opinions or dogs. Especially deeply held opinions about dogs.

 

I joined FB when it was college students with .edu email addresses only, and you had to wait for your college to join. I miss that.

[SKL]

I wouldn't make a decision based on what you are seeing right now though.  It's going to be ugly all around until about a month after the election.  Might as well just put on your BS deflector and wait it out.  :)

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I deleted my account... maybe five years ago?  I dunno.  Never looked back!  

 

I feel so good without it.  If I really want to know what someone is up to, then I can contact them directly.  

 

I figure there will be some time in the future when I need to have an account because of some activity or another for the kids.  My plan at that point is to make my husband get on FB instead, because he's got better self-control and just won't bother opening it.  lol.  

 

 

[Guest]

I "left" about a month ago.  I can't believe how much more time I have in my day.  It wasn't just FB...it's just that the more I can stay away from the computer, the less I get sucked in to checking out the rabbit trails.  In addition to stopping FB, I also have decided to close my laptop when I walk away.  This keeps it from beaming out all the time and sucking me back in.  It also makes it just a little bit of a chore to log in, and that is often enough to just stop me.  I have gotten so much GOOD stuff done since I started doing these things.  

 

I'm not saying no no no no never about FB, but I will certainly do periodic fasts from it.  

 

One thing I have done is to "unfollow" people who do nothing but repost or who repost relentless political comment/memes.  I don't unfriend them because we are IRL friends and I actually do love them.  :0)  Or they have a photographic talent I want to enjoy.  Or whatever.  Then, about once a week or so, I would go into FB and look them up and see what they had posted that was actually personal.  It let me keep up a little with their lives without the bombardment, and at a time of my choosing.  I have one friend who uses FB entirely that way...she unfollows alllll her "friends" but when she has an hour she wants to blow off, or if she would be calling someone to chat but it is the middle of the night, she checks in with her FB friends.  That's really worked for her.  

 

There are a couple of options...including walking away.  :0)

 

ETA:  I really did like FB and found it a wonderful way to keep in touch with friends.  I liked my particular group a lot.  It wasn't crabbiness with them that made me take a break.  :0)

 

[AmandaVT]

I have my groups bookmarked, so I can go right to the groups and skip my main feed. It's great! I check my notifications to see if anyone tagged me in anything, but aside from that, I stick with my groups.

[regentrude]

FB is what you make it. It can be a peaceful place, if you select whose stuff you want to see, which groups to join, to what extent to participate, which friend requests to accept. 

You can separate your friends into lists and customize your interaction.

Fb is as nasty or as tranquil as you choose it to be. You can quit - or you can simply customize your feed and still keep the good parts.

 

[Guest]

My issue was that my friends group had individuals who diametrically opposed one another on fundamental levels. The people I am close with now are 180 degrees from the people I grew up with and still want to keep in touch. So I couldn't really respond to anything one group or person posted without offending someone else browsing my wall. I had to self edit constantly because I was hyper aware of not wanting to upset or offend a group I was close with.

 

Additionally, I loved checking status updates and groups and unfortunately it was a huge time sink and one I wasn't good at managing compared to the rest of my internet activists. I felt very tethered and not a little bit addicted.

 

Couple with that the very blatant and real privacy concerns and the fact that my personal information is a commodity for Zuckerberg's business model, much the same way everything linked with a google profile is, and I was ready to go. The smartest and most tech involved people I know, including software developers and electrical engineers, all eschew Facebook. There is a reason for that and it isn't to be counter cultural.

 

I cut ties something like six years ago now, and haven't regretted it for a moment. I deactivated and then deleted it and life has been much better for it. Despite my concerns about not keeping up with people the format just changed. We call, email, and even physically write letters. While it would be nice to voyeuristically peek in on some of my more distant relatives and old friends who I don't regularly contact, the fact is I don't need to do it and my life wasn't better when I had that ability.

 

If you want to leave the site do it. If you don't, then don't. Just be clear on your reasons why for either choice.

[OH_Homeschooler]

I would also recommend not making any rash decisions. You can block the person who attacked you, for starters. I've blocked some people just because they posted too much in a group I liked, even though there was nothing offensive about the posts. Now those groups are enjoyable again because it seems more like an open conversation and not just one person talking all the time!

 

I also regularly hide people I am friends with. I really have very little use for most of my high school "friends" so they are mostly hidden. Racist distant family members--still friends, but I don't have to see their stuff. I still get birthday notifications and I can check in on them from time to time, but I don't get blasted with their stuff every time I log in. 

[Alexigail]

I had my husband change my password in June and I haven't looked back.  There was only one time where I legitimately needed to check a message in that couple of months.  I don't miss it and now that the election is in full swing I'm so glad I'm not on there.  I was a bit of a facebook addict and I did it as part of a bid to get off my butt.  I take walks now and I really think that no FB has helped me lose weight this summer.  

[hornblower]

Just to reiterate, deactivating facebook is not permanent & has no real consequences so it's not a 'rash decision'. 

Deleting your fb profile is permanent. Deactivating isn't. 

[Garga]

I haven't had any bad issues with facebook at all.  There are people who post things that I disagree with, but it's not a big deal.  However, no one has reamed me, so that might change my mind.  Then again, I don't think I'd blame FB for that--I'd blame the person.

 

There are some people whose posts I don't want to miss.  My dh, my best friend IRL, etc.  I changed their status to 'close friend.'  Now whenever they post, I get a notification.  I read their posts that way and I don't have to worry that I'll miss something they posted.   For everything else, I do a cursory scroll-through a time a or two a day.  I could skip scrolling for weeks and it wouldn't matter to me, because I'd get notifications if someone I really want to hear from posts.

 

I don't know if other people just have really offensive friends or what, but I don't find it to be much of an issue when people post things I don't agree with. I feel momentary disdain for them (I'm being honest here), but then I move on. 

 

But I suppose it's because I don't have to scroll if I don't want to.  I don't have to try to scroll to find posts by the people closest to me.  I just look at the notifications and then can walk away from FB if I feel like it.

 

 

[SamanthaCarter]

I've hid everybody except my family (FB is how they stay in touch) and my local groups. I still get a ton of junk on my news feed, because apparently FB doesn't think I have enough friends! Or enough ads. It's truly annoying. 

[hornblower]

I still get a ton of junk on my news feed, because apparently FB doesn't think I have enough friends! Or enough ads. It's truly annoying. 

Adblock & the FB Purity extension (it is an extension to your browser) and you can stop all that nonsense 

 

Unfortunately this all only works on a laptop or desktop. Every once in a while I login on my iPad and scare myself. It's a completely different fb feed without all that stuff... 

[mommyoffive]

I have never been on and I don't see that changing.

[Cecropia]

I deleted my account in 2013.  It was a waste of time, and I had privacy concerns.  No regrets!

 

Note: I am really annoyed by local organizations (like the local homeschool group) that set up a facebook page with upcoming events, rsvp, etc., which is inaccessible to non-members, with no easy alternative to find out current info or correspond with the group.  If you happen to manage a group page like this, please don't assume that everyone already uses/doesn't mind setting up a new account with facebook...

[sassenach]

I deactivate for months at a time. It helps. After the awful Orlando week, I decided to shut things down until after the election.

 

I also am only friends with people whom I don't live near. I also ruthlessly unfollow people.

 

All of these personal rules have contributed to a much more peaceful FB world, without setting the whole thing up in flames. I like seeing my friends' babies.

[sassenach]

I deleted my account in 2013.  It was a waste of time, and I had privacy concerns.  No regrets!

 

Note: I am really annoyed by local organizations (like the local homeschool group) that set up a facebook page with upcoming events, rsvp, etc., which is inaccessible to non-members, with no easy alternative to find out current info or correspond with the group.  If you happen to manage a group page like this, please don't assume that everyone already uses/doesn't mind setting up a new account with facebook...

Our homeschool group operates off of FB. My suggestion to people is to open a dummy account. The alternative for our group is to pay for a website, which no one is willing to do.

[catz]

I deleted my account in 2013.  It was a waste of time, and I had privacy concerns.  No regrets!

 

Note: I am really annoyed by local organizations (like the local homeschool group) that set up a facebook page with upcoming events, rsvp, etc., which is inaccessible to non-members, with no easy alternative to find out current info or correspond with the group.  If you happen to manage a group page like this, please don't assume that everyone already uses/doesn't mind setting up a new account with facebook...

 

I can see both sides of the coin on using FB like that.  I think places that collect payment and have paid employees (like dance studios, gyms, tutoring services, art schools, etc) do have an obligation to keep in touch with their user base in a number of ways.

 

But something like a homeschool group that might only exist because of the goodwill of some busy parent volunteers?  I think they get to chose their medium whatever that may be.  And if some interested subset doesn't like it, they can certainly volunteer to distribute info another way or maybe decide the group format doesn't work for them.  Some non-profits I feel similarly about depending on their size and structure.  Although, many non-profits just get good at staying in touch because of the way they raise funds.

 

I haven't had issues keeping my feed clean of drama.  I definitely don't think the world needs to use any ONE social media platform.  But I also am not a huge fan of the judgment that seems to come from non-users sometimes.  If it is a useful tool for you, great.  If you'd rather not use it, great.  If you like it but want less drama - use settings/unfollow/unfriend unapologetically.  I don't get being annoyed with someone in a volunteer role doing things differently than you might?

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

I hate FB with a fiery passion, but I'm not willing to be completely disconnected from our local HSing community and the few groups I participate in there. So I only have 50 or so friends, and I've unfollowed everyone except for the few friends and family who use the medium for sharing positive things rather than creating or sharing drama or controversy. I can check in on people if and when I want to, I see the good posts from people I love, and I get to stay connected with my groups. I've set up email notifications from the few groups whose posts I really want to see, so if I don't check in on FB for a few days, I still see the most important stuff in my email. 

 

I'm so much happier with the whole thing now  :D

Edited August 2, 2016 by ILiveInFlipFlops

[Kassia]

I love FB to keep in touch with friends and I belong to a lot of homeschooling groups there.  I also like it for news and local events.  I do find that I am unfriending more people and dropping out of more groups and it makes me feel better.  Less time is wasted and less negativity in my life.  But I can't see leaving FB - just making it smaller for me.  

[wendy not in HI]

I had the busiest month of my life in July.  I didn't get on Facebook once.  I was fine.  Facebook was fine.  I didn't have to delete anyone or make any big announcements.  I just didn't go there.  Easy peasy!!  

[GoodGrief]

The "unfollow" option, used liberally, is your friend. :-) I find Facebook very useful for maintaining connections with family, and even busy local friends/acquaintances. But I don't have to read every word everyone on my list has to say, especially if it tends to be aggravating. :-)

[Seasider]

My feed was getting ridiculous, what with all the "so-n-so liked ---" posts and all. I unfollowed a large percentage of fb friends to streamline my feed. I can easily check on individuals by going to their timeline and that's even better because all that friend's news is in one place.

 

I like fb for groups, and try to use it in a way that works for me.

[LucyStoner]

I fixed my FB issue by carefully selecting the groups of people I would friend or accept friend requests from. I started a new account and deactivated my old account where I'd accepted faaaar too many friend requests from colleagues and acquaintances.

 

Because of my extended family and the way a lot of people in my social groups set up parties and events and groups/teams share information, leaving didn't seem like a feasible idea. My extended family for example is scattered across the globe and is large. FB is what allows us all to stay connected. We are also setting up a face to face reunion using FB.

[hornblower]

If you're getting too many notifications, you can turn them off

 

https://www.facebook.com/help/112320895539157

[marbel]

I can see both sides of the coin on using FB like that.  I think places that collect payment and have paid employees (like dance studios, gyms, tutoring services, art schools, etc) do have an obligation to keep in touch with their user base in a number of ways.

 

But something like a homeschool group that might only exist because of the goodwill of some busy parent volunteers?  I think they get to chose their medium whatever that may be.  And if some interested subset doesn't like it, they can certainly volunteer to distribute info another way or maybe decide the group format doesn't work for them.  Some non-profits I feel similarly about depending on their size and structure.  Although, many non-profits just get good at staying in touch because of the way they raise funds.

 

I haven't had issues keeping my feed clean of drama.  I definitely don't think the world needs to use any ONE social media platform.  But I also am not a huge fan of the judgment that seems to come from non-users sometimes.  If it is a useful tool for you, great.  If you'd rather not use it, great.  If you like it but want less drama - use settings/unfollow/unfriend unapologetically.  I don't get being annoyed with someone in a volunteer role doing things differently than you might?

 

This is my take on it too.

 

I use the unfollow feature liberally.  There are people with whom I'd like to remain friends, but that doesn't mean I want to see everything they post.  I also seem to have lucked out with people as far as annoying content, political and otherwise.  I just don't see much.  When I do, I unfollow. 

 

For me, it's the best way to keep in touch with young adult nephews and nieces.  They put up pictures of things they're doing, of their kids, etc.  This is how they disseminate information, and I don't expect them to remember that Aunty is not on facebook and thus needs some separate form of communication.  It's also enabled me to keep in touch with people who come in and out of my life - students who attend our church while they're in school, and then move on when they graduate.  It's not a deep connection, but it's still there.

 

But, that's what makes it useful and worth keeping for me.  If I didn't get good use of it, I'd drop it and wouldn't miss it. 

 

And, yeah on the volunteer organizations.  Great platform for that:  free and easy to manage.

 

ETA: If I found it was a big time-sink I would drop it.  It doesn't take me much time to run through my news feed in the morning.  I scroll through pretty quickly, just stop where I'm interested.  That's mostly at the baby photos and the recipes.  But I don't keep a vast number of friends or like vast numbers of pages, and belong only to a few groups. 

 

Edited August 3, 2016 by marbel

[Bluegoat]

I haven't had any bad issues with facebook at all.  There are people who post things that I disagree with, but it's not a big deal.  However, no one has reamed me, so that might change my mind.  Then again, I don't think I'd blame FB for that--I'd blame the person.

 

There are some people whose posts I don't want to miss.  My dh, my best friend IRL, etc.  I changed their status to 'close friend.'  Now whenever they post, I get a notification.  I read their posts that way and I don't have to worry that I'll miss something they posted.   For everything else, I do a cursory scroll-through a time a or two a day.  I could skip scrolling for weeks and it wouldn't matter to me, because I'd get notifications if someone I really want to hear from posts.

 

I don't know if other people just have really offensive friends or what, but I don't find it to be much of an issue when people post things I don't agree with. I feel momentary disdain for them (I'm being honest here), but then I move on. 

 

But I suppose it's because I don't have to scroll if I don't want to.  I don't have to try to scroll to find posts by the people closest to me.  I just look at the notifications and then can walk away from FB if I feel like it.

 

I don't think it is always just about not agreeing.  I'm not even in the US, but I am getting a little tired of the constant political stuff that some people I know post, every day, or blow by blows of the conventions.  I feel like it creates a distorted information environment somehow, and I find myelf wanting to be narky - like, why are you, my Canadian uncle, so very cnserned about the details of American politics, including supporting candidates with political views similar to the ones you hate in Canadian politics? 

 

Or, I have friends from university who I thought of as very smart people, and yet now I find I feel differently just based on what they post. 

 

It's a little - disconcerting maybe?  Or at least it seems that it is probably totally unnecessary and not a good thing for real relationships.

 

I have considered leaving FB myself, what I find really tricky is that a few groups, like the local homeschool group, and also some family things like reunion organization, are done mostly through FB. 

[BlsdMama]

Wondering who has left FB and what your experiences have been? I'm on mostly for a few private groups, homeschool things, and checking in on old friends. But the constant flow of political articles, religious arguments, and just dumb, distracting stuff. I've never had an argument or been in a comment war, but this morning I responded to someone in a private group with an article I thought would help her, and got REAMED by another member. It caught me totally off guard how hurt I was. I'm on the verge of tears even now! I was seriously being kind and thoughtful and I got attacked. No apology, either. Why am even on FB?! 

I wonder what I might miss, but it's not a peaceful place. 

 

 

So I left Facebook about four months ago. I actually recently got it back.

 

I don't know that it's permanent.  We're in the process of a big community project (DS' Eagle) and the community isn't our local one, but DH's and my hometown - which means our connections are social and FB helps with that.  

If you use FS boards, it's hard to do that without FB now.

 

I'm hoping the political crap goes away after voting.

Meh.  I dunno.  After a break from it, I'm both sorry I came back and grateful.   I woke up this morning to a really great video of my two year old nephew that I would have otherwise missed.  My SIL posts a LOT of pictures of the kids on her FB and I love it.  OTH, I had about 50 posts that were utterly useless.

 

I'm thinking about hiding everyone except the people I enjoy. :P :D

[musicianmom]

*

Edited May 21, 2022 by musicianmom

[Bluegoat]

Is there some sort of application out there that works a lot like FB for group communications, without the other aspects?  If enough people are disatisfied with FB maybe there is a niche there.

 

But - I think a big part of it is that as long as you are going to use some commmunication platform, it only works if a lot of people have bought into using it.  That is true of phones and email too, but we are so used to everyone having those we take it for granted.

 

I think FB tends to be the default for an online platform just because it is already so popular.  Even if someone set up some other service, people would have to join it or gain access to it somehow. 

[Bluegoat]

As a business owner who has to manage email communications, I understand why people go the FB route for their groups.

 

Emails are unreliable for group communication. Period. I have clients whose email provider routinely dumps our mass emails into obscure folders, no matter what. Last spring I had to field the "I never got that email" complaint multiple times, and manually re-send the emails to individual clients, at our busiest time of year. There is no way I would bother with that if there wasn't money on the line. 

 

And personally, I find email for a lot of the things that FB groups and pages do hard to keep track of.  If I go to the page for our local homeschool group, all the information about a given event is there in one place and it udates in real time.  I prefer that to a dozen emails in a string going to my inbox about events I might not even be interested in.

[Sweet Home Alabama]

I was glad to see this post this morning.  I've most recently been considering joining FB.  Our Scout troop uses it to keep in touch with member families.  Also, colleges use it to communicate with parents, and I'm fairly certain we'll be facing this situation in the near future. I think it is inevitable that I'll need to join.  BUT... I have concerns.  I strongly dislike signing up for services that ask for personal information.  (Dh handles the vast majority of this kind of thing.  Yet the FB account would be mine, and I sort of feel like it would do me good to have the experience of signing up vs him signing me up.) Still, I feel like Big Brother would certainly be watching, and that feels very creepy to me. 

 

I read somewhere above about setting up a dummy account.  What is this, and would this help ease my fears about joining FB?

 

I would really appreciate comments directed at the privacy/Big Brother issues as well as the dummy account option.  

 

Thanks!!!

[Bluegoat]

I was glad to see this post this morning.  I've most recently been considering joining FB.  Our Scout troop uses it to keep in touch with member families.  Also, colleges use it to communicate with parents, and I'm fairly certain we'll be facing this situation in the near future. I think it is inevitable that I'll need to join.  BUT... I have concerns.  I strongly dislike signing up for services that ask for personal information.  (Dh handles the vast majority of this kind of thing.  Yet the FB account would be mine, and I sort of feel like it would do me good to have the experience of signing up vs him signing me up.) Still, I feel like Big Brother would certainly be watching, and that feels very creepy to me. 

 

I read somewhere above about setting up a dummy account.  What is this, and would this help ease my fears about joining FB?

 

I would really appreciate comments directed at the privacy/Big Brother issues as well as the dummy account option.  

 

Thanks!!!

 

I think the idea is you set up an account without your real name and giving minimal personal information.  Then only use it for specific needs like communications with organizations and such, not for other personal uses.

 

I think there are FB rules against some of that stuff, (like giving fake info) but many people feel jutified doing it, and if they don't they just do as little as possible - maybe giving only a first name or initials, that sort of thing.

[musicianmom]

I know people who just abbreviate their names in their FB profile -- Like if the name was Suzy Smith, their FB name is Su Sm. I'm guessing they only use it for groups and such.

 

Our very large local homeschool support group tried really hard to move away from using a FB group. They had a big unveiling of a new log-in only social media site specific to our group. It was a bomb. Hardly anyone used it and people kept posting on the FB group instead. 

[hornblower]

Is there some sort of application out there that works a lot like FB for group communications, without the other aspects?  If enough people are disatisfied with FB maybe there is a niche there.

 

But - I think a big part of it is that as long as you are going to use some commmunication platform, it only works if a lot of people have bought into using it.  That is true of phones and email too, but we are so used to everyone having those we take it for granted.

 

I think FB tends to be the default for an online platform just because it is already so popular.  Even if someone set up some other service, people would have to join it or gain access to it somehow. 

 

 

In the good old days, we had yahoogroups.  (& before that egroups) Yahoogroups is still around but it's dying. 

 

Our homeschool groups still have yahoogroups running but that community is essentially dead.  All the outings, organized events, curriculum sales, questions about various legal issues etc all get hashed out on the fb groups (which are AWFUL imo, in that you can't organize the topics, you can't search very well (not at all on mobile for ex) and it technically forces people to use their real name. 

 

There's a strongish WTM group on fb btw..... 

[Cecropia]

If the facebook group in question would at least change their main page settings to "public", non-fb-members should be able to see what's going on in a given day/updates in real time without having to sign in, right?  We just can't post our own comments.  Doesn't help with the RSVP problem, but it's an improvement.

[hornblower]

If the facebook group in question would at least change their main page settings to "public", non-fb-members should be able to see what's going on in a given day/updates in real time without having to sign in, right?  We just can't post our own comments.  Doesn't help with the RSVP problem, but it's an improvement.

 

I don't think so. I think groups won't show, only public 'pages' do.... 

[marbel]

If the facebook group in question would at least change their main page settings to "public", non-fb-members should be able to see what's going on in a given day/updates in real time without having to sign in, right?  We just can't post our own comments.  Doesn't help with the RSVP problem, but it's an improvement.

 

I think many groups, and homeschool groups in particular, don't necessarily want their events posted in a way that anyone can see them.  (Maybe particularly true when people meet in homes.)   When I most recently joined a homeschool group - 9 years ago; they used a yahoo group for announcements and such - they required new members to come to a park day before they would add them to the mailing list.  They wanted to see people first.  

[regentrude]

If the facebook group in question would at least change their main page settings to "public", non-fb-members should be able to see what's going on in a given day/updates in real time without having to sign in, right?  We just can't post our own comments.  Doesn't help with the RSVP problem, but it's an improvement.

 

Then you would get privacy concerns from the members of the group who do not wish to broadcast their activities publicly.

Many parents prefer not to announce publicly on the internet which park their kids are going to hang out, or where they will be on a field trip. 

 

What is the big deal about opening an account and use it just to view, but not post, information??? 

I have not seen a medium that is free and as convenient to notify groups of people, update the event info in one place, and collect attendance. Email is not a suitable tool for this.

 

ETA: In our homeschool group which uses fb, we want to know who is reading. We require people to introduce themselves and use their real names - because that is for the safety and privacy of the families in the group. Like marbel, we require people to attend; they can join the fb group first, but if they have not shown up to any park day and we don't know whether they are "legit", they are dropped by the admin.

Edited August 3, 2016 by regentrude

[Guest]

Those of you with privacy concerns, you realize you are posting on the biggest, public homeschool board, right?

[Guest]

Those of you with privacy concerns, you realize you are posting on the biggest, public homeschool board, right?

It's apples to oranges - the WTM owns any content a user posts to the board, but the similarities end there. The indexing, sale, and manipulation of user content on Facebook and Google is a big part of the problem, and something that isn't a part of this site.

 

Public viewable data is the least crucial issue on the table. It would help you be more fair to those who refuse to use the platform if you better understood why, instead of just being snarky at those who disagree with you on the subject.