Social Media

I only use my Facebook account for those web pages that require you to sign in the Facebook.
My facebook pages says I was born in 1773 (I died in 1833).
That shows you how closely they are watching.

I will say this about the post. Not in the last four centuries has the ideal of free speech been under such widespread and sustained attack.
Your poster friend is angry because FB allows too much speech he feels is untrue. I would love the power to declare certain political speech untrue and ban it on that basis. I would guess that some on this board would have a problem with such an arrangement. Likewise, if some on this board had the power to declare some political speech untrue and ban it. That is a power so ominous that it is fit only for the Almighty.
The answer to incorrect speech is more speech, not less.
I fear we are heading into a period that will rival the Dark Ages in their superstition and ignorance.

Bazza said:

Interesting take, TW.

I appreciate your post and agree with your thinking.

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Here's some additional points that may be of interest.
1. 40% of Millennials OK with limiting speech offensive to minorities. That is a very troubling statistic. I do not use speech that is offensive to minorities because I do not wish to. Those who do should be ready to be ostracized from decent society. Ban "offensive" speech, and the absence of said speech could be because nobody harbors offensive ideas or it could mean they do harbor offensive ideas and would like to express them, but do not wish to run afoul of the law.
2. Carol Davidsen, in her talk about Facebook and campaign datamining, asks, "Who owns the information that you and I are friends?" (Davidsen's entire talk is interesting, but go to the 19:00 mark to speed things up.) Facebook's rules have changed since 2012, but the fact remains that the Obama campaign made use of the info on friends to tune info for the campaign. Facebook asked you if it was okay that they knew that you and I were friends, but they did not ask me if it was okay for you to tell them that. Cambridge Analytica, from what I understand, did not ask. I have to wonder, however, whether the Facebook quitter disapproves of the technique or the campaign that made use of it.

I'm torn

I am very ready to delete facebook myself but I know that doing so means cutting people out of my life that I still kind of like to keep up with at the level that facebook allows me to keep up with them. So I am not sure how to proceed but I am leaning to just saying goodbye to a lot of people

watch the Great Hack on Netflix to see how facebook can be and was weaponized against us and the UK in 2016.

I've never signed up for facebook (or twitter) and I'm glad I didn't.

I still use my telephone to talk to family and friends; and I use text as well. I don't communicate on FB, and wouldn't know how even if I wanted to. But I will say very clearly that any idea that you may have that your privacy is protected (even if you don't use FB) are vain and illusory. I shop online, and my wife does too. If I search on Google for chinese furniture, I am bombarded with ads for Chinese furniture for months. If I look at a house on Zillow, I get call after call from realtors. My location on the planet is known to advertisers (and who knows who else?) every minute of the day. The only way I know of to prevent that is to throw away my cellphone. The potential for manipulation of public opinion, or for surveillance and worse, has reached a level not foreseen even in Orwell's 1984. I'm 80 on my next birthday, and in excellent health. But if the Lord takes me today, I will not be disappointed. I shudder to imagine what life will be like for my grandchildren.

bobstod said:

I still use my telephone to talk to family and friends; and I use text as well. I don't communicate on FB, and wouldn't know how even if I wanted to. But I will say very clearly that any idea that you may have that your privacy is protected (even if you don't use FB) are vain and illusory. I shop online, and my wife does too. If I search on Google for chinese furniture, I am bombarded with ads for Chinese furniture for months. If I look at a house on Zillow, I get call after call from realtors. My location on the planet is known to advertisers (and who knows who else?) every minute of the day. The only way I know of to prevent that is to throw away my cellphone. The potential for manipulation of public opinion, or for surveillance and worse, has reached a level not foreseen even in Orwell's 1984. I'm 80 on my next birthday, and in excellent health. But if the Lord takes me today, I will not be disappointed. I shudder to imagine what life will be like for my grandchildren.

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Try going to the library and use a public computer to stay off the grid.

I know it's impractical and too much trouble, but that would help with this tracking stuff.

I have ads appear on my phone for stuff I haven't even looked at, but once I see it, I'm tempted. They are really good at the business of boiling down info on people to sell them stuff, and God knows what else.
*******

Another advantage to being an old timer is we might miss the worst of the coming climate change.

I would delete my FB account but my fantasy football league use it to communicate. We have our own league FB group. I’ve tried for the past couple years to convince them to use something else but get nowhere. This year we all started a GroupMe chat group but, nobody uses and still uses FB.


I signed up for FB back in it’s early years when it was suppose to be for just college students. Those were the fun years of FB, before they banned naked pics! Back then you couldn’t set your account to private, it was all open to everyone. Back then you could just browse users by location. Those French college girls loved to post nude selfies.

Why do people who leave facebook or twitter feel the need to post that they are leaving? Why not just never post again?

I use facebook just to keep in touch with family and friend that are miles away and in some cases oceans away. I have never used twitter and never will.

Because they want the attention and the aww, we’re gonna miss yous.

CrimsonNagus said:

Because they want the attention and the aww, we’re gonna miss yous.

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I know but geez just don't post anymore if you want to leave social media. If I left facebook I would just leave and never go back. I already go months at a time without posting.

So here’s an idea if someone wants to run with it. Facebook sells the data and ads in order to make money. (And probably some other reasons I won’t get in to).
Someone should make a similar platform, based off a subscription, that does none of these things. It’s strictly what fb is “supposed” to be without the “added snooping”. Sell it to the consumer as such. I’d bet you would have a windfall of people jumping ship from Facebook.

DzynKingRTR said:

Why do people who leave facebook or twitter feel the need to post that they are leaving? Why not just never post again?

I use facebook just to keep in touch with family and friend that are miles away and in some cases oceans away. I have never used twitter and never will.

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Because social media feeds narcissism and the idea that we are (and what we are doing is actually) important.

Hell, too much social activism NOWADAYS is making sure you go shame somebody who used the wrong term (no matter how innocent) so you can feel that you're the next Martin Luther King or something.

I've said it more than once: I'm GLAD we don't have Facebook posts around from 1986-1991 (in my case).

And I was well-behaved compared to most of my social circle.

DzynKingRTR said:

I know but geez just don't post anymore if you want to leave social media. If I left facebook I would just leave and never go back. I already go months at a time without posting.

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Well, King, we were submitting your name for a milk carton but glad to see you're not missing or kidnapped......

DzynKingRTR said:

I know but geez just don't post anymore if you want to leave social media. If I left facebook I would just leave and never go back. I already go months at a time without posting.

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I had a friend who deleted his facebook account but he said it wasn't easy to do.

I like seeing what people are up to. But if Facebook had never existed, I doubt any of them would have crossed my mind.

Seeing how deep some of them are into Trump is both scary and hilarious.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

AlistarWills said:

So here’s an idea if someone wants to run with it. Facebook sells the data and ads in order to make money. (And probably some other reasons I won’t get in to).
Someone should make a similar platform, based off a subscription, that does none of these things. It’s strictly what fb is “supposed” to be without the “added snooping”. Sell it to the consumer as such. I’d bet you would have a windfall of people jumping ship from Facebook.

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effectively, you (the royal facebook user, not you personally) are the product that facebook sells.

DzynKingRTR said:

Why do people who leave facebook or twitter feel the need to post that they are leaving? Why not just never post again?

I use facebook just to keep in touch with family and friend that are miles away and in some cases oceans away. I have never used twitter and never will.

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i would place bets that most of the folks doing that are not actually leaving for more than a token amount of time.