Facebook--pros and cons

Posted: Tue, Jun 29 2010, 8:01 am Post subject: facebook--pros and cons

What are some pros and cons about facebook. Someone from h.s. just emailed me and said that I should join facebook because there are a lot of girls from our school on there. I never had any interest in facebook and really not 100% sure what it is, but what are some pros and cons with it, please? Thanks!!
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Posted: Tue, Jun 29 2010, 8:08 am Post subject:

cons I dont know.

pros, I get to keep up with people I would never keep up with otherwise due to lifestyle differences or even time differences that clash.

we all have lives and sometimes I cant call and this is how we communicate and we get to see pictures of eachothers kids, lives, and things I wouldnt have a chance to see had I not had fb
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Gold Member Joined: Jul 22 2007 Posts: 1206

Cons: Potential loss of privacy - both from yourself and from others. Exposure to things you may not want to (or find appropriate to) see. Potentially addictive.

Posted: Tue, Jun 29 2010, 10:36 am Post subject:

Silver Member Joined: Apr 26 2005 Posts: 778

Pros: I get to be your FaceBook friend and see the pictures of your cute kids
Cons: Some random people you barely remember or met once for 5 minutes want to be your friends.
You need to be careful about your privacy settings. We have set groups for family/friends/customers etc. and we decide who can see what and read what on our profile.

Many of my friends are truly addicted and post profile updates all day long like: "Going to the supermarket" or "My baby just pooped....again".

And if someone doesn't answer the phone, I send them a FB message and get a reply within seconds - truly amazing!

Platinum Member Joined: Oct 27 2005 Posts: 6744

If you join & friend your old classmates then you can be in touch with them. FB is not addictive at all for me as I am not a real big extrovert and dont love being center of attention. But I like keeping in touch and its a real easy way with people who you wouldnt "see" day to day otherwise.

Posted: Tue, Jun 29 2010, 10:53 am Post subject: Re: re: facebook--pros and cons

Platinum Member Joined: Jan 01 2006 Posts: 48153

why don't you try it and if you don't like it, you can deactive your account ?

Posted: Tue, Jun 29 2010, 11:36 am Post subject:

The cons are what you make of it. The site is potentially addictive, especially the games Laughing

But you decide what (if anything) you share, who to be friends with etc.

The pros are mainly what others have mentioned Smile

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Posted: Tue, Jun 29 2010, 4:34 pm Post subject: re: facebook--pros and cons

I know a teenager that got into some trouble and confided in me that this was her first step toward going off. She was very yeshivish yet had internet access and used it's power to get boyfriends. Sadly enough, soon after facebook came public chats, etc. though it never led to drugs. Part of the problem was that since she came from such a yeshivish background she had no other friends on facebook and friended these other people. If you know other people on it and are careful with who you friend it can be great but it must not be accessible to teens.

Silver Member Joined: May 29 2008 Posts: 769

You do have to be very careful about your privacy settings. The automatic settings often leave you very public, and the only way I've found to know about changes is when friends change their status to let you know how to change your settings. For instance, their auto setting allows your pics to be used in ads, and it takes a lot of button pushing to get that changed.

Also, as far as the games go, when you join to play them all of your information gets shared with whomever made the app, from what I understand. I could be wrong, but that is what the disclaimer before the aps seems to imply. I've never joined any aps for that reason alone.

Also, CM, that's not entirely true. When you deactivate, none of the info you put on there gets deleted, unless you go through and delete it all yourself. Your page just goes invisible to people. A friend of mine deactivated, and then 2 years later rejoined, and when she signed in all her old info and pics were waiting for her.

Done wisely, Facebook can be a great tool for sharing information, pics, etc. I use it to keep in touch with old high school and college friends that I otherwise would most likely have lost contact with, as well as people I see every day. But if your page is public enough (and I think the auto settings make it so), then anyone can see your profile just by googling your name (businesses do this all the time to check out potential employees). Don't get me wrong, I love FB and it's a great time killer when I'm bored. But you've got to be smart about the privacy settings, IMHO, and that's a big drawback to me.

Posted: Tue, Jun 29 2010, 7:02 pm Post subject: re: facebook--pros and cons

if you are worried about facebook privacy settings, you can always be one of the many facebook members who post very few pictures, never update their status, provide limited info, accept only close friends and so on.

you don't need to post pictures of every event in your life.

Diamond Member Joined: Nov 14 2007 Posts: 2569

Gold Member Joined: Jul 27 2007 Posts: 1684

cons: you meet random people that you forgot you friended and they ask 'how is the move on your new house going?'

I <3 facebook. Great way to socialize and network and stay in touch without major effort.

Diamond Member Joined: Oct 12 2004 Posts: 3566

I find it depressing to see what became of some of the people I went to school with.

Gold Member Joined: Feb 25 2009 Posts: 1316

If you use the privacy settings right, the pros outnumber the cons

Posted: Wed, Jun 30 2010, 8:02 am Post subject: re: facebook--pros and cons

I found it to be extremely addicting. I also found that it was SO public. I found myself tagged in pictures that other ppl had put up. I saw all types of pictures of my friends with their dhs...it was a little disturbing t see the side of them that they usually kept so private...until it goes on Facebook. Also, in Mishpacha a couple months back, there was an article on Internet use and Facebook in particular and the researcher wrote that once you put pictures and personal info on line, its there forever. You can delete it from your Facebook acount, you can disable your account, but who knows how many ppl - even ppl that are not your friends! - have seen and copied down your information? Also, they claim that you can use the privacy settings and that your info will only be shared with your FB friends, but it has been proven that it is way too easy to get around that...

I would say, if you want to keep in touch with your friends, send an email. send pictures. but why does the whole world have to see them as well? and whoever mentioned about imamother being addicting, its so true, but its very different than FB. On FB, you see everyone you know IRL. Here, we all know each other by screenname and little tidbits of info here and there. veeeery different...
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Posted: Wed, Jun 30 2010, 12:17 pm Post subject: Re: re: facebook--pros and cons