Can You Thrive Without Facebook or Other Social Networks?

[member 392791]

I am wondering in this day and age, how feasible is it to go without things like facebook? Are there major hindrances to going without a social networking account?

The same could be said about this forum. There are people here that use this forum with similar purposes as facebook: they are the ones I see posting here everyday.

What would you do without a facebook or PF?

I'm starting to think I have a problem..I am always on FB or PF now that I am on winter break, but during the semester I turn off my FB, so I just go on PF even more.

Are we better off without social networking sites and internet forums?

Here's an example of how not having a FB would hurt me: On New Year's Eve, I made a post saying I would be running a taxi service. I got multiple calls and ended up with about $120. Facebook actually made me money.

 

[drizzle]

*blank look*

I've only created a FB account to look for someone, didn't work, then ignored checking my profile.

 

[jhae2.718]

 

[member 392791]

I now extend the question as well

It seems that I am addicted to FB and PF, before that it was WoW, before that wc3, before that something else.

Is it possible to not be addicted to anything at all, and to live in complete moderation of all things?

 

[bp_psy]

I now extend the question as well

It seems that I am addicted to FB and PF, before that it was WoW, before that wc3, before that something else.

Is it possible to not be addicted to anything at all, and to live in complete moderation of all things?

To live in complete moderation, you should also moderate your moderation therefore you should have a moderate amount of stuff you are are not doing in moderation and a moderate amount of stuff you don't do at all.

I don't really know how my life with a FB account would be .

 

[ImaLooser]

I gave up on Facebook. I really don't see what the big deal is. Some people love it. To me it's the 24-hour Drivel Channel.

 

[leroyjenkens]

I've never even so much as visited the Facebook webpage on purpose. And I'm not unique. So yeah, life without Facebook is like life without any other specific webpage that a lot of people visit frequently; no different.

I now extend the question as well

It seems that I am addicted to FB and PF, before that it was WoW, before that wc3, before that something else.

Is it possible to not be addicted to anything at all, and to live in complete moderation of all things?

Everyone has free time to spare, and most of us have specific things we do to fill that time. For you it was a video game or Facebook, for someone else it might be TV.
Is it possible to not have a routine of doing similar things every day to fill your time? Probably, but it would be pretty exhausting searching for such variety.

 

[Curious3141]

I went without Facebook for the longest time. Then I created one (with my true identity) to participate in some silly giveaway or contest or something. Big mistake. Within a day, my wall got flooded with people I knew in real life. I retired that FB page almost immediately.

Now, I get by with an FB page using a nom de guerre. Useful for sites that require or accept an FB login.

 

[Curious3141]

To live in complete moderation, you should also moderate your moderation therefore you should have a moderate amount of stuff you are are not doing in moderation and a moderate amount of stuff you don't do at all.

Are you understudying Jimmy Snyder?

 

[tahayassen]

I hate most people so no, I don't use facebook.

 

[Kholdstare]

... is a blessing.

 

[Lisa!]

FB doesn't leave you much time to live!

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Are you understudying Jimmy Snyder?

Now I get credit for jokes I don't tell. I follow the golden extreme.

 

[member 392791]

Ok, so now how would you guys survive without PF? Because many people use this website for a similar purpose to FB. I noticed everyone avoided how I tied FB and PF together..

 

[Pengwuino]

Ok, so now how would you guys survive without PF? Because many people use this website for a similar purpose to FB. I noticed everyone avoided how I tied FB and PF together..

I don't use PF as much of a social network. I know people on this website and talk to some of them rather frequently, but almost none of which I'd call real friends. In contrast, facebook is my social networking site and my friends are there. PF is just a site where other people with similar interests as me join up to discuss things and like any other website on the internet. If I find people I actually want to be friends with, we exchange actual contact info.

As for whether or not I could survive without FB... sure! Unlike a lot of people, FB is secondary for me as far as means of communication with my friends. It's very nice being able to share pictures of cool places we've all been to and occasionally stalk that cute girl my friend brought to dinner with us all last week, but in the end it's a luxury, not a necessity.

On a side note, I always find the responses to any thread that mentions facebook rather hilarious. Everyone says it's full of crap, stupid posts, stupid people, senseless musings... but the site is what you make of it. Why do people allow people they clearly dislike or would rant about onto their facebook or at the most, to be visible on their newsfeeds? I've refused to add people on my FB because either don't care about them or know they'd just fill my feed with stupidity.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I use Facebook a lot to keep up with friends who I, unfortunately, can't see often. Frankly asking if one can live without Facebook is one of those leading questions so beloved of sensationalist news agencies. Yes you can live without face book, yes there are people who. can't live with it, yes for millions it's a useful resource and yes for some people it's detrimental. Welcome to the world. People are different.

 

[member 392791]

Any other opinions on this? I think there is still more to discuss...how facebook has changed how people interact, and if it was a change for good. Also the issue of PF being used for similar purposes as FB

 

[Evo]

Any other opinions on this? I think there is still more to discuss...how facebook has changed how people interact, and if it was a change for good. Also the issue of PF being used for similar purposes as FB

FB could never be anywhere near PF.

You mean idle chit chat, yeah FB is idle chit chat. We don't want to be another a social media site.

 

[OmCheeto]

Any other opinions on this? I think there is still more to discuss...how facebook has changed how people interact, and if it was a change for good. Also the issue of PF being used for similar purposes as FB

FB friends from PF: 16
FB friends from PF I've met in person: 1
FB friends from PF I plan on meeting some day: the other 15
PF friends: 34
PF friends I've met in person: 4
FB friends: 105
FB friends I've never met: 26

I think FB/PF for me is an extension of what I am/was.
I used to travel a lot and met new and interesting people from all over America
Now I surf a lot and meet new and interesting people from all over the World.

I surfed to other lands before both FB and PF.

If both were to disappear(god forbid), I would survive.

I learned how to ignore the twitterers on FB right away. (The ones who post their nose-picking situation every 30 seconds).
I do not belong to twitter.

FB is the tool you make of it.

But I spend 95% of my internet time in PF related activities. There is, and never will be, a comparable substitute, IMHO.

 

[member 392791]

It isn't always idle chit chat. I made good money by selling my taxi services on new year's eve. However, I admit there is tons of nothingness

 

[WannabeNewton]

If you're my age then facebook is the center of all kinds of hilarious teenage drama. It is all insanely funny from the point of view of a passer - by. In that way I am very happy it exists. It is quite an entertaining venue. You may think the stuff you see on all these fb parodies or criticisms involving teenage girls and boys on facebook are over - exaggerated and fake but they are all very true and oh so funny.

 

[member 392791]

Yes, but then you too can become engulfed in all that crap just by spending a lot of time reading it

 

[WannabeNewton]

Yes, but then you too can become engulfed in all that crap just by spending a lot of time reading it

This is always a danger but I can't help it it's too addicting. It's like reality television as acted out by teens on facebook.

 

[tahayassen]

If you're my age then facebook is the center of all kinds of hilarious teenage drama. It is all insanely funny from the point of view of a passer - by. In that way I am very happy it exists. It is quite an entertaining venue. You may think the stuff you see on all these fb parodies or criticisms involving teenage girls and boys on facebook are over - exaggerated and fake but they are all very true and oh so funny.

Reminds me of reality TV.

 

[Mentalist]

Are you considered weird if you don't have a facebook account?

 

[George Jones]

Are you considered weird if you don't have a facebook account?

I have never experienced life with facebook.

 

[member 392791]

Are you considered weird if you don't have a facebook account?

This is actually something that can be discussed, are you breaking social norms by NOT having a facebook? How can this affect someone's social life?

 

[George Jones]

I have never experienced life with facebook.

I have also never experienced life with a cell phone, but I am now thinking about getting one.

Upside: my wife could get in touch with me at all times.

Downside: my wife could get in touch with me at all times.

 

[BobG]

I am wondering in this day and age, how feasible is it to go without things like facebook? Are there major hindrances to going without a social networking account?

The same could be said about this forum. There are people here that use this forum with similar purposes as facebook: they are the ones I see posting here everyday.

What would you do without a facebook or PF?

I'm starting to think I have a problem..I am always on FB or PF now that I am on winter break, but during the semester I turn off my FB, so I just go on PF even more.

Are we better off without social networking sites and internet forums?

It all depends on what a person would do in place of facebook.

Maybe a person that didn't hang around social networking sites would spend more time with real people doing real activities. That would be good.

Or maybe a person would spend more time doing what most people did before facebook - watch sitcoms on TV. Or play Space Invaders on their Atari.

But I do like Facebook for one big reasons - it's easy to share family pictures. And family activities when they're actually noteworthy. The problem is most people's criteria for "noteworthy".

By the way, I plan on going grocery shopping on the way home from work. I'll provide updates later on as to what I bought and how much I paid for different items. Except in my case, that will probably actually be interesting!

 

[BobG]

I have also never experienced life with a cell phone, but I am now thinking about getting one.

Upside: my wife could get in touch with me at all times.

Downside: my wife could get in touch with me at all times.

Most cell phones include caller ID. Just don't answer. Let her call go to voice mail and just delete it.

 

[mfb]

Upside: my wife could get in touch with me at all times.

Downside: my wife could get in touch with me at all times.

Most cell phones include caller ID. Just don't answer. Let her call go to voice mail and just delete it.

How can he distinguish upside from downside based on caller ID?

What would you do without a facebook or PF?

The same I did one year ago, just without posts here.

Without forums, chats or any other communication tools, the internet would be (or look like) a lonely place, that is true. But that should not be surprising.