TexasCHLforum.com

We used to be concerned about Big Brother looking over our shoulder, but we no longer have to.

With FB, we are our own Big Brother freely giving away our privacy.

I heard one user gushing that it's just a way for him to keep up with his family and friends. His enthusiasm was manic and creepy. This guy isn't a teenager. He's a middle aged banker.

I don't buy it, there's a lot of different ways to accomplish keep up with family and friends, but he's convinced himself it's the best way.

The only group I can understand participating on FB is adolescents.

All of that aside, is there no downside to FB?

Or, is it another way to ego boost and give away privacy - all the while ignoring a whole host of downsides?

I think like anything, you can be as open or as closed as you want when you are online, whether it be facebook or any other online activities.
I am on facebook, and I do use it to keep up with family. My immediate family, yes, we can communicate easily via phone or email, but to see our extended families, (about 80 cousins, aunts, uncles, neices, nephews, 2nd cousins, etc, etc, etc) it is a good way to keep up with the happenings of the family.

Thinking back 20-30 years, annually, we had a reunion and this was how we kept up with the masses, but in the past 20 years or more, our family, which used to live in 1-2 counties in PA, now is in 20 states, and thousands of miles between some of us.

I'm very active on Facebook, but I use it more for political pontificating than anything else, particularly for 2nd Amendment defense. I think I get a wide audience this way. I have 382 FaceBook "friends" as of yesterday, and who knows how many of them have their own "Friends" who get to see my posts?

Yes, I do touch bases with some of my real world friends that way, but it is not by any means my primary way of doing so. I much prefer face to face interactions. But FaceBook has its place.

Facebook, like all online social communities, is a battlefield of ideas. We ignore it at our own risk. Having said that, if it's not your cup of tea, so be it. An army needs more than just front line soldiers. It needs cooks and mechanics and statisticians and logicians and drivers and ditch diggers, ad infinitum ad nauseum. We all have our place in the battlefield of ideas. The key is to stay engaged and be alert for intrusions by the enemy.

The Annoyed Man wrote:I'm very active on Facebook, but I use it more for political pontificating than anything else, particularly for 2nd Amendment defense. I think I get a wide audience this way. I have 382 FaceBook "friends" as of yesterday, and who knows how many of them have their own "Friends" who get to see my posts?

Yes, I do touch bases with some of my real world friends that way, but it is not by any means my primary way of doing so. I much prefer face to face interactions. But FaceBook has its place.

Pretty much describes my FB activity, with the occasional funny joke, snide comment, etc.

I got on to FB because my girls wanted to. So it was, "Okay, me too, you WILL be my friend and I'll know your passwords." We also have had a great deal of "training" about posting things that could damage their reputations and keeping private anything that is "sensitive". Health, locations, itineraries and identifying data.

In the process I reconnected with a good friend from the Army and a few long lost friends.

TAM and Andy are on point, almost as an Art of War principal, watch the field and the enemy will willingly tell you all you need or want to know.

Are You On Facebook? I'm not...

Can you please start threads for all the restaurants where you don't eat too.

Yep. Mostly I use it to keep in touch with people I don't actually get to see as often as I'd like, and to help out bands that I enjoy with getting their "like" count up and whatnot. Since a lot of them (I think) are liberal, I tend to not post much in the way of political stuff... In my experience it doesn't change anybody's mind, and it does create strife between people who'd otherwise be friends. Maybe everybody else's acquaintances are more open-minded than mine (or maybe I should've created two different accounts).

Abraham wrote:We used to be concerned about Big Brother looking over our shoulder, but we no longer have to.

With FB, we are our own Big Brother freely giving away our privacy.

I heard one user gushing that it's just a way for him to keep up with his family and friends. His enthusiasm was manic and creepy. This guy isn't a teenager. He's a middle aged banker.

I don't buy it, there's a lot of different ways to accomplish keep up with family and friends, but he's convinced himself it's the best way.

The only group I can understand participating on FB is adolescents.

All of that aside, is there no downside to FB?

Or, is it another way to ego boost and give away privacy - all the while ignoring a whole host of downsides?

FB account vs. Texaschlforum account
Anyone can see what you post on this forum. Only those you allow to see your FB page can access it. If I were worried about Big Brother I wouldn't be posting on this forum.

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jmra wrote:

Abraham wrote:We used to be concerned about Big Brother looking over our shoulder, but we no longer have to.

With FB, we are our own Big Brother freely giving away our privacy.

I heard one user gushing that it's just a way for him to keep up with his family and friends. His enthusiasm was manic and creepy. This guy isn't a teenager. He's a middle aged banker.

I don't buy it, there's a lot of different ways to accomplish keep up with family and friends, but he's convinced himself it's the best way.

The only group I can understand participating on FB is adolescents.

All of that aside, is there no downside to FB?

Or, is it another way to ego boost and give away privacy - all the while ignoring a whole host of downsides?

FB account vs. Texaschlforum account
Anyone can see what you post on this forum. Only those you allow to see your FB page can access it. If I were worried about Big Brother I wouldn't be posting on this forum.

filmtex wrote:Of course there's no way that anybody in the government could ever see any of your Facebook activity...sheesh. The only way to assure yourself of complete Internet security is to stay off.

I didn't feel a need to state the obvious, Captain.

I was on Facebook pretty actively for about a year, the mrs and I have been off of it for over two years, and I don't miss it. My observations (in no particular order)

We are eating at so-and-so!

Check out my picture of this squashed frog!

I cannot believe he posted that, will his work see?

That photo of her will look good during her next job interview

Like this, checked in here, someone you met one time at a bus stop wants to be your friend?


Add all that, and the fact that I was learning to dislike people "in real life" for their behavior in cyber life. Now everything is copacetic.

This guy speaks for me on this issue, give him a chance....

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I use FB. Post general things, nothing that I really don't care if someone else reads it.

Went riding today.....stuff like that