What is Facebook and do you find it valuable

[zebo-the-fat]

I have never used Facebook or Twitter, never seen the point. If I want to tell someone my news I use email. (but then I am officially a grumpy old fart    )

The chance of any of my three kids answering (hell...reading) an email are slim.  If I want to track them down it's either a with Facebook messenger or text message.

So that's why they don't answer!

[Ranjr]

I also liked FB at first.  I reconnected with class mates.  Had a family page with cousins where we shared old pictures.  Watched my sister's grandkids grow up.  Even set up the first date after divorce.  This was 2009-2012.

I used it to share nature photography and promote wilderness adventures.  Here's a pair of eagles on the nest.  Here's a black bear and two cubs.  Here's a wad of butterflies so thick you can't see the coon crap they're devouring.  This is what it's like to sit in the front of a canoe in 2" haystacks, minus the water in your lap.

It became too political and less about people's lives.  Just a list of articles I don't care to read or some idiot who barely passed biology telling me he "researched" something.  Then, Facebook began suggesting friends from the contacts in my phone.  They were colleagues, students, a real estate agent, an insurance rep.  Not cool.  I deleted the app, then a few months ago suspended the account.

[Rhizomorph13]

Facebook seemed to have the opposite effect than what I thought would happen. Before FB I would call people on my phone list which was a paper list I had next to my landline! I was a very late adopter of cellphone tech. I would receive calls too from people who hadn't heard from me in a while. FB stopped all of that! Once I was on someone's list they didn't need to contact me, they knew what they needed to know and if someone was on my list I figured I didn't need to contact them because they probably saw the post! My mother got very mad at my cousin because she stopped calling to tell my mom stuff; it was fixed briefly by my mother getting on FB and she loved it! She can't do it now, because she forgets stuff...

It just seems weird that FB has changed human interaction for the worst. It IS because we are sold as a commodity, it IS because the algorithm prioritizes paid ads and frequently clicked on material instead of just forwarding every message from your friend list like it used to. Now I understand that many people will NOT see what I post and it is frustrating!

[Sal]

A small remedy to that on Facebook is posting within a group, like in one's graduation class or family relations.

[ignoramus]

I've never been a social animal but I've only just joined. Added my 4 car clubs which I'm on their forums anyway.
I find it a convenient way to communicate and plan catchups.
In fact, my "real" friends and family don't know I'm on it. They can ring or text.
What I don't like is shit like "people you may know" or "mutual friends".
Happy to ignore all that and just treat it as 4 forums in one. Happy to ignore everything else.
At the end of the day, it's just a tool. Neither good, nor bad. It's how you want to use it.

[arewethereyet]

I almost forgot the best reason I have for Facebook. Years ago my favorite comic strip was Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It ran in the 80s...I had all the books and some T-shirts. I used to save it for the last thing I read in the newspaper.

Bloom County and all my favorite characters, along with some new ones, reappeared on Facebook in 2015. Now I have more books, more T-shirts, and a couple mouse pads...Mr. Breathed was poking fun at Trump, the media, and politics decades ago. Now he's back and I love it.

I do block a lot of feeds (and people) so that there is a limit to how much BS I see on my feed. That list changes pretty often.

[Rhizomorph13]

I block things with my mind if I don't like a thing I move on. I did block my Mother-in-law though because like every 10 minutes some new bullshit pulled from breitbart popped into my feed and it was annoying! My sister-in-law similar thing only it was super dumb memes about Klamamth which is a goof on Kalamath falls and not funny to me.

[brewer]

On FB for a month, maybe two. More of a pain in the ass than it was worth.

[Peebothuhlu]

At work.

For myself it's a useful tool to send reminder messages to freinds and share information, jokes with people of similar hobbies.

[Rhizomorph13]

I personally love to talk shit to my co-workers when they are on FB while at work. It is even MORE fun when they feel guilty without realizing that the only way I knew about their transgression was that I TOO was on FB while at work!