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YouTubeI’m posting this to see if anybody else is having a similar experience. The more people I friend on Facebook, the less I want to use it and this is why.
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First of all, I am different things to different people.
Zach, family member
Zach, podcast producer and wannabe foodie
Zach, WoW player
Zach, fitness enthusiast
Zach, buddy from school
Zach, employee
Zach, friend
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My WoW buddies don’t want to hear about the pork shoulder I just smoked, nor do most of my friends want to hear how many grams of protein I consumed last Wednesday. (153) As a result I spend more time deleting status updates than I do actually sending them because I don’t want to spam people with junk that they aren’t interested in. The more people I friend the more this becomes a problem for me.
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I’m also concerned with self censoring due to questionable content. Ignoring or denying a friend request is not always feasible; therefore everybody who sends me a request will usually become my friend. I need to run every status update through an extensive mental filter before hitting submit to make sure it’s not offensive to my Grandmother or our database administrator. As a result it is almost impossible for me to have a meaningful exchange with those that are close to me (you know, my actual friends) since everything I put out for the public view is very watered down.
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Since Facebook has become a ubiquitous service, has that dampened your enthusiasm for it?
Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion » Everyday Chit Chat
Nuking my Facebook Account
[65 posts] [31 contributors]
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TheOtherZach
Zackass
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Posted 2 years ago # -
somertimeoh
Harrison West
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Or you're just over thinking it. If people don't want to read your updates they'll hide you or unfriend you. You might be surprised though. One of those WoW friends might be interested in getting healthy, sees what you're doing, and asks questions. I love getting surprised by my friends. One of my "mommy friends" that usually posts crap I could care less about, posted pics from her triathalon a few weekends ago. I was completely shocked and it spurred an awesome catch-up conversation. You do you, let people filter as they choose.
Posted 2 years ago # -
TaraK
probably at the coffee shop
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Totally. To begin with, it was friends. Real friends, as in people I might conceivably hang out with in the near future.
Then people from your past/school/years ago that you didn't really talk to.
Then students.
Then coworkers.
Then family, which is the worst.
My hillbilly family just aren't going to get the humor I would share with friends. I don't really want my coworkers (last year, that meant professors) to know about all my personal stuff. And when students add you, then your FB becomes your professional teacher image. And a couple of weeks ago both my mom's friend and my high school guidance counselor added me, both folks that don't really need to know (and then tell my entire small town) what a godless, baby-eating feminist I am.
Clearly, the problem with a universal social networking tool is that it requires you to merge all roles and role-appropriate behavior into one virtual mess, which doesn't work.
Alas, I can't delete my FB. We just moved to a new state and FB is an invaluable way of keeping in touch with all our folks back home. I wish we could make a public and a private FB account, sort of like you can do with photos but with the entire profile. Anytime you posted a status update, link, etc., you could choose "public," meaning everyone could see it, or "private," meaning only people you'd deemed close friends could see it. The effect would be a false public profile that only contained the stuff you wanted everyone to see, and a private one that contained everything.
Of course, that sounds like way too much trouble.
Posted 2 years ago # -
vestanpance
Harrison West/at work OSU
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somertimeoh wrote >>
Or you're just over thinking it. If people don't want to read your updates they'll hide you or unfriend you. You might be surprised though. One of those WoW friends might be interested in getting healthy, sees what you're doing, and asks questions. I love getting surprised by my friends. One of my "mommy friends" that usually posts crap I could care less about, posted pics from her triathalon a few weekends ago. I was completely shocked and it spurred an awesome catch-up conversation. You do you, let people filter as they choose.agree.. your "friends" can make the choice.
Posted 2 years ago # -
sixyfivepercentwater
Within earshot of Columbus
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". . .has that dampened your enthusiasm for it?" My enthusiasm was never less than completely saturated. Anything new has to be both better and easier than what we had before in order to be useful, and Facebook is not and never has been. I see it as just one more way people can pretend they are in touch with other humans without actually risking one-on-one facetime. Facebook is form without substance. It's for people who want to play in the baby end of the communications pool.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Zach, are you deleting your twitter account too? It has the same problems with no content sorting/filtering/categorization.
Anyway, I agree with Somer. Let your friends figure out what they want to read and what they don't. If people are spending 30 seconds to type out a complaint about wasting 5 of their own seconds on reading one of your status updates, when then... they're just whiners.
Just keep on doing yo' thang.
Posted 2 years ago # -
osulew
My house...in the middle of my street
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My theory is that if you're silly enough to friend me, you gotta suffer all the junk I vomit out there.
Or don't.
Feel free to unfriend at will.
I'm only fb friends with people I actually know outside of the computer in some form or another though. If you're sturdy enough to be my friend in real life, then you surely can endure any gibberish I type into my status updates.
Your mileage may vary.Posted 2 years ago # -
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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sixyfivepercentwater wrote >>
I see it as just one more way people can pretend they are in touch with other humans without actually risking one-on-one facetime.I've set up a lot of one-on-one meetings, both personal and professional, via Facebook, twitter, email, CU, and other forms of online communication.
Facebook is a tool. It all boils down to how you use it.
Posted 2 years ago # -
TheOtherZach
Zackass
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Walker wrote >>
Zach, are you deleting your twitter account too? It has the same problems with no content sorting/filtering/categorization.Actually, this can be done pretty easily in Twitter through the use of multiple accounts. You do a great job of making the Columbus Underground and the Walker Evans account distinct.
Posted 2 years ago # -
osulew
My house...in the middle of my street
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Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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TheOtherZach wrote >>
Actually, this can be done pretty easily in Twitter through the use of multiple accounts. You do a great job of making the Columbus Underground and the Walker Evans account distinct.And on Facebook you can set up groups/pages for blogs or other entities or interests as well.
I still stand by more original assessment though. Ignore the whiners who in this case are just complaining to hear themselves complain. ;)
Posted 2 years ago # -
the_gila
IV Plantation
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I agree with Somer, too. I have FB "friends" from all areas of my life (except work - I draw the line there). One thing I've done is to change my privacy settings so that certain people don't see every one of my status updates. On the opposite end of that, I have friends whom I've hidden from my feed (because they'll post anything and EVERYthing), yet I'll still click on their walls occasionally to see what they're up to.
Posted 2 years ago # -
blammo
in the shadow of the wonder of bread
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TheOtherZach wrote >>
First of all, I am different things to different people.
Zach, family member
Zach, podcast producer and wannabe foodie
Zach, WoW player
Zach, fitness enthusiast
Zach, buddy from school
Zach, employee
Zach, friendsounds like all those things add up to "Zach", might as well let everyone embrace all the stuff you're into. There's plenty of separate forums for people interested in those individual activities, but probably not too many people that are into all of them, so I'd just stick with it.
Having said that, I have a few family members and people I barely knew in High School that have been sending me friend requests…ugh. You asked for it…
Posted 2 years ago # -
sixyfivepercentwater
Within earshot of Columbus
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Walker wrote:
Facebook is a tool. It all boils down to how you use it.
You are right, and I stand corrected. I've obviously been overly influenced by the way the majority of people use the thing.Posted 2 years ago # -
michaelcoyote
!seabus
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kit444 wrote >>
I find the privacy settings on FB to be pretty good. You can create filtered groups for all of those interests, if you want.Yes, and having played with this it seems ok, but in reality, who wants to mess with this? I'm not exactly ready to dump FB, but I've never been a huge fan, and recently I spend less and less time using it. To be honest, most of the time it just annoys me.
Posted 2 years ago # -
StowCbusCleveland
Jackson Township, Canton, OH
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Walker wrote >>
I would love if Facebook had a "block all quizzes" button. I hate that you have to block each one individually.+1 kajillion. It shouldn't be that hard, given all the filters they make available, to mark all application notifications and invites as unwanted content.
Also, I would recommend putting family and work people on their own list called "Not a chance" that gives them the most limited profile possible. It's not that you don't want to have the ability to contact them, but they don't need to hear anything about me that I haven't expressly sent to them. To my parents, brother, and extended family, my facebook profile looks like facebook circa 2004. My picture and my name.
Posted 2 years ago #
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