Are you a Facebook user?

[sunjamr]

Years ago I signed up for Facebook, just so I could check into the Facebook pages of my various friends (mostly women) who were regular posters. They posted trillions of images of themselves and friends pigging out over tables full of unhealthy food at restaurants, and playing with their cute pets and their cute children. Now days hardly anyone I know uses Facebook, and even fewer use Instagram. And those who do are mainly old people. It looks to me like people younger than about 60 have pretty much abandoned Facebook. So what good is it anymore? I see that Justinguitar and AM Brian feel like they are obliged to post stuff on Facebook from time to time, but who is watching it? Not me. Are you? Should we be signing up for TikTok?

Sunjamr Steve

[Richard G]

Resigned from X (Twitter) years ago but I do still use Facebook; not for social reasons but to check ‘Nostalgic Oxford’ and the ‘Acoustic Blues’ sites. The Marketplace has to be viewed with some degree of caution nowadays. I think I’ll give Tik Tok a miss.

Richard

[Michael L]

Nope, never used it. I use YouTube and I follow a lot of guitarist on Instagram. It seems pretty active for the pros. But I have never posted anything myself… just lurking in the background!

[Tremelow]

I joined Facebook and Twitter early on, but mostly abandoned them after a few years. I still have accounts but rarely check in (may be once or twice a year, because someone asks me to).

My partner and my son don’t use them, but – surprisingly to me – they both use Instagram. She watches videos of the Kardashians, Popstars and much more on Insta. My son also uses Instagram.

To me, it’s all a waste of time. I’m busy enough with Youtube.

[sunjamr]

Every day after school is out, my local gym fills up with teenagers (which I think is great). 100% of them carry their cellphones around through their workouts, so at any given time when I look around the gym, most of them are sitting on some piece of equipment playing with their phones. So I stroll past and glance at what they are non-stop scrolling through. The answer is: Twitter.

Sunjamr Steve

[Tremelow]

Interesting. Maybe something has changed since Elon Musk changed it to X.I will take a peek, just to stay afloat in the cyberworld.

[Dieter]

I have completely said goodbye to TV and the mainstream media because I can no longer stand their pathetic standards and warmongering. Youtube and facebook are full substitutes for me, here I can put together my own program according to my political and personal interests and hobbies. My topics are wide-ranging: politics and history worldwide and locally, music in any form and any instrument, local topics. Railroads and streetcars, cycling, world views and philosophy, cats, gardening, historical paintings …. I am a member of about 30 groups, so my need for information and exchange of opinions is well covered. It is true that the younger generation has little interest in this form of communication, but that is certainly not an advantage for them,

Dieter

[Tremelow]

Same here Dieter on the subject of Mainstream media. I stopped watching it at least 15 years ago. And I never looked back, hahaha.

[sunjamr]

In “The Art of War” written by Sun Tsu around 1500 years ago, he points out that it’s very important that you should “know your enemies”. So if mainstream media is your enemy, shouldn’t you keep watching it?

Sunjamr Steve

[JoeD1]

I use Facebook for music interests I want to follow. Other than that it’s YT. I should probably check out Instagram but no thanks to X…tried it once and didn’t like it. Same for Tik Tok.

Joe

The sight of a touch, or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an Oak with roots deep in the ground.
--Graeme Edge

[Mark T]

I only use Facebook and YouTube. I limit my FB posts to ONLY family and friends, and have a very small number (about at dozen). Apx 2 years ago I removed loads of ‘so-called’ friends from FB – if they can’t be bothered to even acknowledge my posts (it takes a second to give a Thumbs-Up), then all I was doing was adding to their ‘friends’ count. Yes, I get loads of Photos of Babies – but as they’re my Grandkids, I don’t mind this at all 😂♥️

I signed up for X ages ago, when it was still called Twitter, but never posted anything. The stuff I saw – particularly responses to posts – were often toxic, even if the original post was nothing controversial 😔 It seemed to me that there are many on there just waiting and looking for something to get angry about – no thank you! I deleted my account!

I know my Kids use X and TikTok a lot, and this is where they get most of their news from – they don’t watch or read ‘main-stream’ media. Whilst they nod when we say they shouldn’t believe everything they read on this, and to remember that many of these people have no accountability or fact checks, I know that they do readily believe a lot of what they see 😔

[Andy N]

Ironically I was just about to post something on FB 🙂.
But then I do fit the category of 60+ and like Mark only post to family and friends. I’m an infrequent poster, mainly a bit of fun stuff and a few pics of holidays etc (which is why I was thinking of posting as I’m coming to the end of a month travelling through southern and central Africa). I’ve got family and friends scattered across WhatsApp, FB and instagram so use those to keep in touch and up to date with them in an informal way.
There’s a few local groups I follow on interests and I’ve also occasionally used the marketplace to sell stuff locally. It’s amazing what sells and I’d rather recycle stuff than see it in landfill.
It’s all low key stuff though and if I don’t go on FB for a week or three I don’t break out in a rash or get a nose bleed 😅

[Mark T]

Andy N wrote:

if I don’t go on FB for a week or three I don’t break out in a rash or get a nose bleed

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Mark H]

I’m a big supporter of special interest group forums. Things tend to stay on topic when all the people contributing share a specific interest, right?

To paraphrase Jack Nicholson in “Terms of Endearment”, “I’d rather stick needles in my eyes” than patronize Facebook, or the “formally known as Twitter” thing for that matter, which, according to news reports, has become even worse since Leon took over.

I’ve always found special interest group forums to be superior to the totally crass FB notion that the whole world is your “friend”, and therefore by implication there is no such thing as “off topic”. As things have evolved over time, I’ve had this confirmed on a daily basis. Pandering to the lowest common denominator for profit is a recipe for mediocrity.

I object to the creepy analysis of, and selling of, users’ personal data to unvetted third parties and for targeted ads. Then there’s the lack of gatekeepers to keep out liars, propagandists, con artists, trolls, troublemakers and other assorted riff-raff.

I also don’t patronize Google search for the same reasons. YouTube is the only Google-owned product I use (so far as I know) due to lack of a good alternative. I’ve been predicting the downfall of FB, X et al for years but, unfortunately, it hasn’t quite happened yet. That day can’t come soon enough but it might take a national disaster to finally make it happen. /rant over

[Jean-Michel G]

I couldn’t agree more.

You may want to have a look at Mastodon. It may remind you of the days that the WWW was friendly and free.

[Mark H]

Thanks JM. I was aware of Mastodon but have not had any hands-on time with it yet. I’ll take a look in the near future.

[Author]

Posts