h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Facebook is of the Devil!






Seriously, I have a few 'friends' on facebook, but, for example, if I want to chat with Taff, I do it on hootoo. If I want to chat with any of those 'friends' who live in town, I phone them or drop by. Out of towners it's usually email or hootoo.




facebook is wonderful for stalking, however. As an experiment yesterday I looked at a receipt from a grocery store. The cashier's first name was on it. Within three minutes, thanks to facebook, I knew her last name, a load of her 'friends' and even what high school she went to -- in Mexico!

I promptly scrubbed my brain of the information. I should be more careful about my internet experiments.



I'm pretty sure I don't know that information about any hootooers, even after all these years.

FB are forever pestering me with emails because I don't go there more than about every 6 months..

I mean are they that thick they can't work out if I don't go there very often I'm really not greatly thrilled or struck with them?

That's one of the wonder's of computers: if they're told to send you an email every week unless you visit facebook once a day, they'll keep sending that weekly email forever.

Well some thicko decided to program the computers to do it for them.

And, if you've actually signed up with the thing you should probably visit regularly: facebook has a habit of introducing new 'features' which compromise privacy and make those new 'features' the default: you actually have find your way through their labyrinthine settings menus to find the box to check which says 'no, I really don't want my home phone number emailed to every Scientologist in the contry'.

I have the most anonymous thing possible.

I actually almost have this weird pleasure in having it...but not using it.

Closing a Facebook account isn't easy either. Your details stay on their files after you've left them. To remove your account completely you have to go right to the bottom of the FAQs list (there are a lot - they can't be THAT frequent) and follow the removal instructions there(as opposed to the 'normal', easy to find, semi-closure instructions). Then you have to avoid clicking on any Facebook links for some time, 6 months or a year, I can't remember what it said. Anyway, if you accidentally go on Facebook during that period, it will re-open your account and you have to start the closure sequence all over again.

You pretty much need to find instructions somewhere on the interwebs. That's what I did. I've been facebook free for over a year. (Where's my support group?)

>> facebook free for over a year. (Where's my support group?)
Right here Count Zero, where we've always been.
Here, have a "FBF - 1st anniversary" medal.

I seem to have managed to get 17 'friends' on Facebook.

Let's see . . .

one lives next door
one used to live next door and now lives across town
one lives three doors down
two work at the brewery down the street
two used to work at the brewery down the street
one I went to high school with but is now a science journalist in South Africa
and the other nine . . .

are from hootoo.

apart from the old friend in South Africa and the ex-brewer who now lives down the road from certain reactors in Japan, facebook could be replaced for me by hootoo and a walk down the street.

I should invite my non-hootoo facebook people to come over to hootoo!

I'm waiting for things to settle down before I do the same (Also waiting for things to settle before I trawl for those that have elvised, as well)

I don't necessarily think Facebook is evil. It just seems to be a disaster waiting to happen for people who put sensitive personal information out on the Internet where fraudsters can access it.

Facebook apparently has some positive aspects, too. If you happen to be young, and you're in a field where the most successful people have the most contacts, then you need it. Just be careful, though.

As a retiree, I don't have to obsess about getting jobs by knowing the movers and the shakers.

I think the idea of FB is good (a way for people to network). I'm just not willing to be involved in something that is so disrespectful of privacy. It's not like they *have* to do it that way. It's grossly manipulative and all about the dollar instead of human wellbeing.

And that should be a lesson for hootoo going forward, kea.

FB is the devils spawn, I don't have a FB account!



RJR

Facebook has its purpose, so does twitter, and so does h2g2. They just happen to be different purposes. It's like having a few different tools in the garage. Proper tool for the job, and all that.

Facebook keeps you in touch with people you already know in real life. It would be lousy for trying to make friends, but the only reason I haven't drifted apart significantly from too many of my real life friends is that we all keep in touch somehow. I'd rather do it differently, but they all seem to be on facebook, possibly because it is easy to use. As Radox pointed out, facebook has been shooting itself in the foot over its failure to respect users' privacy choices.

Twitter is best as a news reader. I love the haiku brevity. It is not for making friends but for sharing news tidbits. Whether it is news of pro-democracy demonstrations in Egypt or of Towel Day, it is on twitter immediately. I find out from news services and my smart friends what they are reading and writing about.

h2g2 is for sharing information, not just with people you know, but with anyone who cares to partake, not just a tiny morsel, but a full and rich meal. When we do that, when we break information bread with absolute strangers over the vastness of the SubEthaNet, we really get to know another by intellect alone, and in that way, make true friends.

But imagine if we used each tool properly...


Happy Nerd

> But imagine if we used each tool properly...

Never gonna happen

The Alabastari may bicker amongst themselves, but they shall unite against all unbelievers and surround them with so much love they understand the beauty of alabaster.

*Taps baseball bat suggestively on hand.*

Careful with that alabaster is fragile you know we don't want accidents