Facebook-delisting, changing status

[Biciclista]

I like Facebook, it's a good way to keep in touch with some friends and family. I've been approached a couple times by strangers and just told them to go away; and they did.

[Irulan]

Anyone who thinks that all their facebook friends are "real" friends hasn't thought too hard about it.

as for,

You can tell it "more about so & so vs. less about so & so"

They changed that about two weeks ago. You can either hide people or not, there's no inbetween. I have quite a few people hidden as I have no interest in what they post or how often they post it, but I can go look if I want.

I use it to BS with people that I really mostly, and keep it pretty non-intimate. To do otherwise is pretty stupid, but then again people get pretty stupid about internet behaviors. This is nothing new.

I have unfriended people from a past life who contacted me and then I decided I just didn't need those connections. They don't know if you unfriend them; at least they don't get notified.

Part of the reason is that as a future therapist, I don't want my clients knowing about my personal life.

You can set your permissions so that only certain people can see your full (or professional) profile

[Karma007]

I have facebook and twitter, and have not had any issues with either one. I think it's what you make of it. Feel free to find me on twitter @Karma007.

[sgtiger]

I have to agree that it is what you make of it. I've been getting to know some people better though facebook and keeping in touch with my friends more because of it. I'm not constantly playing phone tag with my best girl friends like I used to. We get updated on the little going ons of each others lives that we can then discuss when we get together on the phone or in person. If there's something that you don't want out there, keep it to yourself and let your friends know that you'd like certain faucets of your life not published for the world to see. If they can't respect that, then de-list them. They're probably not your friends anyway.

[eclectic]

Ah the not so age old Facebook dilemma. I am one of the baby boomers now taking over facebook

I did read the article BTW

A cycling friend of mine from another city convinced me to open an account. 2 months later she posted "you need to find more friends!" . . . She was my only one.

THEN the epiphany came - I went home for Christmas and my nephew and his wife were expecting. I wanted them to email me ASAP after the baby was born. The reply . . . "are you on Facebook?"

Suddenly I had a reason to be there. I saw pictures of the new grand-niece the day she was born- right there it made it all worth it.

I now find it very fun. I still am at under 50 "friends" and they are all people I have some reason to be friends w/.

I am friends w/ a person I have never met but we have a good friends in common and I enjoy the bantering back and forth. Also I am now facebook friends w/ a TE sister and when and if I get back to where she lives I will have someone to go riding w/

I love the regular contact w/ my family who live very far away (as on another continent) so I can never see them face to face.

I love the fact that I can see the babies growing up and changing.

Some of my friends have 300 "friends" I would find that overwhelming and annoying.

Crankin' interestingly enough the person who hooked me up to Facebook is a practicing psychiatrist. I thought she would be concerned about revealing anything about her personal life but she doesn't seem to have a problem w/ it
Again good judgement is the order of the day.

I have everything blocked so only my friends can see anything - I don't even allow friends of friends.

I have had former students contact me whom I have rejected just because I really have nothing to say to them not because I didn't like them when they were in high school. I have no desire to contact old HS classmates either who I wasn't friends w/ then. Seeing them every 10 years at a reunion is enough.

If I want to say something I don't want others to see I just email or PM the person.

I must say all the little "throw a shoe at" or "give a gift to" are VERY annoying and I ignore all of those.

[ny biker]

I just got a facebook account last week. It's interesting. It looks like it will be a good way to keep in touch with people, like a friend who moved to Europe and some ex-coworkers, some who I haven't spoken to in many years even though we were pretty friendly when we worked together.

I just did a search of my high school, and found several of my old classmates, but since I haven't spoken to any of them in a couple of decades I don't think I will try to add them to my friends list. I haven't looked for college friends yet.

For me it's a way of sharing photos, personal news and a little idle chitchat.

I also linked to or became a fan of some sites, like Team Estrogen, the Garmin and Astana teams and my LBS, as a way of keeping up with news and announcements.

[Grog]

I have a Facebook account but I'm pretty careful how I set it up. People who are not my friends can see very little about me, and I am mindful of what I post. I do enjoy the possibility it affords to keep in touch with long-distance friends, even if of course it's limited in many ways...

I also have a Twitter account. I use it mostly to receive and relay news that is not personal. On my "follow" list I have a bunch of journalists, and that's how they use it. I have "unfollowed" people who were chatty about their personal lives on Twitter.

And, by the way, Lance Armstrong is on Twitter. I find some of his tweets interesting but it annoys me when he says he's "driving the kids to school" (why doesn't he get a tandem with a trail-a-bike?) and other stuff of his daily life like that. To me the point of Twitter is not to know the flavour of people's toothpaste, but I realize I'm part of the minority.