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I've never used Facebook or LinkedIn and I'm someone who doesn't feel the urge to sign up. Should I be concerned?

by cm3 11y ago

cbeach 11y ago
I find that my friends who don't use Facebook become a little bit detached from my social scene. It's sad but true. It's a bit like those friends that stubbornly refused to get a mobile phone in the nineties - I just didn't keep in touch with them as much as my friends that had mobiles. Their argument was that they didn't want to be reachable all the time. Fair enough, but the trade off for them is that they're less reachable socially. Eventually, of course, they got a phone. And eventually I'm sure everyone will be on Facebook too. There's nothing dystopian about sharing news, plans and photos.
- kaybe 11y ago
  That really depends on who you're sharing with and what the expectations are.
jackcosgrove 11y ago
LinkedIn is a free online business card. Facebook is unnecessary and probably a time-suck and privacy liability.
Tenhundfeld 11y ago
I am "on Facebook", but it's for four specific reasons: 1) So I don't get questions about why I'm not on Facebook. 2) To let friends tag me in pictures (and see what pictures are being posted of me). 3) To let friends invite me to parties through Facebook. 4) See pictures of friends' babies. I think it's good to have a Facebook account. It lets people push stuff to you, and more often I'm seeing invitations coming exclusively through FB. But I personally don't think you're missing anything by not actively using it. Likewise, LinkedIn can be nice to keep tabs on past colleagues, not those you were close to obviously, but those on your periphery. You don't need to participate in the community to get the biggest benefit, IMO.
- u_me_him 11y ago
  Every time I'm asked why I'm not on facebook I just say I don't need it. They usually never ask again and I have no problem keeping in touch with friends by text message even if they are heavy facebook users.
- bcook 11y ago
  For me, having an FB account and not actively using it daily (hourly?) was similar to a crack-addict not using free crack that is put in their face. It was like removing the carrot-dangling-from-a-stick when I left Facebook.
- Chathamization 11y ago
  I'm on it, but still get asked all the time why I'm not on it. It seems like if you're not posting and commenting all the time people forget you exist.
lucb1e 11y ago
Facebook: Not really. If you feel no peer pressure to sign up, great! For me, I was missing out on events when classmates and even teachers started communicating via Facebook. These days it has died down again in favor of Telegram so I could technically deactivate the account, but I'm keeping it for convenience. Recently saw someone's wedding being announced there, not something I want to be missing out on. I'd have caught on eventually, but this is easier. It depends how often I check it. If I have lots of stuff I want to do, I might not check it for a month. If I'm bored a lot (i.e. when school begins again after the holidays), I'll probably be on it before Monday morning is out, and be checking it every other day from thereon. Linkedin: Depends on your situation and business I'd guess, but as someone with not too much experience with Linkedin, I don't know. I've got it and I actively make connections, but I don't really use it other than that. More of a backup thing.
- u_me_him 11y ago
  But without a formal invitation how can you just show up? I doubt the formal invitation would require facebook.
  - lucb1e 11y ago
    I'm sorry, what invitation are you talking about? The Facebook event system? If so, if someone wants to invite me, I'm sure they can find a way around Mark Zuckerberg to do this. If not, their loss. I'm not a party person though, that might have something to do with it as well. (I do get around to my share of hacker conferences, but they somehow don't seem to use Facebook...)
    - u_me_him 11y ago
      An actual physical invitation.
- philovivero 11y ago
  Can you go into a little more detail about Telegram? I find the whole tech platform very promising, and I have a group chat and a couple private chats going on it, but at least in my social circle, we haven't transitioned. Do you do event invites with it? Do you do family group chats with it? Just wondering.
KineticLensman 11y ago
If you have friends or family on Facebook then you may already be part of its social graph, even if you haven't explicitly joined . Ditto if you are an email contact of a LinkedIn user who is careless with app permissions. But personally I don't think that you are missing out.
overcast 11y ago
No you shouldn't be concerned. Facebook for me personally, turned into just "blocking" everyone on my feed, because all they posted was garbage. It was endless posts of people airing their dirty laundry. Too much drama, so at the end of last year, I closed my account, and haven't logged in since. I do however have a separate developer account with zero connections, so I can get work done. LinkedIn, I still have an active account. But I really don't "get it". The amount of garbage and spam posted by your connections on there, is quickly approaching Facebook levels. I rarely use it, except to clear out inbox requests from head hunters. It's basically a SpaceBook for business people.
- Scea91 11y ago
  Not much drama on my feed. Maybe the fault is in your friends and not in Facebook.
  - jessaustin 11y ago
    Well that's kind of awful. Maybe it would be easier for GP to just use different social tools, rather than getting an entirely new set of friends?
saiya-jin 11y ago
with facebook you can get in touch with people that might be othwerwise unreachable (it allowed us to do a proper high school reunion for example). the key is to use it sparingly and not spend too much time, it has some addictive factor in constant news feed that make news sites look like static HTML pages. it can be a good tool but a bad master linkedin is purely professional, basically your online CV + network of your colleagues. they tried to make it more FB-like but I don't know a single person who is not recruiter who actually ever checks that.

I've never used Facebook or LinkedIn and I'm someone who doesn't feel the urge to sign up. Should I be concerned?

by cm3 11y ago

I've never used Facebook or LinkedIn and I'm someone who doesn't feel the urge to sign up. Should I be concerned?

I find that my friends who don't use Facebook become a little bit detached from my social scene. It's sad but true. It's a bit like those friends that stubbornly refused to get a mobile phone in the nineties - I just didn't keep in touch with them as much as my friends that had mobiles. Their argument was that they didn't want to be reachable all the time. Fair enough, but the trade off for them is that they're less reachable socially. Eventually, of course, they got a phone. And eventually I'm sure everyone will be on Facebook too. There's nothing dystopian about sharing news, plans and photos.

kaybe 11y ago
That really depends on who you're sharing with and what the expectations are.

jackcosgrove 11y ago

LinkedIn is a free online business card. Facebook is unnecessary and probably a time-suck and privacy liability.

Tenhundfeld 11y ago

I am "on Facebook", but it's for four specific reasons: 1) So I don't get questions about why I'm not on Facebook. 2) To let friends tag me in pictures (and see what pictures are being posted of me). 3) To let friends invite me to parties through Facebook. 4) See pictures of friends' babies. I think it's good to have a Facebook account. It lets people push stuff to you, and more often I'm seeing invitations coming exclusively through FB. But I personally don't think you're missing anything by not actively using it. Likewise, LinkedIn can be nice to keep tabs on past colleagues, not those you were close to obviously, but those on your periphery. You don't need to participate in the community to get the biggest benefit, IMO.

u_me_him 11y ago
Every time I'm asked why I'm not on facebook I just say I don't need it. They usually never ask again and I have no problem keeping in touch with friends by text message even if they are heavy facebook users.
bcook 11y ago
For me, having an FB account and not actively using it daily (hourly?) was similar to a crack-addict not using free crack that is put in their face. It was like removing the carrot-dangling-from-a-stick when I left Facebook.
Chathamization 11y ago
I'm on it, but still get asked all the time why I'm not on it. It seems like if you're not posting and commenting all the time people forget you exist.

lucb1e 11y ago

Facebook: Not really. If you feel no peer pressure to sign up, great! For me, I was missing out on events when classmates and even teachers started communicating via Facebook. These days it has died down again in favor of Telegram so I could technically deactivate the account, but I'm keeping it for convenience. Recently saw someone's wedding being announced there, not something I want to be missing out on. I'd have caught on eventually, but this is easier. It depends how often I check it. If I have lots of stuff I want to do, I might not check it for a month. If I'm bored a lot (i.e. when school begins again after the holidays), I'll probably be on it before Monday morning is out, and be checking it every other day from thereon. Linkedin: Depends on your situation and business I'd guess, but as someone with not too much experience with Linkedin, I don't know. I've got it and I actively make connections, but I don't really use it other than that. More of a backup thing.

u_me_him 11y ago
But without a formal invitation how can you just show up? I doubt the formal invitation would require facebook.
- lucb1e 11y ago
  I'm sorry, what invitation are you talking about? The Facebook event system? If so, if someone wants to invite me, I'm sure they can find a way around Mark Zuckerberg to do this. If not, their loss. I'm not a party person though, that might have something to do with it as well. (I do get around to my share of hacker conferences, but they somehow don't seem to use Facebook...)
  - u_me_him 11y ago
    An actual physical invitation.
philovivero 11y ago
Can you go into a little more detail about Telegram? I find the whole tech platform very promising, and I have a group chat and a couple private chats going on it, but at least in my social circle, we haven't transitioned. Do you do event invites with it? Do you do family group chats with it? Just wondering.

KineticLensman 11y ago

If you have friends or family on Facebook then you may already be part of its social graph, even if you haven't explicitly joined . Ditto if you are an email contact of a LinkedIn user who is careless with app permissions. But personally I don't think that you are missing out.

overcast 11y ago

No you shouldn't be concerned. Facebook for me personally, turned into just "blocking" everyone on my feed, because all they posted was garbage. It was endless posts of people airing their dirty laundry. Too much drama, so at the end of last year, I closed my account, and haven't logged in since. I do however have a separate developer account with zero connections, so I can get work done. LinkedIn, I still have an active account. But I really don't "get it". The amount of garbage and spam posted by your connections on there, is quickly approaching Facebook levels. I rarely use it, except to clear out inbox requests from head hunters. It's basically a SpaceBook for business people.

Scea91 11y ago
Not much drama on my feed. Maybe the fault is in your friends and not in Facebook.
- jessaustin 11y ago
  Well that's kind of awful. Maybe it would be easier for GP to just use different social tools, rather than getting an entirely new set of friends?

saiya-jin 11y ago

with facebook you can get in touch with people that might be othwerwise unreachable (it allowed us to do a proper high school reunion for example). the key is to use it sparingly and not spend too much time, it has some addictive factor in constant news feed that make news sites look like static HTML pages. it can be a good tool but a bad master linkedin is purely professional, basically your online CV + network of your colleagues. they tried to make it more FB-like but I don't know a single person who is not recruiter who actually ever checks that.