Comments on: Axing Facebook?

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:21:50 +0000

why won’t you just just make our relationship facebook official!? hahaha Totally jk!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:09:17 +0000

@Bailey the addition of all “crap” you mentioned makes Facebook even worse. That just adds to my argument as to why I don’t like it. But then again, you pointed out and supported my point of how it is useful and in some ways, irreplaceable.

@Zach I’m going to have to try that “don’t bother me with this app or person again”. I especially like the person part!

By: Zach

Zach — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:52:39 +0000

Damnit Bailey you’re absolutely right: I can’t have unattended requests – it drives me crazy.

The way I’ve learned to deal with this – is anytime I get a request from someone about an application, like “Compare your movie taste!” or whatnot, I immediately check off “do not bother me about this application again” and “do not bother me from this friend again”…

That’s slowed things down nicely for me.

By: Bailey

Bailey — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:27:29 +0000

I am on board with the whole “friend cleanser” but it’s more tough for those of us who actually have friends, Drew. hehe. No but seriously… I liked facebook when you had a picture, a wall, your info, and you spent all your time searching for people. Thats what it was supposed to be. It has now been bombarded with event requests, gift giving, save the world petitions, what planet are you really from quizzes, and 8-year olds. I don’t sign on anymore because I hate logging in and seeing that I have 36 requests. And Zach you will understand this… you have to answer them because you can’t have that number just accumulate. So basically, facebook just adds to my stress. However, I can’t give it up. I have come to rely upon it too much. Used it today to find 50 emails. I think we just need to be able to create a personal facebook and limit it to what we want. I mean google did… lets go facebook… catch up.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 16:24:48 +0000

@Dave that is a really good solution and I may do the same. Make it so all they can see is my name….that’s pretty limited.

By: Dave L

Dave L — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:51:55 +0000

What I did the other day was go through every one of my friends on Facebook and moved whoever wasn’t a “real” friend into the “limited profile” category, which gives them very limited access to what I have on Facebook. I originally had a limited profile because I wanted to avoid my ex-students (only a few years younger than me) from seeing photos of me at college parties, etc. But now that everyone and their mother (literally) is on it, that category has expanded a great deal (it now includes my parents, a bunch of peopl from high school).

One function I like now that I’m traveling for work is that I can check out where old friends live. I was in Columbus and met up with a couple college buddies, and I would’ve forgotten that they were there if it weren’t for facebook.

Actually, now that this discussion has opened up, I’ll probably make my limited profile even more limited.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:51:41 +0000

@Emily yes, the purging of fake friends is not a bad idea. And your story about your father’s old secretary seeing something on Facebook and then reporting back to your mother is a perfect example of something I would like to avoid. Every time I go out now and someone takes a picture I’m gonna have to ask, “are you gonna post that on Facebook b/c if you are I might have to steal your memory card”.

By: Emily

Emily — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:38:39 +0000

I’m thinking of getting rid of it too but I’m in too deep now. I mean, 35 people I NEVER talk to just wished me a happy birthday…including my old chemistry teacher who I’m pretty sure just passed me because I was friends with her son. What I did was get rid of any of the people I hadn’t talked to in a while. It was “the great Facebook binge” and it felt awesome! As for photos, I just block everyone I don’t want seeing my photos (my father’s old secretary called my MOTHER about a photo on FB once and told her she didn’t approve of that behavior…it was awful!).
Yeah, FB sucks. Damn you Mark Zuckerberg!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:18:44 +0000

@Zach Damn it! I really hate to say it, but you’re completely correct. At least when people tagged me it wouldn’t come up across everyone’s update screen saying, “Andrew M. Rand has been tagged in photo and oh, by the way, he’s doing something RIDICULOUS so you have to look”.

I really like the approval process idea….why isn’t it that way already?

By: Zach

Zach — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:11:05 +0000

I completely understand and agree on all fronts, but first must compliment that AWESOME GRAPHIC! Seriously- that’s awesome.

Ok – so I’ve had an on-again/off-again hate affair with Facebook. I’ve taken pride at being one of the super-early adopters, then gone months without logging in.

But anyway- I agree with the main problem you brought up – you can only control your content to a certain extent. I read a blog post recently (and unfortunately can’t find it to link) proposing that instead of sending you an email saying that you have been tagged or something – you should get an email that asks you if it’s ok. An approval process would be amazing.

HOWEVER! And this is a big point that’s going to completely ruin your post…

Quitting doesn’t solve anything – it only makes the problem worse. People are still going to post pictures of you – and by quitting you only lose the ability to know about it. Sure you’d have no wall for people to write on – but it doesn’t stop people from writing about you on other walls… basically, Facebook has extorted you into staying!

So I get what you’re saying, but think the only real solution is for some fixes on FB’s end, which hopefully come soon.