I don't, although I'm still clinging on to MySpace making a recovery after a horrible batting collapse.

None of my mates are on it, they use BEBO the bastards.

It reminds me when my friends birthdays are. Very useful.

I don't really fancy the idea of being 'uncovered' by people I've spent years avoiding, so I just steer clear altogether.

I have never used it but people (who if I still wanted to see, would have kept in contact with) have tried to track me down through my sister and friends. There is no escape.

Plus the people at work going on about poking and whatever other shit there is...aaarrggghhh.

i signed up about a week ago. i deactivated my account last night. it really is terrifying, people who were acquaintances of acquaintances requesting my 'friendship' -no thanks.

although i did just find out that some guy who comes to white heat who is called rory spells it the really cool way. y'know. RUARIDH or however it is. because he just added me.

the thing that frightens me the most about it is the 'in a relationship' thing. when is the right time? never? i vote never. or do i? who knows. it's scary.

which is taking up too much time and pretty much the main cause of the credit crunch, what with people not working as hard as they should be

1. I have a real problem with everyone being almost forced to have a single public persona. In the past, everyone used to behave differently with different groups of friends/relatives/work colleagues. Now you have to present a fairly specific version of yourself to the world. And everyone can see your conversations with different people.

2. The tagged pictures thing. It's very odd to me. That a stranger can find a picture somebody else posted of you, hover over it and find out what your name is possibly without you even having seen the picture/certainly without authorising its use on a public website.

3. Obviously, there's the stuff about it being pretty easy for people to use the site for identity theft.

4. It seems like everyone uses it for everything. I'm always last to hear about anything going down, and everyone says 'didn't you see us talking about it on Facebook for the last three months?' and I say 'no, I don't have Facebook' and then actually it might just be that they don't want to involve me and I find out by accident. Discount point four. Except don't because my overall point is how if you want to be in the social loop, you have to be a member.

5. I think there's a wider problem with internet posting etc (this place certainly included) because whilst I and I'm sure many others post things for an audience we imagine as being quite like us, there are probably thousands of people who post very rarely/read without logging on etc and the DiS forums have popped up on several unrelated Google searches for me. I just think people tend to put up things without thinking about it and only consider the potential repercussions when they arrive. Like this footballer this morning. He was writing for his close mates. His words were read by fans of the two clubs involved. I'm sure the possibility of that never even crossed his mind.

6. A lot of people seem convinced social networking is an ultruistic thing, when it really isn't. And you're basically sitting ducks for advertisers.

I don't know. The whole thing just makes me very uncomfortable. It's probably largely irrational, but I don't like it. I don't like it one bit. You'll all see one day.

cheers

my brother is always perving on people on it and its genuinely unsettling.

and its like some sort of sinister futuristic competition to see who can make their sad life look the best.

plus i know i was a dick at school, so there isnt much point in adding 'friends' from the past to tell me this.

it's truly baffling how facebook is presented as this essential tool for everyday life.

Thought most people loved Facebook.
I not only 'deactivated' but also emailed them to say: delete forever please as I do not wish to 'reactivate'. In essence your info is out there somewhere being stored in the ether for 'reactivation'. I mean, what?!! In the end I have no means of checking what is kept and what isn't, if indeed anything... but I just wouldn't know.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jul/08/crystalpalace.championship

more Facebook japery

so long as you're careful with your privacy settings and with who you add. It's a decent tool for staying in touch with friends, distant or otherwise and a million times better than myspack.

That said there is a hell of a lot of shit on there as well that is pretty senseless. I find the 'ignore' button a godsend.

In one of my tutorials last year everyone was always like "OMGH I ADDED U ON FACEBOOK! DID U C THSE PICS I PUT UP ON MY FACEBOOK! OMGH SO WASTED! FACEBOOK!". Fuck sake get away from me.

I met an English girl, and at one point she decided to get her camera out and shout "OH MY GOD, FACEBOOK MOMENT!"

I don't have a Facebook. Purely because I can't be bothered to sign up.

people who are obsessed with it deserve to die.

Facebook = pictures + videos + wall posts/messages/etc of gay douchebag.

Facebook ftw.

I hate it too.

Even though the obvious solution is not to put anything personal on it, you kind of do...

Hate the wall-to-wall function, as the few times I use it, it makes me feel like an eavesdropper - even though the conversation is 'I'll meet you at this gig.' 'Yeah, okay'.

Friends wanting you to add them, going it's 'not important, it'll only take you a few seconds, WHY DON'T YOU ADD ME?!' and then making you feel awkward because you don't want to explain why.

People from school adding you because they want to know whether you still look like a spastic and still have no friends.

Taking photos with Facebook in mind.

Untagging really bad photos of yourself, despite thinking you're not vain. No, not at all.

Worrying that you don't have enough photos whenever someone new gives you a friends request.

Adding people you fancy and finding out they're boring.

People you fancy adding you and worrying they think you're boring.

Aaaargh, let it end.

yesterday.
therefore it is bad. people nowadays can't socialise properly. people aren't always who they say they are. middle aged women fail to grasp the concept of something aimed at young people.

i was out on Saturday night and some people i was with were taking pictures just for facebook purposes (it was someones birthday). i was pretty druk and completely forgot about this, next time i went onto facebook people had tagged me in the pictures, i was quite surprised to say the least, the phrase "what the fuck" was said.

conclusion: facebook is terrifying for this reason alone.

cos i like music to be played when im online

I find 90% of it pretty pointless and annoying but the photo sharing and the graffiti can be amusing.

I made my first facebook event for my birthday this year, it was easier than inviting people individually but still made me feel a little lame.

I keep saying I'm going to delete my account or just clearing everything from it and letting it rot.
Still haven't yet though.

but very few of my friends use it (BEBO 4 LYF) so it's a bit redundant. i was looking at that "people you might know" thing recently, and most of them are disers :(