Why you should deactivate your Facebook Acct

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by ApK

If she's that concerned about privacy, maybe she doesn't want you finding her.

The trouble is that even if you don't mind old friends and acquaintances finding you, you have to expose your private information to everyone else to facilitate their finding you.

Originally Posted by kennyc

I never want to see those people again.

I don't particularly want to see them again, but I wouldn't mind knowing what they're up to!

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

I've given up giving up on facebook... some of my friends are so completely involved with it, that they no longer communicate by any other method. Pick up the phone? send an email? nope. Facebook or forget it. Pretty sad, but I want to keep the connection with these people and so it goes. For me, the line is drawn at LinkedIn, the spammiest social networking site on the net.

This is a problem for me as well. I originally felt I had to have a presence because I'm an author, but as an author, it's never been any kind of vehicle for getting the word out. (I've never bought an ad and haven't heard of anyone having great success doing so). BUT, all my friends and relatives have all their conversations there. I LOATHE the thing, but it's the best way to stay in touch. We recently had a relative in the hospital and all the updates are done via a private messaging on FB. GAH!

I prefer my blog for just about EVERYTHING and I get more visitor from an author stand point than I have ever had on FB. That does vary with authors. Some have garnered a great fan base there (so I hear.)

I'd close the account in a second if not for several people who have forgotten how to email...

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The trouble is that even if you don't mind old friends and acquaintances finding you, you have to expose your private information to everyone else to facilitate their finding you.



I don't particularly want to see them again, but I wouldn't mind knowing what they're up to!

Actually you don't have to fill in any of the private stuff. FB will bug you for city and job and all that stuff, but you don't have to put it in there. If I recall correctly my current profile lists me as 86 years old. Birthday info was SUPPOSED TO BE PRIVATE and not shared, but I made a comment on Bookbasset about a month ago and it said underneath: "Maria Schneider X years old." I was using my FB account to comment. It had my age wrong then too, but I decided that it needed to be "wronger" so I changed it. It only lets you change it twice or some such.

Yes, not including info makes it harder for people to find me, but I'm really not hoping for people to find me. I'm only on there to keep track of a few people who seem to use it to the exclusion of everything else.

[theinfamousj]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Me too!

And no phone number either.

Facebook has a phone number associated with me. I just cannot say that it is /my/ phone number. But nearly a decade ago, there was no option to leave that field blank. So, if you ever want information's 1-800 number (800-555-1212), my profile is a good place to look for that.

[Billi]

Originally Posted by HarryT

We psychopaths must stick together . I don't have a Facebook or a Twitter account either.

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

+1

Originally Posted by AJ Starr

+2

Originally Posted by kennyc

I'm with the Dalek!

Originally Posted by ApK

I'm with the other psychos.

Originally Posted by jehane

Sign me up to Psychopaths Anonymous!

Hey! What are you doing? You can't stick together, socialise, support each other, build a group!! Have you all forgotten what it means to be a true and proud psychopath???

(Also no Facebook/Twitter/... account).

[camiller]

I do have facebook, twitter, G+, and LinkedIn. I use them for very different purposes.

Facebook is only familly and a few close friends from college. privacy setting default to friends only, but occasionally I open a post to a wider audience.

twitter is all the technical people and what is going on in the local technology world. Also for following my daughters teen angst.and some beer related stuff.

G+, hobbies and technology. lots of home brewing / craft beer stuff and woodworking, photography, etc.

LinkedIn. despite a earlier comment it has cleaned up most of the spammy stuff. I only link to people I have personally met. career networking and nothing more.

[WillysJeepMan]

I find it interesting that so many are paranoid about Facebook and yet have no problem posting personal stuff on various forums, such as this one. Or that using Facebook must be an all or nothing proposition. Just because one uses FB doesn't mean they must post every piece of information about themselves... they don't have to "Like" or "Join" or post anything that they don't want the general public to see.

As hard as it is to believe, anyone even mildly interested in finding someone could do it fairly easily before Facebook.

Having said that, regardless of whether anyone uses Facebook or any other social media, never, never, NEVER trust their privacy policies! ALWAYS assume that anything you post will be seen by everybody.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by theinfamousj

Facebook has a phone number associated with me. I just cannot say that it is /my/ phone number. But nearly a decade ago, there was no option to leave that field blank. So, if you ever want information's 1-800 number (800-555-1212), my profile is a good place to look for that.

Well, you can put a false number down pretty easy now.

On MySpace, back in the day, when they used the cell phone number you gave to verify you by the old (sign/countersign) method, I know people that would borrow a cell phone (sometimes without permission) to do the job. The real owner never knew or perhaps didn't care, and then I "heard" of people who briefly got a cell phone activated and did the same thing.

(A cheap throwaway would do the job.)

Granted there were usually commercial reasons for going to this trouble.

I personally have one FB account with my real name that is pretty locked down, and would certainly fall under the category of "no comment" and "neither deny or confirm" but it can be used to contact me. However, no real phone number. The email is one of many I have to separate out different kinds of contacts. If it becomes over spammed, I will abandon it.

I have several that I can use to look around with.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

This except that 30-40 year olds with kids use Facebook to post pictures so that the Grandparents can see the grand kiddies.

My family is scattered across the country. Facebook is a nice place to post pictures of the kids, updates on their various teams, and to keep in easy contact when the world around us is going at warp speed. Heck, we got my parents an iPad for Christmas so we can Facetime with them and they can watch BB grow up.

Living across country sucks sometimes. It is nice to have an easy way to touch base with all the family at once. And I enjoy keeping up with what friends from high school and college are doing. My Facebook time has decreased since I got an iPad. You can't play most of the Facebook games on the iPad.

My spare time is now spent playing strategy games on the iPad or Plants vs Zombies while chilling with the hubby. Or reading but more likely Plants vs Zombies or Puerto Rico. Less effort for my tired brain.

My wife complains that people are too lazy and just use Facebook as their main communication tool, forcing others to be there too.

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Just as well Freeshadow hasn't posted any pics of this, eh!!

Maybe it is just some kind of sci-fi connection. (Specimen?)

[Antoinekamel]

Don't own Facebook acc. Not psychopath, but someone at job said I must be hidding something.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

I find it interesting that so many are paranoid about Facebook and yet have no problem posting personal stuff on various forums, such as this one.

The owners of this forum don't try to connect my identity to my other activities online, nor do they attempt to push ads at me based on my activity here.

My identity here doesn't connect to my bank account, my phone number, my employment history, my address, nor my education history. It doesn't even give a good representation of my reading habits--there's no checklist of books or genres to be downloaded; someone who wants to learn what books I like would have to read many individual forum posts.

Or that using Facebook must be an all or nothing proposition. Just because one uses FB doesn't mean they must post every piece of information about themselves...

Well, no, but to be useful to connect with friends, you have to post personal information that I'm not comfortable with strangers--especially strangers who are shoving ads at me--having.

Having said that, regardless of whether anyone uses Facebook or any other social media, never, never, NEVER trust their privacy policies! ALWAYS assume that anything you post will be seen by everybody.

This, yes. Never post anything online you're not willing to have seen by:

1. Your employer,
2. Your mother,
3. The New York Times.

Not that you'd be *happy* with any or all of those seeing your posts, but if there's anything you absolutely can't handle any of those three seeing, don't post it online. Even privately... sometimes, security settings go off; private posts get accidentally re-set to public when companies restart their servers, or emails get forwarded to the wrong person.

[Katsunami]

LOL. I actually get asked in interviews why I don't have a personal Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on account.

"Ah, so you've tried to find these accounts, and probably also searched Google?"
- "Yes, of course."
"That is the exact reason why I don't have these accounts. What happens in my private life is my own business, and you don't need LinkedIn to read my resumé as I've mailed it to you as requested."

Mostly, the answer is something akin to: "Hm... uh... yes. Moving on...."

Sometimes I get asked: "So, don't you frequent any forums, about your hobbies, or about computers, with regard to work?"

Then the answer is: "Yes, I do, actually. However, my nickname is not the same on all forums. On some, it is. But even if you know one or more of them, you won't find any information that is of use to you. Everything you will be able to find, be it under my name or my nickname, is stuff that I'd tell you right here, too."

I have observed that some people actually seem to regard such answers as hostile, as if you have something to hide.

I however, see it as just being a private person. I do not put anything on the internet that I don't want you to know. As said: even if you know my real name, or one or more of my nicknames, you can only find stuff that I'd tell you right on the spot if there's a reason to.

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

I've given up giving up on facebook... some of my friends are so completely involved with it, that they no longer communicate by any other method. Pick up the phone? send an email? nope.

In that case, the friendship would be over for me. You can contact me in more than one way:

1, 2: Mobile / SMS (same number for almost 15 years already)
3: My (very old) provider's e-mail, that I still forward.
4: Private e-mail on my own domain
5: On MSN Network (yes, still)
6: Use a PM, on a whole bunch of forums
7: If you have to, you can write a letter. I will answer it. And yes, I'll use a fountain pen to do it.

On MSN, only one person is still regularly online. Maybe we'll both replace that with GTalk. (Not that anything beside the login data is filled out in the MSN profile...) I refuse to add any other way of communication. 6 ways to be reached is more than enough. (7 if you count the letter, but the last person to do this has been years back.)

Since 1998, I can be directly reached in at least 3 different ways at all times. Before that, you could reach me in only two ways, and one of them was indirect: by talking directly to me, or hoping I was at home when you called my parent's landline.

The reason that I don't add any other ways of communication is quite simple: I don't trust them.

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

This is a problem for me as well. I originally felt I had to have a presence because I'm an author...

If I actually finish the book I've started someday, and then get around to publishing it and awe-ing the entire world with my genius in creating literature (*cooouuugh, choke*), then I'll probably create some social networking accounts as, the author of the book... being "John Smith" or "Jan Janssen"

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Gazella

Some of us are just simply not interested. Social networking doesn't interest me one bit but also I don't/won't feel comfortable with having an account. And some don't have accounts on Facebook or Twitter because they value their privacy and they feel social media violates that.



Social media is very popular here. The UAE has the highest number of Twitter users in the Gulf with 2.5M tweets everyday; and Facebook users add up to 3.6M. Social Media is also commonly used here to promote businesses and campaigns. They conducted a survey recently and they found that women in the UAE tweet seven times more than the average Twitter user.

Females (who use social media) here prefer Twitter to Facebook. Facebook is more popular among males.



Twitter was partially blocked in the UAE for several hours because of safety reasons (that was I believe a couple of months ago). The government doesn't mind if someone has a Facebook/Twitter account as long as they comply with the rules. The UAE Police are monitoring Twitter and Facebook 24 hours a day. They're keeping a close eye and they're detecting and tracking all topics and materials written and presented. Several UAE citizens have been arrested recently for statements made on Twitter. One was arrested for tweets in which he criticized the country’s security forces, while another was arrested on charges of defamation. These are just a few, several others were arrested and jailed because they attempted to foment national unrest and some were jailed due to criticizing the UAE government.

Now you know why some of us don't want anything to do with social media.

If you're interested:
http://www.stats.ae/UAE-Facebook-Stats
http://www.stats.ae/UAE-Twitter-Stats

Gazella thank you - that was really insightful info

Does the UAE gov't make it publicly known that it's monitoring all Facebook and Twitter accounts? At least users and potential users know in advance if that is the case.

Or is it supposition based on the arrests of people because of the comments they've made on Facebook and Twitter.

Quite frankly I think it stinks that they're monitoring it, but I'm also wondering why people are still using those applications if they're being monitored.

And no, I definitely wouldn't be holding Facebook or Twitter accounts in the UAE either.

[Lynx-lynx]

Does anyone know how a gov't (or other) could monitor Facebook and Twitter accounts?

Is it as simple as somehow searching key words/phrases by users?

What about private chat, that is the chat that is only between particular people and not open to all to see - how is that monitored?

It seems to me that the group to ask how to do it would be the NSA and their ilk around the world, lol