Life without Facebook

Evo

FB could never be anywhere near PF.

You mean idle chit chat, yeah FB is idle chit chat. We don't want to be another a social media site.

OmCheeto

FB friends from PF: 16
FB friends from PF I've met in person: 1
FB friends from PF I plan on meeting some day: the other 15
PF friends: 34
PF friends I've met in person: 4
FB friends: 105
FB friends I've never met: 26

I think FB/PF for me is an extension of what I am/was.
I used to travel a lot and met new and interesting people from all over America
Now I surf a lot and meet new and interesting people from all over the World.

I surfed to other lands before both FB and PF.

If both were to disappear(god forbid), I would survive.

I learned how to ignore the twitterers on FB right away. (The ones who post their nose-picking situation every 30 seconds).
I do not belong to twitter.

FB is the tool you make of it.

But I spend 95% of my internet time in PF related activities. There is, and never will be, a comparable substitute, IMHO.

Woopydalan

It isn't always idle chit chat. I made good money by selling my taxi services on new year's eve. However, I admit there is tons of nothingness

WannabeNewton

If you're my age then facebook is the center of all kinds of hilarious teenage drama. It is all insanely funny from the point of view of a passer - by. In that way I am very happy it exists. It is quite an entertaining venue. You may think the stuff you see on all these fb parodies or criticisms involving teenage girls and boys on facebook are over - exaggerated and fake but they are all very true and oh so funny.

Woopydalan

Yes, but then you too can become engulfed in all that crap just by spending a lot of time reading it

WannabeNewton

This is always a danger but I can't help it it's too addicting. It's like reality television as acted out by teens on facebook.

tahayassen

Reminds me of reality TV.

Mentalist

Are you considered weird if you don't have a facebook account?

George Jones

I have never experienced life with facebook.

Woopydalan

This is actually something that can be discussed, are you breaking social norms by NOT having a facebook? How can this affect someone's social life?

George Jones

I have also never experienced life with a cell phone, but I am now thinking about getting one.

Upside: my wife could get in touch with me at all times.

Downside: my wife could get in touch with me at all times.

BobG

It all depends on what a person would do in place of facebook.

Maybe a person that didn't hang around social networking sites would spend more time with real people doing real activities. That would be good.

Or maybe a person would spend more time doing what most people did before facebook - watch sitcoms on TV. Or play Space Invaders on their Atari.

But I do like Facebook for one big reasons - it's easy to share family pictures. And family activities when they're actually noteworthy. The problem is most people's criteria for "noteworthy".

By the way, I plan on going grocery shopping on the way home from work. I'll provide updates later on as to what I bought and how much I paid for different items. Except in my case, that will probably actually be interesting!

BobG

Most cell phones include caller ID. Just don't answer. Let her call go to voice mail and just delete it.

mfb

How can he distinguish upside from downside based on caller ID?

The same I did one year ago, just without posts here.

Without forums, chats or any other communication tools, the internet would be (or look like) a lonely place, that is true. But that should not be surprising.