Wednesday, September 10

Facebook


Okay, who here is not addicted to Facebook??  This is all I need--another distraction from actually getting things done around here.  I was up at midnight last night having an animated and completely entertaining FB chat with one of my friends who lives in the Northeast.  AND I had to wake up at 5:45am to get ready for work today!  Ouch--it physically hurt when that alarm went off this morning!  It was still dark outside.  ...and even on a normal day I am not a morning person.  
All four of my sisters are now on FB.  But one of my sisters is not convinced.  She used an alias as her name instead of the commonly used real full name.  I tried to explain to her that by doing that she defeated the purpose of FB--so old friends can find you and reconnect with you.  Nope.  She wouldn't hear of it and launched into a completely valid tirade against FB.  If you go to the bottom of the FB page and click on "Terms", then read their privacy policy (lightly called "User Content") it is a little frightening:
"When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

...they RETAIN archived copies of MY content???  Wha???

This is no lie ~~ tonight I was checking in on my FB and went to wish one of my friends a Happy Birthday.  Well, on her wall another lady had posted that she was in town and to please call or text her and THEN she posts her cell phone number!  On my friends' wall!  This friend of mine has 156 friends on FB.  That means that 156 people now know that lady's cell phone number.  I thought it was really weird because the gal who did it is a society photographer at our local newspaper and why would she want everyone knowing her personal #?  My friend Tiffany is quite the socialite, but even for her I don't think people should be throwing out their phone numbers on FB.
This is what my sister thinks!:

hee-hee!
Well, whatever it is, I like it.  The only info they really have on me is my name, e-mail address, & what schools I attended and if they are really interested in my chats, then who cares?  A few days ago I was just messaging on FB with my Godmother who is in her 70's!  
If you do make yourself a FB account, just PLEASE go to your privacy settings (at the top right of the page) and change all of the DEFAULT settings to "FRIENDS ONLY".  And go to your application settings and change your settings there.  I changed all of my feed and mini-feed settings to private.  Everyone doesn't need to know every time you make a move.

15 comments:

Belle said...

I don't have a clue what facebook is. (It's official. I'm old.) I've heard of it, but never looked. I'll have to check it out.

Tickled Pink And Green said...

I have to admit I know nothing about Face Book or My Space. When I see the names I think of teenagers online, but I hear it has gone way beyond that now. I probably would love it!

Belle (from Life of a...) said...

I confess! Our addiction started back when Legare first went off to college. Being the old lady that I am, not many of my friends have pages but I love keeping up with my kids' friends. Lots of Lorelai's pals "friended" me and it's way fun!

Jo said...

I like the idea, but I just don't have the time in my schedule for one more distraction.

LyndsAU said...

Oh I love Facebook. And Myspace (but Facebook more)! It keeps me updated on my friends lives that I don't get to see often! :)

preppy little dress AKA "PLD" said...

i love FB, having gone to boarding school in the south this is a great way to reconnect with my old classmates. same thing with friends and family i don't see all the time, since everyone seems to move all over. big brother, yea - it's out there! i am they they are watching us on here too! i was on my FB phase, now i am on my blogging phase- go figure, great post!

Anonymous said...

It's a commercial site, as is blogspot. Yes, all of your content is the property of blogger as well.

Muffy said...

I used to have a Myspace page, but then people kept "finding" me! People I didn't have relationships with anymore for a REASON! HAHA! That's why I stay away!

Mindi said...

i don't have facebook because i already spend about 40 billion hours blogging. but i wanna

Anonymous said...

Even alias users with only 4 friends can still be addicted! See what you've gone and done Petunia. 35 mins ago hubby passed by my desk and said, 'What'r you doin?'. I innocently replied 'looking at our family pictures from the photo session in January'. 5 mins. ago he passed through again, gave me a kiss, and said rather gruffly 'I'm going to bed. Don't be up all night', meaning 'Don't be up all night on THAT THING,' (as he calls it).

I admit, back in the 1990's the internet was an addiction for me with its world wide connections, its bulletin boards, and its list serves. I dialed up the internet using the GNO Free Net connection, tying up the family's only phone line after 10 p.m. at night. I watched the birth of chat rooms and AOL. I remember my first color monitor and the big move from DOS to Windows...and I was in recovery until now *hangs head*.

Just joking! I don't even have FB navigation figured out yet. Somehow I pop into and out of logs of what my four siblings have done in the past day or days or weeks. I've decided not to pursue too many of FBs fancy features and to keep it simple and scaled down (so hubby doesn't divorce me!).

but here's another problem. As you can see, I've just started popping in to read your Petunia pages now and again. How can I justify the time, when I dont' even get to read the daily news on most days?!

I guess girl talk is just more fun than the news.

Petunia said...

Ali ~~
Muahahahahaha! Now you've discovered the real crack---Blogging! I wish I could stay home and read blogs all day! Hubby comes to see what I'm doing at 10pm sometimes, too!

Hey, at least no one in our family is addicted to alcohol, smoking, or drugs. But we love us some internet...(and shopping....and chocolate....and coca-cola....)! LOL!

CashmereLibrarian said...

I love Facebook. At first it was to keep in touch with my grad school friends, then I friended my children and their friends friended me; now my students friend me as well as long-lost high school and Army acquaintances. My husband won't do it--he's a more private person than I.
I must say, it's fun to know what my sons are up to...there's a lot of interesting things posted!

Caffeine Court said...

I have Facebook, and I love it!

Caffeine Court said...

I have Facebook, and I love it!

Tickled Pink And Green said...

Okay - I just opened up my Facebook acct (or whatever) tonight! So glad you told me about that privacy setting.

:)