Facebook

has anyone set up an account?
It's kind of like myspace, but different.
This has become a big time waster for me the past couple of days. But, I've reconnected with some old friends already -so that's good.

I started a page a while back. I'm not sure why. I should check it sometime.

I work in higher education (the origin of all things Facebook). At one time, I had people asking me if I could "get them" a .edu address so that they could have a Facebook account. Still, I do not have one. Actually, I think one of my students set one up for me, but I don't have the password and I am sure that the account has now been abandoned. I am the lone holdout in my office and among the bulk of my work friends.

When I was visiting Chicago, I stayed with a friend who mentioned that her mother had a Facebook account. I inquired - you know, like "REALLY?" Your Mom has a Facebook account?" and I was met with the response that I was the only friend that she had (of our relative age) who did not have a Facebook account. So, now I am not sure which is more surprising - that her Mom has one - or that I am the only one without one.

I signed up to keep an eye on my kids.

I have a facebook account! *facepalm* Actually, it was, much like Susan's, to keep tabs on my son, especially since he's so far away right now (Little Rock AR). Now I've got friends from other web sites (Straight Dope message board), as well as one of my brothers and my nephew and niece. I don't do much there, though, except to play Scramble (one of the many time wasting apps available LOL). I'm tarragon tarragonia there, btw. LOL

just goes to show, you never know how long you'lll have to wait for a response

I've been active on my account, and have a few hundred friends. But, I do, infact, know every person on my friend list - either personally or professional. Only a couple people I have never met face to face (3-4), but am in contact with them through the Internet. One is a roadfooder, the other 3 are fellow musicians - and we are friends of friends.

I just checked my Facebook page. I am now friends with 3 people, my son, Jay Wagner and my namesake from Tupelo, MS whom I really do not know. Just for fun I downloaded the Facebook app for my iPhone.

I belong to it because my son's in a select chorus at school, and all his friends invited me. It is indeed a good way to keep an eye on who the boy's friends are.

However, there has been an unintended side effect -- almost a dozen old acquaintances from high school and college have found me, and we're "talking" over old times.

I enjoy it. My wife's on too, and I never would have thought that would occur.

I deliberately didn't join Facebook or MySpace because I don't want to know that much about my son's daily life and opinions. Now those things didn't come along until he was 17 or 18, so if he were five years younger, or I knew he was in some kind of trouble, I could see where my take on it could be different. But I really don't want to give into the temptation of spying on him--and for me it would be spying--or deal with the emotional up and down of reading what is basically his diary. I don't want to know about how heartbroken he is that for the third year in a row, I won't buy him a Wii for Christmas. The way I tell people, I'm too old for Facebook (I'll be 42 in January). I do have a LinkedIn account which I barely look at, but that's about it.

If 42 is too old then what the heck am I doing with a Facebook account?

I signed up to keep an eye on my daughter. I sent her a friend request and she ignored it!

I haven't even 'friended' my son on Netflix, although I wish I could look at his iTunes, since I just listen to old lady music unless he gives me something cool.

Davydd I keep threatening to buy a Buick next year. :)

Nancy, I am in the third day of having a Medicare card but am not quite ready for a Buick. The average age of a Buick owner is 67. The last cars both my mother and my mother-in-law owned were maroon Buicks.

quote:

Originally posted by Nancypalooza

I haven't even 'friended' my son on Netflix, although I wish I could look at his iTunes, since I just listen to old lady music unless he gives me something cool.

Davydd I keep threatening to buy a Buick next year. :)

Nancy, you're 42. Still alot of coolness left!

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd

If 42 is too old then what the heck am I doing with a Facebook account?

Aw phooey....I am 51 and think it is a hoot.

I'm gonna get me a Buick Regal and a couple of those super-hot plastic rain bonnet headscarves that fold up into their own little snap-pocket for my purse. And I'm going to roll my knee-hi hose down around my ankles. What what?

Listen, I'm being kind of holier than thou about it, but between the not-spying part and the part where I really just don't need another electronic place to waste my time, I just sort of made the decision not to go that route. I do obssessively check my flickr page to see if people made comments about my pictures. That's bad enough.

My buddy Steve and his whole family moved out of town the other year. They all started Facebook accounts to keep in touch, and invited me. I've got an account, but there sure seems to be a lot of silliness involved. I just returned because of this post, but my opinion still remains the same. Well, at least for my friends there!

quote:

Originally posted by joerogo

I signed up to keep an eye on my kids.

My kids got MySpace accounts, to keep an eye on me!

I discovered Facebook when a friend of mine moved to Tampa and asked me to join so i could see pictures of her kids.....at first I was a bit leary but once I signed up I found my best friend from the second grade who I lost contact with and was elated to find her again. We are both 35.Then with more investigating I found about 7 more relatives....I was shocked!
Good and bad points but all in all I'm glad I'm a member...I'd say on average I spend about 5 min on the site everyday.

I only logged on once, just to sign up. They don't know that though.

I found my niece who I havent' seen in eight years, and she's got an art exhibition going on which I'll have to go see.

I also found a group Roadfood is my life. The only member that I recognized is BlueMaxx.

My sister finally talked me into getting a Facebook account after over a year of trying. She told me that EVERYONE in our far-flung family has an account and it's an easy way to keep up with people. So I signed up. I've learned that one of my nieces went to see the movie "Twilight" as soon as it opened, but she didn't say anything about the movie. A nephew is now a fan of somebody I've never heard of, but he didn't say why. My sister is happy that she got her Christmas decorating finished, but didn't describe the decorations in any way. Another sister wishes she was still away on her Thanksgiving vacation, but she didn't post any information about the vacation. Nearly everything they've posted is trivia without details. Seems a waste of time to me.

Are there any Twitter members among us? It is another one of those social networks.

http://twitter.com/

I don't like that I have to sign up with personal info -- even to explore the site.

I few months back, a buddy of mine sent me a picture of a mutual friend who is a mountain bike racer. Turns out that my buddy really wanted me to join FB but my opinion was the following; 1. I already have a few websites, 2. I am not into the whole FB/MySpace junior highschool scene, 3. I don't like to give out personal information other than what's on my websites and 4. No time to waist on that stuff

Well, after giving in and figuring it can't hurt because I can always cancel my FB account if I don't like it for any reason, I signed up. Since then, I LOVE FACEBOOK!! The first thing that happened after I logged was that I got a notification that 6 people (friends) were waiting for me to sign up and wanted to be "friends" with me. Three of these people were friends I have not seen since high school. Now I "only" have 68 friends. I am not one to be friends with just anyone. I have to know you and have a history with you. Many of my friends get requests from people who they don't know and their friend count is in the hundreds, even thousands.

Facebook has been a REALLY GREAT thing in my life lately. I have been able to get back in touch with friends from grade school all the way to neighbors down the street. The best part abotu FB is that I have met some REALLY great people in my travels through the years and now we are closer than ever thanks to FB. My friends are in the 30-60 age range on FB and you really get to know your friends and what they are into in their lives. This place is definitely for all ages

Nothing bad has ever come to me from FB and you do not need to put any really personal information if you don't wish to. In fact, you can put as little as you want. Of ourse, I joined the group "Roadfood is my Life" as well and now I am looking to hook up with fellow Roadfooders on FB. Absolutely love it!!

"Rich Cowell" on Facebook

quote:

Originally posted by The Travelin Man

I am the lone holdout in my office and among the bulk of my work friends.

I am the lone holdout as well. The people who are asking me about it are already my friends both IRL as well as on Myspace. I just can't be arsed.

I'm always one to "poo hoo" things at first as well. I signed up and now am friends with about 50 old class mates, class of 1989. I've ended up sending private messages back and forth between some people I haven't spoken to in 20 years and would have had no way of contacting. Facebook is cool...must turn off at work.

Hopefully you Facebook users are aware of this: http://blogs.woodtv.com/2008/12/05/koobface-virus/

Koobface virus is only dangerous if you fall for the scam. It takes two additional steps to access it in going to a web site and then downloading a file. Common sense should prevent you from falling for it.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g1bHuxBogUHJKenq-pgD3zsJavEw

On facebook you can join different groups, I see someone started a Roadfood group.

quote:

Originally posted by Theedge

On facebook you can join different groups, I see someone started a Roadfood group.

How does one access that group? I just typed in roadfood and road food in the networks and it did not show up.

When I am at my facebook HOME page over on the far right there is a box called applications. One of those applications is called GROUPS. Doink on groups and then do a search for roadfood.

quote:

Originally posted by Theedge

When I am at my facebook HOME page over on the far right there is a box called applications. One of those applications is called GROUPS. Doink on groups and then do a search for roadfood.

I found it. 60 members now.

Dang it! Facebook can get very addicting and time consuming at that. I created a place holder back over a year ago but never did anything with it until this thread got started. I just made Facebook friends with zataar though I've known her here and some other forums as well. I connected with my America Online Mac Graphics forum assistant from 20 years ago living in Brooklyn, NY. We both have calico cats. I connected with a grade school and high school friend going back nearly 60 years whom I've had no contact with since 1962. He is a Vietnam veteran and has the longest running outdoor column in Indiana. I didn't know that. I've found several of my pork tenderloin sandwich photos posted in two groups. One is the logo image for the group. I've got the Facebook app on my iPhone. I've now got 9 friends.

Damn you Scorereader for bringing up this topic! Now I have friends trying to get me on Twitter and Loopt. You are right, it is a time waster, maybe more so than Roadfood.com. And then I went and done this...

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=39165973462&ref=mf

Davydd, stop! Before you know it, you're going to be a Tila Tequila-style Facebook celebrity and then you'll be on a reality show, and then you'll probably have to go to rehab with the likes of Ruth Buzzi and Sanjaya, and does anybody really want that? I don't want that for you. ;)

Hey....do I get a little credit for reviving it?

Just joined the Roadfood group. You guys are enablers!!

Oh Facebook.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28680705/

I didn't dump any friends for fast food. I'm a roadfooder.

Yeah....but, as the article said, how funny would it have been to send an email to your "Roadfood friends" telling them that you were dumping them for fast food. 

The article was a funny read.  ***** for you, NancyP!

Davydd


I didn't dump any friends for fast food. I'm a roadfooder.

I am not lovin' the whole facebook experience. Maybe I need to figure out how to fliter stuff, but it seems about 75% of the activity I read about is related to someone getting a new friend. Yawn.

a significant percentage of the remaining info is related to my "friends" sharing the minutiae of their lives. Bob is eating lunch at work. Steve had a solid BM today. Sally is hoping it isn't so cold tomorrow. Yawn again.

Next comes the news that my friend's have joined a group or some sort...Joe has become a fan of Corbett Monica. More yawns.

There is a very small amount of stuff that is funny or insightful, but not much.

Do I just have lame friends? Can this flotsam be filtered somehow? The way it is now I am at a full and total loss to understand how so many are becoming obsessed with this type of stuff.

Tony Bad

Steve had a solid BM today.

Actually, I mentioned that in an email....not on Facebook.  But, thanks for telling EVERYBODY!

I'm on there- I just started a discussion in the Roadfood group to let everyone know who you are on here.

Tony

You can filter out most of the boring things in the settings area

I have mine set to notify me only for a few things, saves me from getting 30  emails a day

CajunKing


Tony

You can filter out most of the boring things in the settings area

I have mine set to notify me only for a few things, saves me from getting 30  emails a day

I guess I gotta check that out and give it a try. It seems too much like water cooler talk for my tastes, but I'll see if I can filter that out. 

The Travelin Man

Tony Bad

Steve had a solid BM today. 

Actually, I mentioned that in an email....not on Facebook.  But, thanks for telling EVERYBODY!

Oops! 

You have to filter or ignore a lot of stuff. I have gotten in touch with friends I haven't been in touch with for years. One childhood friend turns out to be Indiana's longest running outdoor sports writer. Another turned out to have been the president of Wired Inc. (The magazine, Wired). I'm in touch with 18 of my high school classmates. Some I have found and some have found me. I learned another old time friend was the campaign manager of the "Fredheads" in 11 western states for Fred Thompson's presidential bid. I learned another dear friend died in a plane crash in 2007 but not before writing a book about our pioneering days on Applelink Personal Edition come America Online. I ordered the book off Amazon.com and read it. It has been an interesting month and I suppose after an initial rush it will settle down to more mundane.

You also get a different view and understanding of people from Roadfood.com here and most of it is all positive.

Just for the heck of it I made friends with Minnesota's governor Tim Pawlenty and it is kind of fun having James Lilek's ear. Go http://Lileks.com to see what I mean.

As for e-mail, I spam filter it out. There's adequate enough notification when you sign onto Facebook.

Now if you really want to twiddle or twitter away your time try Twitter.com and read "tweets". If you know who to follow you will get the news before it hits any news media in under 140 character type bites.

Steve, between your digestive issues and your well documented problems with ED, this is for you:

Roseanne Roseannadanna: Thanks a lot, Jane! Thanks a lot! A Mr. Richard Feder from Fort Lee, New Jersey writes in and says: "Dear Roseanne Roseannadanna, Last Thursday, I quit smokin'. Now, I'm depressed, I gained weight, my face broke out, I'm nauseous, I'm constipated, my feet swelled, my gums are bleedin', my sinuses are clogged, I got heartburn, I'm cranky and I have gas. ... What should I do?" ... Mr. Feder, you sound like a real attractiveguy! ... You belong in New Jersey! ... [applause] 

Before I got to the punch line, all I could think of was "hmm...that does sound like New Jersey...."

I knew I coulda been a writer for SNL....or the JDL.  I always get them confused.

BTW, you can go into Facebook account settings and turn off all those annoying e-mail notifications.

or the JDL

I'm Schtarbing

Hi all ,

Thats right I'm on there too . I have a myspace account for our radio show and my own and through that an old friend from high school said a bunch of old friends were reconecting through facebook , so I'm on there too .
Friends I have not seen in 25 yrs are emailing like it was yesterday , so weird but fun .
Have added Ellen to the facebook and a few others
As a matter of fact my profile photo right now is from the 2008 Jersey Hot Dog Tour .
Anyone interested in being a friend feel free .
Facebook Erwin Benz
Myspace  hellobenzee
Myspace primetimegang

I will check out the roadfood group also

Benzee

Did anyone on Roadfood.com create the Roadfood Is My Life Facebook group? His name is no longer clickable and is listed as the only administrator. It kind of appears only recently that many active members posting here have signed on there.

They finally got me, too.

I will join the Roadfood group, if abe is the one who started it?


And Tony Bad, holy carp, I thought I was the only one getting annoyed as *&%$ that I can see when someone got a new friend. What do I care? *scowly face*

Also, I am failing to see the difference between that & myspace. I did it to make my friend happy. I hope she is happy, but I will Friend you. abe. :)

Right now my Facebook friends are a combo of my  poker work buddies and my Roadfood buddies.
It will be fun to also add some old high school chums on there, etc.
Facebook can certainly serve as a great tool for reconnecting with chums from a long, long time ago.. (like Davydd says)

And I hear you, too , Tony Bad,  with all that "Reggie is going to the dentist today" stuff.... it does get a bit much sometimes...
I find it kind of cute , old fashioned fun at the same time, though...

I like seeing that part where "Harvey is now friends with Becky", (and even more so when I'm the one that suggested it), even if it does often mean just a "psuedo" friendship....

ellen4641

Facebook can certainly serve as a great tool for reconnecting with chums from a long, long time ago.. (like Davydd says)

Yeah the older you get the more amazed you are in reconnecting.

I signed up way back in 2007 but never used Facebook until this winter and partly because of discussion in this topic sucked me in. Among the people I know there has been a virtual explosion in use starting over the holidays. I find it kind of fascinating. Even though my wife is signed on, she is still kind of bewildered by it but I noticed now that quite a bit of our family and extended family is on that she is starting just this week posting on their walls. I've always been more outgoing online (since 1984) than in real life. In real life I could be a hermit if you let me. But once the bartender knows my name watch out.

Since I have been an online junkie so long and was part of the original AOL startup team I have always been fascinated how people interact online. Roadfood is interesting and there are two other forums I spend time on that I have actually met some of the participants. Facebook is more about people already knowing someone and friending them. Most all of my friends I have actually met with the exception of a few Roadfooders whom I would like to meet.

Of the friends I actually know be it family, old school friends, work friends, etc., I've notice many are like my wife but are just starting to figure it out. My sister-in-law came out of her shell yesterday and I suspect partly because my wife wrote on her wall. I think as Facebook friends "mature" online there will be fewer awkward meaningless status updates and maybe more genuine interaction. I try, though not always apparent, to be topical, joking, are setting up something with my status updates. Many status updates just convey a mood and that might be significant to some friends and a complete mystery to others.

What I do find a bit undeveloped in concept are the groups like Roadfood is my Life. The structure is under used but incapable of being a substitute for the real Roadfood.com forum. But Facebook groups could add a new dimension to friendships and maybe some day there will be a true link between forums like Roadfood.com and Facebook so one can move between them more transparently. A link to the real Roadfood.com Forums instead of the lame discussion board in the Groups might be, could be, maybe should be the future.

I just quit Facebook.  Sorry to my friends on there.  Everytime my computer refreshed, my inbox was loaded.  Too much. 

Joerogo,

If you weren't so damn popular that would not be an issue.

You can turn off all those inbox notifications so you don't get them at...

Settings > Account Settings > Notifications

I've recently been introduced to FB but have not yet devoted enough time to explore it. One of my RF friends there recently remarked about hooking up with some old friends from his youth - I replied that I was not anxious to do that as there may yet be some fathers and ex girlfriends boyfriends looking for me.

Well, y'all are welcome to check me out, Alice Watkins on FB