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To Facebook, or not to Facebook
Now that we have lived with Facebook for over five years now, it is almost expected that everyone who is computer-literate have an account. I initially had an account, back when it was limited to those who had a ".edu" account, but ending up deleting it over privacy concerns, potential job employers, etc. Being in constant contact with your entire social network never appealed to me; I would be much more TRULY happy to see an old acquaintance or friend and catch up with them in real life.
But it seems as it has become a legitimate networking tool. Those avoiding Facebook may have a disadvantage when trying to find job leads or meet new people through friends of friends or being a member of common organizations and schools. On the other hand, there's a shallowness to it as well. Some people I know are "quantity"-friend types, and have few, if any, high-quality relationships, the latter of which I know from research is more healthy. Facebook nourishes this trait, as the amount of "social effort" is spent extending a web of acquaintances, rather than developing high-quality relationships. Lately, some of my friends have been asking me to get back onto Facebook, but I'm not so sure. There's something to be said for the simplicity of not having a personal page that can be viewed by anyone (I know there are settings you can change. But then someone sends you a friend request, and you don't really want them to see your profile, but you also don't want to seem like a jerk saying "bug off!" It's not a huge deal, but still...) So what do you think about Facebook? Is it a superficial gathering of tangentially-connected people more concerned with image? Or does it serve a useful purpose for bridging likeminded people and allowing a possibility for a meaningful relationship that would otherwise go unfulfilled? Is it ever too LATE to get on Facebook, or once away, stay away? |
Hi, I'm The Voice of Don't-Go-On-There:
Faceyspace is a time-wasting drama bomb that consists of people you didn't give a shit about in high school (or vice versa) and their ugly babies. Shallowness doesn't begin to describe it. It's all about status and vanity and all those zany antics that you share with your drinking buddies... broadcast to the whole planet. Pointless updates, mildly useful events and sometimes you can get a phone number to someone who owes you money or whatever. Employers look at it. Your family looks at it. Your current girlfriend looks at it. Your former girlfriends look at it. Weirdo stalkers look at it while listening to Q. Lazarus' Goodbye Horses. It's a freakshow of made-up faces and pretentious poses. Avoid the nightmare and stick with your email and your cellphone. I fail to see how any employer would use it to judge you in a positive light. It's a social site, not Monster.com or USAJobs.gov. ... If you do use it: keep your profile extremely bare bones, as private as possible, and use it as a research tool for potential dates. ... You'd be better off at Onion.com or Literotica.com if you wanna kill precious braincells. I'm a big fan of keeping myself to myself. |
Plan9 takes the "traditional" look at Facebook.
More recently, it's a promotional tool. Use it if you want to sell yourself, a business, or something. Don't use it for personal reasons...the traditional "old school" way Plan9 describes. |
I'm... I'm a Facebook Fundamentalist! Oh, the horror.
... Tell him what's he's won if he chooses the "promotional tool," Baraka. |
Exposure.
That's just it. You're exposing yourself. Keep that in mind. |
It is what you make of it. It can be drama-free if you want it to be.
Says the Facebook addict stalker. |
Yeah, the second Noodle found me on Faceyspace through Martian's email contact with me... I decided it was time to erase that badboy.
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I don't have it, and I'm not interested. I'm in touch with everyone I want to be in touch with, and I value my privacy enormously. I think it can be pretty useful in making connections, depending on your career (i.e., pretty useful for artists, self employed people, etc), but, as an academic, the last thing I want is personal information about me floating out there.
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I was at a friend's not too long ago and she pulled up her Facebook. We've known each other since 8th grade. She has like, 70% of everyone we've gone to school with on there. Megan's married to some guy in his 50's with 4 kids. Farah married some black guy and they're expecting their 5th child. Joanna is a Coyote. Miss Gillis is still single. Marcus lost 180lbs after his 1st wife died of liver cancer.
When I was in high school, I couldn't wait to get away from these people and start living. Why would I want to contact them now? And before you say 'for curiosity,' I'm warning you, it will bite you in the ass. Hard. |
I have no drama on my FB profile. I presume because I ignore most drama and attempts at inciting drama. I have plenty of old friends on there from HS and such. I also have my profile unsearchable and private, so I only talk to who I want to talk to.
It's great for me. I get to see how my family is doing (I'm not much of a communicator) and see what my old pals are up to. |
No FB or MS for me thanks. /paranoid.
If you want to a tool for networking and business applications use Relationships Matter | LinkedIn |
I play Farkle, but don't really get into the whole My Life Is Out There paradigm. Honestly, I'm sorry I got on. I've learned way too much about people I was only cursorily interested in. I know things about my family that I didn't want to know, and now I don't want anything to do with them. Thanks Facebook
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i do Crackbook and Whorespace purely to throw my tunes out there........
and could care less about all the drama too.....just music. |
I detest facebook and I'm sorry I ever went there...apparently that was a long time ago and I totally forgot about it. But then it came back to me when notices of the activities of relatives and "friends" started popping into my email. Even some of my "friends" and relatives whom I otherwise like tend to rub me the wrong way with all the useless banter.
I'm thankful for this thread since it finally dawned on me that if I change my email address to something wrong or just take it out, it might stop. |
never made a facebook.
myspace works good enough for me. i basically just use it as a way to tell friends when im coming to their area. it's a great way to keep in touch. occasionally i use it for music. i've never had problems with drama using myspace, but i've seen it happen plenty. |
Facebook as some sort of legitimate networking tool for finding qualified people to fill positions? I ain't buying it, and I don't want to work for anyone who thinks it is.
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Facebook, when it comes to business, is really just one more thing that can bite you in the ass.
My Facebook is extremely sanitized as a result, and highly restricted. I also only pay sporadic attention to it. :lol: |
Total Crackbook addict. Tried to delete it once, broke down and renewed it after about 9 hours.
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I like Facebook a lot. I use it mostly to keep in touch with my extended family. All of my cousins on my Father's side of the family are on it and most of my wife's immediate family is on it. Because of Facebook, I know a lot about what is going on in their lives that I wouldn't have known otherwise.
I've also reconnected somewhat with a few people from high school but none of that goes very deep. I like to post political things and respond to political things that my fb friends post as well. |
on the evolutionary scale of social networking, facebook is a step above twitter and a step below myspace.
just dont put anything on any of them that you wouldnt want seen on a billboard in the middle of town.......... |
I don't do Facebook, Twitter etc. I think the main reason is because whenever something comes along and everyone flocks to it like flies to shit, I usually run the other way. No one can ever accuse me of being a bandwagon jumper.
I can see it's purpose for promotional/business type ventures but I think alot of people just want to feel important or have an outlet to try and justify their existences by showing their friends. No offence to those who love it but to me it is a little high schoolish. And when my 19 and 21 year old niece and nephew think it's sad, well then it just reiterates my own feelings that much more. |
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I'm fairly selective who I choose, many TFPers are on there and some from high school, but I've culled out quite a few. Funny, I can access facebook but not my personal email at work, so it's easier sometimes. NO ONE from work and very, very few from school (four, I think) where it's easier to communicate on FB than in other ways , we've found. But it's not serious and half the time I'm cracking up laughing. Except for a guy who was a year ahead of me in high school posting on his page that he found his two-year-old smothered in her bed during a nap... it was horrifying and heartbreaking and everything you SHOULDN'T post on facebook. |
Thanks to this thread I was reminded that I have a "open to the public" facebook page. I remembered I was job hunting in the Bible Belt with my religion listed as "Agnostic". Quick change to that and no one can see me!
Thanks TFP for making me just a bit more paranoid! |
I had no reason to place my facebook or myspace on private until a series of events at work caused me to delete coworkers from my friend's list and switch it from public to private.
If you do get an account, I suggest, like several others, you put your account on private. |
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The only reason I have facebook is to keep in touch with my closest friends, who are all deployed, or with my friends overseas. That being said, that's the only reason I use email as well, aside from professional uses here and there.
Other than that, I'm with Plan9. Well put. |
I guess "I like it because it's fun" isn't a good enough reason? I'll slowly back out of the thread and do something else now. Normally, I'd say you all sound like my mom, but she's in PR and has been asking me to help her set up an account to promote the museum.
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I love facebook.
There are privacy features you can use if you want. You can monitor your own content and/or delete comments on your page if they are inappropriate. It's not that hard. |
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dare you to come on there 9, I will pillow fight you into submission!!!
(I am now a pillow Grandmaster, and yes, my mother is proud....) |
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I have an account, but will *never* play farmville, though a few of my contacts seem to use it to fill a good portion of most days. |
Hello,
I'm an extremely unpopular guy in the real world. I don't know if it's my breath, run-of-the-mill body odor, or if it's just that I have a lousy personality. Perhaps it's a little bit of all of those things. But anyway, I'm stuck being who I am... well, kind of. Since I figure at least some folks I know will check out my Facebook page, I've manufactured a whole community of fake "friends" to make myself appear more sociable. Most of these "friends" have full profiles , including photos. I've really gone the gamut on the types of "friends" too. I've got old guys, fat women, ugly dudes, and of course a good number of macho, suave-looking guys as "friends". But not surprising, most of my "friends" are attractive women, attractive women who seem to find me intriguing, and who regularly write on my Facebook "wall". Since I have so many alleged friends on my Facebook page, especially friends who are pretty women, it's probably not surprising that many real-life people request to be my Facebook friend. Of course I grant them their request. How else can they see what these lovely women are writing on my Facebook "wall". Yeah, Facebook sure is great. |
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It's ironic. A bunch of anonymous people on a message board being self-righteous about a site that is similar to a message board but doesn't give anonymity.
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How is that ironic, Chief? That's the whole point, isn't it?
Anonymity is a beautiful thing. World is a different place without a face. ... John Smith vs. TFPGuy69. John Smith can talk about his kids and job. TFPGuy69 can talk about freaky buttseckz. John Smith knows (or could know) everybody on FB. TFPGuy69 probably doesn't know anybody on TFP. ... I wouldn't be here if it wasn't anonymous. There are consequences to this kind of therapy IRL. |
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Facebook has helped me keep in touch with family members across the country, who I am very close with but they moved away. It enables me to keep them informed when my mother in law is in the hospital. It is a free way to communicate to the entire family at once. Especially helpful when the damn land line does not work and I live in a cell phone dead zone. I have the security set so no random person can find me by name or email, only those I accept as friends can see my profile. Not even friends of friends.
So while many of you dislike Facebook, I am glad it's there. Everyone has a right to their own opinion. |
I have no family.
We don't speak :(. ...other than my parents. |
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... Oh, wait... you're a breeder. |
The thing about facebook..(and pretty much anything else online) is how easy it is to have the stuff stolen.
With all the 4chan facebook hacks and CYI's recent group takeovers, it's easy to see just how weak facebook's security is. You have a private album(s)? That private check box means jack shit. Anyone can get into those albums in about 20 seconds just by manipulating the text in the address bar. So even if you have a relatively "clean" page, and it's set to private and you have stuff you don't want seen by anybody in "private" it's easy to access and easy to expose. Want to go a step further? People with iPhones or access to Google earth can find out your exact location (house) just by using your facebook data. Stalker city would be a better name for hackbook. |
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hahaha
yup it says it's safe so IT MUST BE ;) let's ignore the fact it was started by CIA people.. let's ignore all the 4chan hacks and all the stolen pics.. FB says they are safe.. so I BELIEVE IT :D |
Facebook: From the same people that brought the inner city ghettoes crack cocaine!
:paranoid: |
facebook has connected me with over 100+ family members I did not know as part of my genealogy project.
as far as privacy is concerned. I've spent an inordinate amount of time poking and probing facebook. So while it's not secure 100%. It is reasonably secure as is anyone's home or car. |
yeah but I have an alarm that tells me if someone is breaking into my car or home. I have dogs that patrol my house while I'm gone. Who's keeping the bad guys out of FB? nobody.
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this kind of technology is going to make it even more deadly on facebook or off.
Photo Tagger Alerts You When A Picture Of You Appears On Facebook, Tagged Or Not ---------- Post added at 10:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:39 AM ---------- Quote:
Do a search for yourself on spock.com or some of the other people search engines. Remember these are the public ones, there's plenty of paid private ones, including but not limited to credit checks. |
How do they get his name in the first place, Cynth?
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I'm not going to reveal such skillz :P
I'm not saying to connect TFP username to Facebook IRL name. I'm saying that if you think that you've got privacy issues because of facebook, you're sadly missing a huge piece of the puzzle. |
oh I know the information is out there.. not denying it's not, but when you sign up for a service who claims tight security and it's as easy as changing a few characters in the address bar to get into the private stuff..that's a joke.
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I don't believe that FB says they have tight security. I believe they offer a level of reasonable expected privacy. Meaning that they produce a reasonable method to prevent your stalker MIL, GF, BIL, BF et. al. from being able to easily access your profile and it's content.
So while you can access "private" photos, there's no names of the individuals in the filenames or pointers. So stalkerperson cannot just go to http://facebook.com/bobbysue/photos and see all of her photos. |
no? then how does 4chan grab all their shit all the time?
how do people find the information such as address and all that just from an accepted friend request? that's not reasonable at all in my book. |
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I've tried poking at my sister's profile because she specifically doesn't want her mother-in-law from getting access to her photos of her children. She specifically denies her that ability at the blocked name level. This specifically made me and many others, block all my friends from all my information. I specifically put people into various lists of access based on the level of my actual friendship with them. What is more nefarious and more troubling isn't the expectation of privacy from individual people, but the actual information that is being trawled by companies that people freely give their information and access to their profile. Understand people are doing this willingly to play Mafia Wars and raffles like BigPrize Giveaways. Understand that people are FREELY giving up their privacy to companies every time they use an application within Facebook. Quote:
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a lot of the 4chan hacks weren't from accepted friend request either..
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can you show me which 4chan hack your talking about? because I don't find one that wasn't some sort of cross hack.
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that would involve actually going there and digging through all the 404s.
eh.. I guess what it comes down to is FB is what you make of it. I just don't make anything of it because I don't like it. again if you want a business tool.. use link'din |
Hai guise, so I just made this totally cool facebook page called TFPERS UNITE ONLY COOL PEOPLE ALLOWED. You should all join, its super kawaiiiiiii
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That's more like MySpace, isn't it? Or is Facebook that lame?
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Gucci, what you speak of is not a "hack" perse. More like a work around. I remember the thread that was created by you and then re-created again by crack about the people giving up on life and wanting to commit suicide. Such security breaches were achieved by hacking other sites (similar to TFP) not facebook. That and cracking the password.
Hacking cannot be achieved easily as you seem to imply even from people with direct access to the software. If an employer wanted info on you including that time you were 13 and fooled around with your 12 year old neighbor and she ratted you out even though she brought the condoms don't you think they'd find it if they wanted to regardless of social networks? You and cromps are just being paranoid. P.S. Gallileo is NOT me! I swear! |
I really don't understand the general animosity some people have toward Facebook. It is what you make of it. As cynthetiq points out, you can group people and set different privacy restrictions for each group, and you can give specific individuals certain privacy restrictions as well. As for what information is available, that depends entirely on what you put out there. That said, do I really care if someone finds out I ate at XOCO the other night and recommend it to others? No, no I don't.
LinkedIn, as much as I wish it were useful, sucks. In my perfect world, Facebook would be strictly social, and LinkedIn would be strictly business. The reality is, Facebook is mostly social and some business, while LinkedIn wishes it were business and is now trying to be more social to convince people to bother using it. Facebook is just a new communications tool. You still choose who you communicate with. Don't like being inundated with Joe Schmo playing Farmville the whole time? Block Farmville updates from your newsfeed. Don't like seeing Jane Smith's constant updates? Block her, or tell the newsfeed to show you less of her. Worried about not getting a job because you're an atheist who eats babies? Don't fill out the religion part or post pictures of you eating babies - or at least restrict access to that information only to the groups of people you know are accepting of your baby-eating god-hating inclinations. |
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I can't believe how often someone passes out production work needs on facebook. It does not happen on LinkedIn. Sometimes I see stuff like: "Production starting, need PAs". "Anyone know of a spanish speaking producer in Las Vegas?" " "Need senior coodinator for show" "Need seat fillers for awards show" I don't see crap in LinkedIn in the same manner. Usually it's a tool that people use to social climb and get introduced to people. At least that's my experience with it. And as far as networking a business on FB. It's been a real easy thing to do for a friend and his restaurant, I'm working on another friend's restaurant marketing and doing all the social networking angles too. It's rather amazing to see the marketing at work and know that it's somewhat working in building a precense versus putting stuff out there in print, and not knowing what happens to it at all. |
Just don't end up here: Lamebook
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Maybe if you have a crime planned, you could use facebook to setup your alibi:
Facebook alibi: charges dropped thanks to status update Quote:
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I'm not paranoid, Xerxys... I'm held to a higher standard by those nice men that examine me with PVS-14s at 3 AM.
Some of us work at K-Mart and clean toilets... some of us work behind a desk... and some of us do other things. ... I don't need to post 191 pictures of myself drunk at a party and talk about all the mad seckz I'm getting. Really. Especially when there are these old fashioned anonymous boards out there where I can be a smiley skull face. ... I get the feeling some people have discarded the fact that the world actually turned before social networking sites. Don't wanna step on your dicks, but it's true. |
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/retardmode |
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/retardmode |
So, I finally got sucked into joining Facebook from watching my friend play Mobsters 2 and Mafia Wars.
Now I'm addicted to the mob life. I used an alias as my username, though. tee-hee Edit: And, oh yeah....Crompsin!!! I didn't know that was you! Good to see you. |
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I love TFP. Everybody here always makes me stop and really think about what I'm going to say next.
Unlike in my actual life, of course, where I just blurt out whatever comes up and damn the torpedoes. ... Maybe that's the problem with Facebook... everybody is so comfortable that they lose their little minds. |
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First, Myspace.
Then LinkedIn Then Facebook Eventually, there will be a newer and improveder version too. It's all gravy. |
The only site bigger than Facebook right now is Google, and one can only imagine how big that is.
I can't see how anyone is really that surprised with the Facebook phenomenon. It's had a few refinements since its launch, but generally the premise is the same: You float yourself out there, you connect with people, you interact. This is one of the biggest driving forces behind humanity: communication. There is an entire subset of our technological development that has resulted from one thing: our curiosity and desire to communicate and interact in new and meaningful ways. The development goes a little something like this:
Hmm..... and we have an entire thread on just one website on the very last item of this list. It's interesting to note, however, that this last item has allowed us to communicate in completely unprecedented ways. It is astounding how the Internet compares to every other item on that list (with the exception of language, of course). The Internet blows away virtually any other technology, so much so, that many of them have been rendered obsolete or relatively unused because of it. For example, I use the Internet far more than fax, phone, television, radio, etc., combined. And I use the Internet for virtually all the same reasons why I would use those other things. Despite all the privacy issues or issues of "lameness," Facebook is an enabler in terms of allowing people to communicate in ways they've never been able to before. It doesn't replace all communication, as real-life interaction has its place. But many people are more in touch now than they ever have been before, and much of that has to do with Facebook, or "social networking" in general. |
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Question is, who will you be? |
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My FaceySpace profile was relatively sterile and very boring. You know what wasn't sterile or boring? My army buddies and their insanity. My wall notes invited me to to the Church of Satan's Baby-Spiking Bash and had hand-bra pictures of questionable women. This may be fun, but it's certainly not going to present me in the right light to those that would place me in a position of authority. |
Plan9: you realize you can delete anything you don't want and untag yourself from photos, right? It's really not that hard to manage your Facebook identity. Granted, having friends who respect that identity does go a long way, and is luckily something I don't have to worry much about.
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Yeah, I can delete a perpetual tide of bullshit and monitor every little thing my associates do.
Heh, I don't know about the rest of you, but that's how I like to spend my free time. Oh well, turns out my friends are generally total douchenozzles on the Intarwebz. /sarcasm ... I'm not trying to be a huge Debbie Downer about Facebook, just playing Devil's advocate, really. Facebook is not for me at this point in my life based on the career choice I've made. I'm also an uptight bastard that's seen how easy it is to get scroo'd via Intarwebz. Anybody who's naive about the issues should take an entry level privacy law class. |
Anyone who is reasonably tech savvy doesn't have much to worry about. If you're like one of my cousins, on the other hand, who posted last night about how she was surprised to find out Google Chrome keeps a history of every website she ever visits (you know, just like every browser ever), then you're probably not doing all you can or should to use Facebook properly.
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I was lucky enough to have joined facebook in time for me to be found by my father's family as he was passing from a horrific 8 month long battle with cancer. I also have ran into several old friends who I did care to see again and have truly enjoyed reuniting with. I would say that as with anything - you get what you put into it. Many people that are over-the-top FB haters seem to have not evolved beyond their awkward high school existence and therefore find it necessary to announce to the world that they are in fact 'too cool' for FB. Give people the benefit of the doubt....I mean are you the same person you were in high school? |
Indeed, I've discovered that I have a TON in common with some people I barely even knew in HS.
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This thread has helped me realize that I don't really care for people all that much.
I'm just never going to be a priest, shrink, or talk show host. |
Am I on facebook? Yes.
Can you find me on facebook? No. IF you found me on facebook, could you see my profile, add me, or even message me? No. My friends can't even see my tagged photos, only my profile pics. I have ~50 friends on facebook, all of which are people I interact with on a regular basis. |
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... God forbid they have anything else to do with their time, right? Your self-righteous reverse cool is showing. |
for the record, I am, in fact, far too cool for facebook.
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learn to compartmentalize the parts you want made public vs those you want private
my public page Shauk | Facebook my private page http://www.facebook.com/Shauk you're not going to see much besides "page not found" on the 2nd one unless I know you. People don't find me, I find them, lol. |
I just hate facebook and myspace. No real reason, just think they are a huge waste of time and I could less what some douchebag from HS scored on farmville.
There are better places to waste time at than Faceyspacy. |
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You so need to evolve. |
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into what exactly? A narcissistic wanna-be who wants everyone to know how important they are by constantly updating status and pictures? I think I'll stay right where I'm at. thanks. |
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:D |
How do we separate the narcissistic wannabes from those who simply like to share?
Does that make TFPers narcissistic wannabes? |
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Generalizations make baby jesus sad.
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