I'm really pleased to have found some of my best mates from my uni days through Facebook and sharing some pictures with them..... but am also becoming aware of FB's dark sides - the one-upmanship of exotic holiday snaps, the 'look at how interesting MY life is', the ability to be found by many including complete nutters, etc. I think I've sufficiently set the permissions to what I'm comfortable with in term of privacy etc, but would be interested in your views on Facebook - use it? Like it?

__________________
Bring on Spring!

Too much information. Quite literally. Someone mentioned the Christmas Round-Robin letter, a scarcely concealed boast about how brilliant their offspring Tarquin and Sophie-Charlotte at progressing at their expensive private school. Imagine that 365 days a year. Who cares ? Maybe a few close friends and family, but sharing the most personal details of your life with 200 "friends" that prodded you online, is narcissic at worst, and simply not interesting at best.

Not everyone leads exciting lives, but this kind of site puts pressure on everyone to (try to) appear fun, interesting, successful, attractive and all the rest ,however alien that is, rather than simply having fun being sociable.

I remember someone posted on a forum "Where is the most exotic place you had been on holiday ?". It became clear quite quickly that his intention was more to brag about his brilliant long-haul vacation than it was to learn anything new...

Sites that promote discussion or shared interests are great, but sites like Facebook hold no appeal for me.

BigD

__________________
You make your own luck.

www.shootingthecheese.ch
The place for fun and chat in Switzerland.

I haven't been able to see the beauty of FB. I'm registered and I log on once in a while but I can't say that it has revolutionized my life. It is cumbersome and not very intuitive to work with. It is really difficult to find people you may know unless they happen to have an unusual last name.

I also have a real problem with the privacy issue. I hate having my real name posted on the internet as it is then stuck there forever.

I have to agree with BigD on this one, FB is ideal for those that have to develop bragging rights. I've used it only to find someone that I wanted to contact and I was frankly disturbed by the level of what i would class as private or personal information that's available to all and sundry.

__________________
Hung like Einstein, clever as a horse...

I freaking love facebook.

Allows me to boast to anyone who will listen what a brilliant life I am having.

I'm on Facebook, I would say I write a comment on average one a week (I infrequently login), I don't really see what it does beyond acting as a glorified address book. I think it's good for keeping in touch with people, but I pretty much hate the constant emails inviting me to goto events in the UK. It's also a good way to share photos but again I'm not sure about the privacy settings and who can see them, I don't understand it all really nor do I want to invest time in understanding it.

Some people clearly don't care, some of my brothers friends have some pretty risque pictures on there.

I have mixed feelings about FB. It does allow me to stay in touch with my family and my kids, and a few close friends. But im not sure about the social aspects of it . I really dont want to see my 21 yr old daughter off her face with a gang of lads , or my son puking into a bucket after a bad night. I know it goes on and i know i did it when i was the same age, but it wasnt for public consumption then. Somethings are best left private.

__________________
Dont let the Bastrads grind ya down

At least you're honest, rather than wrapping it up like:

"Oooooo we learnt so much from our time visiting the monestary (we are deep and intellectual, and in touch with our spiritual side), it was a real epiphany for me and Julian (I have a boyfriend like me). It is our fourth time in Tibet as independent travellers (we are not tourists, we are real travellers and we have many holidays) and we always enjoy the warmth and friendliness of the local people (we are very sociable and get on with everyone cos that's the kind of people we are)...

BigD

__________________
You make your own luck.

www.shootingthecheese.ch
The place for fun and chat in Switzerland.

I started as a big FB addict, on every day post this and that now, I block almost everything and it is just my other mailbox, I know if someone emails me on there its not to serious and can wait. I can see what events I have coming up. I'll agree its a glorfied address book at this point.

Use it a lot, especially to post pictures of myself on the piste in November, straight from the slope, for the benefit of my friends back in the UK, who greatly appreciate the gesture.

On the whole I find it pretty useful, I try to keep the friends to just the people I would be happy sharing my details with anyway. It's good for organising events, and keeping in touch. I also have the facebook app on the iPhone, so it's become just another messaging tool.

It's fairly easy to control the permissions on who sees what too.