I know Facebook is taking down democratic institutions, but I need to stay connected with my family

[blake2012]

The only way ever invented to stay in contact with valued friends and family is Facebook. So sorry Democracy.



#deletefacebook

[Egnever]

1. I assume this is sarcasm?

[blake2012]

2. yes. I will add to make it clearer. LOL.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. For me I cant live without those "quizzes" ....so fuck you democracy

[Sherman A1]

4. That's nice

and Your point?

[blake2012]

5. my point? #deletefacebook

the more people dig, the more evil we find they are. no moral compass. just everyone's privacy sold to foreign powers to steal our elections.

[Sherman A1]

7. Yeah,

okay, whatever.....

[zipplewrath]

12. Of little use

Not sure how many people you think you could get to do such a thing, but a media consultant pointed out that easily an equal number of new accounts would appear over the same period of time in India. If we want to do something, we'll have to do it the old fashion way. Regulations and laws.

[blake2012]

14. That may bebut the sooner we stop shoveling data toward them the better

Who cares? India can deal with it as their problem too. We need to hasten the decline of Facebook in US market—and pass regulations to control their behavior

[dameatball]

6. Lol.....my family is precisely why I got off Facebook....some of them anyway.

[Kentonio]

8. Be as sarcastic as you like

For some people, especially a lot of seniors, Facebook is the only way they keep current with their distant families daily lives. Trying to shame them for that isn’t a good thing.

[blake2012]

15. Email? Snail mail? Phone calls?

Even things like Skype are better than Facebook for that

[Ms. Toad]

24. Each of those connects with a single person at a time,

through directed outreach to that individual or a small group of individuals.

There is no other platform with the population base that serves the role facebook does for hosting accidental but valuable conversations with a broad range of individuals in my life.

It is - in essence - the global watercooler, or town square, where valuable conversations occur without the intentional pre-planning. Personally, I don't otherwise have time for intentionally planning conversations in my 80-100 hour work-week. (Two weeks ago, I clocked 86 hours between Sunday at 12:01 and leaving work "Wednesday" (actually around 5 AM on Thursday morning - after arriving at 11 AM on Wednesday). In 30 minutes on facebook I can catch up with/engage with up to 100 high school classmates, family members, people living with the health conditions my daughter, my spouse, or I have, track down students who should be studying for the bar exam who are sending out SOS messages via facebook, etc.) It would take me at least 16 hours do accomplish that my snail mail, phone calls, or skype (@ a conservative 10 minutes per person)

Find me another platform that does permits me to do that and then you can complain that my reasons for not deleting facebook are superficial. Until then, please stop snarking at those of us who find the unique things facebook offer invaluable. When the water gets too dirty, you don't toss the baby out with the bathwater - you clean the water.

[tazkcmo]

19. A lot of seniors

Including myself, grew up using multiple avenues for maintaining contact with our families. Phone calls and letters (Yes, hand written letters!) are two of them. There were also post cards and cassettes. Don't worry about us too much because we remember what life was like when "email" was a typo and our phones hung (and stayed) on our walls.

[Kentonio]

36. There's another side to it though.

Back then those were the available lines of communication for everyone, not just seniors, and so you could expect your people to contact you the same way. When was the last time someone under 40 sent you a letter? I don't think I've received an actual conversational letter from anyone in at least 20 years, its just not how people keep in touch now.

Phone calls yes, but people get busy and assume people already know things because they were shared on Facebook. My parents refuse to have it, and it drives me crazy because they don't see two of their four sons very often as we're far away, and it makes them sad that they dont have that regular connection. Yet via a platform like Facebook they'd be seeing nearly daily little updates and details about our lives that would make them feel much more a part of our lives.

It comes with positives and negatives sure, but I see with other parents and older relatives how much of a social lifeline it can be. It's helping a lot of older people feel a lot less isolated and lonely, and I think that should be something that's celebrated occasionally. Technology is bringing some wonderful benefits as well as some downsides.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. Lots of botnets were established recently just to retweet that hashtag over and over again.

[blake2012]

16. Who cares? The sentiment is still valid

[hlthe2b]

10. Much deserved sarcasm.. Had these folks never created an email group list?

or any one of a zillion other ways to create a shared group-based online presence?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Something will replace Facebook and other dodgy social media outlets.

We will need to watch them very carefully.

[blake2012]

18. Yep. And we will.

[LanternWaste]

13. You confuse one hammer as the entire box of tools.

You confuse one hammer as the entire box of tools.

I get it... it's much more mentally convenient that way-- we can rationalize the tools we use as righteous and criticize the same tools in the hands of others as subversive.

I did the same when I was young as well.

[blake2012]

17. Im 49. Nothing wrong with swearing off these sites we gave benefit of the doubt to

Only to see they massively breached that trust.

I imagine you had other ways to communicate prior to 2004 as well, right?

[Pendrench]

20. Hi blake2012 - I realize that my example may be in the minority, but we did not use Facebook to stay

connected with family, but rather to find family.

Specifically, our daughter was born in Latvia in 1999 (we adopted her when she was 9 months old). We only had limited documentation from the orphanage, so when she was 17 years old, we used Facebook to see if we could locate members of her family.

We posted in a variety of Adoption Groups, as well as Latvian Groups, and (after several months) a young lady from Latvia read about our quest and was able to locate our daughter's birth-mother. Facebook was also instrumental in locating two of our daughter's siblings (who were also adopted) - a brother who lives in the UK, and a sister who lives in France.

Could we have found her family members without Facebook? Perhaps, but it certainly made our efforts easier.

As I said, this is just an example of why some people use Facebook for various reasons (beyond just trying to stay in touch with family and/or friends) - which is not to say that this absolves Facebook for their actions regarding personal information.

Thank you.

Tim

[Blue_Adept]

26. Thank you for sharing a great story!

[Pendrench]

30. My pleasure!

Our daughter has not (yet) been able to contact her birth-mother directly - from what we were told, she lives in a very poor part of Latvia, and does not have a computer or phone - but she does speak to her brother about every two weeks or so, and she texts or calls her sister every day.

In fact, just last year our daughter spend two weeks with her sister (and her family) in Spain.

We also used Facebook to connect with our son's birth-family, but that was much easier, since he was born her in the States. And not only was he able to meet his birth-mom, the two of them see each other on a regular basis (in fact, we spend holidays with her whenever we can).

So we've been very lucky.

[mreilly]

21. OMG, keep up the patronizing, folks...

... Like others have said, I use FB to keep in touch with people and causes I care about. It didn't influence me in any way to vote for Trump nor do I give it any data I'm concerned about them having.

The Chicken Little "sky is falling" stuff simply has no impact on me. You can delete FB and please do, but the rest of us will make up our own minds.

You guys can harp and complain and make cutting remarks about people who won't listen to you... have fun wagging your fingers and feeling oh-so-superior. I'll keep right on using FB to read and exchange useful information, such as with my fellow members of The Resistance.

Oh, yeah, let me just run right back to 2004 and set up some email groups with people! That'll work swell! How about faxes and carrier pigeons too?

SMDH. The patronzing "I know best" attitude is really what is ruining this place. That plus the people who rush to show how compassionate and liberal they are such that if you insult the Palin family for instance will lecture you on why "That's not NICE"!

[get the red out]

33. Thank you!

[Bonx]

22. I'm not sure if i'm on facebook

[miyazaki]

23. Rolf. You just might be even if you never signed up.

Facebook is the biggest identify theft machine ever created and has weaved its brand through every nook and cranny of cyberspace. This would make Zuckerberg the ultimate hacker for all intents and purposes, and operating in plain site.

It's a mechanism where users essentially hack themselves. Hilarious.

[Blue_Adept]

25. Thanks for showing all of us your superior attitude!

And that you can break free from it without any actual issues.

Those of us that have to work with it and really do have no other way of staying in touch with a range of people, social causes, and other groups appreciate your lack of empathy.

I hope all those that have deleted their facebook accounts can, after doing so, shut the fuck up for awhile and use all that free time for something constructive instead of lording it over others.

[mreilly]

31. No, no, Blue Adept, they gave us some alternatives!

Using email groups, LOL - isn't that so MUCH EASIER to share information with hundreds of family and friends? Want them to see photos of your pics in Paris? No problem! Slam 'em with a 500 Mb zip file full of JPG files! They'll love it!

Someone even suggested snail mail! Hey, great idea! Need a quick answer on a good local resource? Send out letters to a couple hundred folks, wasting plenty of money on postage and wait a couple of weeks for the answers to start trickling in.

Want a quick private chat with a relative about a family issue? Make a phone call! I'm sure during the day your coworkers would love to hear all about your tragic family history.

Shaking my head. Literally. As I type this.

[Blue_Adept]

32. I'd respond but I've gone back to my 300bps modem

And am getting my horse and buggy out of the garage to help.

I really wish people would give better examples of what folks could transition to because like you said, what they're suggesting doesn't work. Particularly for those that have grown up in the digital age.

[HopeAgain]

27. I'm convinced many people are dealing with an addiction.

I see people everywhere constantly checking their FaceBook feeds, even while they are driving. Families and young couples out to dinner quietly staring at their phones, with the tell-tale blue banner on the screen, rather than enjoying their time together.

That's why I never signed up, but what they have done now is why I never will.

[Blue_Adept]

28. Exactly!

[vi5]

29. I just deleted it this week....

...and I was both an early adopter and I would say a huge social media addict.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

34. Bless your condescending heart. nt

[GusBob]

35. Family, friends, co-workers, colleagues

Local businesses, cooking, hunting, fishing, birding, archeology, history, literature, music, medicine geneology, outdoors, nature, brewing, traveling, local news, traffic, weather and police updates, photography, health, writers, politics, sports, hometown news, military news, emergeny information during natural disasters, clubs, civic groups, volunteer groups, schools, Government, comedy, entertainment


I' ll tend to my knitting, you tend to yours