Has Facebook made society more interesting or mundane?

Tim Robbins

Has facebook made society more interesting or mundane?
Discuss...

Tim Robbins

Tim Robbins wrote: »

Has facebook made society more interesting or mundane?
Discuss...

That's useless. You need to supply your own opinions, and the reasons why you consider such a thing worthy of Discussion. I'm fairly sure there's something in the boards.ie rules against throwing out something like this, without informing us of your opinions first.

johnnyskeleton

Option C - no significant impact.

Tim Robbins

Deleted User wrote: »

That's useless. You need to supply your own opinions, and the reasons why you consider such a thing worthy of Discussion. I'm fairly sure there's something in the boards.ie rules against throwing out something like this, without informing us of your opinions first.

Apologies. I think mudane. I consider it a "keeping up with jones" silly fad where insecure people try to make out their lifes are better than the really are.

There's nothing challenging about facebook. When an actor performs on stage he must be good to command attention. Any fool can put up photos of the Eiffel Tower and a few beaches.

There's nothing in facebook which challenges peopel to:
1. use their brain any more
2. use their imagination any more
3. increase their social conscience

So I fail to see how it improves any aspect of society.

Why is it supposed to improve any aspect of society?

Its a networking tool, just like myspace.com, bebo, or a dozen other networking sites. Its just a way of either keeping in touch with people you already know, or meeting new people online.

Don't try to complicate life too much. Most things can be as simple as they appear.

Latchy

If i was going to point out one good thing about facebook is it allows one to look for old school mates, friends and acquaintances whom over a period, you may have lost contact with . I have managed to track a few . On the down side I am not to fussy on known about the lifes of random people from all over the globe although it does bring a lot of fun into people lifes , so that's another plus .

Having 500 more friends than joe soap doesn't intrest me either .

latchyco

latchyco wrote: »

If i was going to point out one good thing about facebook is it allows one to look for old school mates, friends and acquaintances whom over a period, you may have lost contact with . I have managed to track a few . On the down side I am not to fussy on known about the lifes of random people from all over the globe although it does bring a lot of fun into people lifes , so that's another plus .

Having 500 more friends than joe soap doesn't intrest me either .

You do realise that you don't have to accept people's friends requests?

I have just over 100 friends on my account, and I know them all personally. Most I know from living in Ireland, Australia, or China. I find that its a very easy and lazy way of keeping track of what everyone else is doing.

So its up to you whether you want to have hundreds of friends listed or not. Personally I couldn't be bothered. I tried that in myspace years ago, but i just don't have the patience with that kind of addiction. Although it was kinda fun (for a while) to have hundreds of hot women in my friends list, and two male friends.

Hogzy

It saves me texting friends,
helps keep in touch with friends you havnt seen in ages,

Some people use internet social sites for different things! I use it to talk to people cos im poor and i cant afford credit for my phone!!

Latchy

Deleted User wrote: »

You do realise that you don't have to accept people's friends requests?

I should think so otherwise I would have a few hundred people I have no particular intrest in to reply to Dealing with one person at a time suits me but having my inbox filled with all kinds of trivia and useless information is not my thing . The layout i find a bit messy but whatever floats yer boat

My family and friends in real life usually pass on any new friends /people to me .Throw in a few strangers here and there of my own choice and that makes a nice balance .

thebman

Personally I have issues with a company that randomly changed its terms of use from you own your content to they own your content without informing or notifying the user base in anyway.

It was reversed after user outcry and the EU have cautioned them that they will setup a regulatory body for these types of sites if they don't cut that crap out.

Rightly so, you should have digital rights to your content and the EU is hoping to enact this (our government prefers to take away digital rights).

Facebook is just a social tool. Anything that allows people to communicate has pros and cons.

Example of a pro, someone I know contacted their brother who they thought was dead for 9 years as their mother had disowned him and kicked him out of the house.

Example of a con, people getting bullyed on the site.

Either way, Facebook has never made a profit and there are rumours they are in financial trouble like a lot of these social networking sites. I think people tend to like the idea as they work with the community to build a user base but then they try make themselves profitable and all the ads and use of users information drives people to a new site that is still in the stage of trying to attract users.

towel401

more mundane anyway. some people use it as a replacement for socialising in real life, which is grand for some people if thats how they want to waste away. the problem comes when everyone is expected to have a facebook account and empty out every little detail of their life on there to fit in with the crowd.

its not all bad though. but i'd say the ones who get the most value out of it and actually makes their life interesting are the users who spend the least amount of time per day on there

herya

I have 70 contacts on Facebook, friends from 8 or 9 countries. There is no way I could keep everybody updated and get their updates without it. So yay for Facebook.

And who said people only post beach pics? You must have really unimaginative friends, but it's not Facebook's fault really.

rainbowtrout

I have a bebo account that I don't use all that often and I had a facebook account until a few months ago until I committed facebook suicide. I didn't see the point in having it mainly because anyone that I was in contact with I'm in contact with anyway by other means. I had a few people send me friend requests on it from primary school and the like, and then after the initial 'so what have you been doing with your life for the past 20 years' conversation, there was nothing, which was pretty much expected as I wasn't particularly friendly with them in the first place.

I do wonder about people updating their mood/what their thinking/feeling (can't remember what they're called on facebook/bebo). Like when someone gets up on a Sunday morning dying from the night before and the first thing they think is 'I must put a comment on facebook about being hungover' or stuff like 'John is eating a sandwich'

Am I and anyone reading said friend's page supposed to find this stuff interesting, or does the person who does this think people need and want to know this level of detail about their lives?

Or the running commentary on a saturday night (for bebo) which means they've spent half the night in the company of their friends on their phone updating their bebo page on how great their night is. hmmmmmmmmmm


I've been out plenty of nights where something funny has happened or someone has a camera with them and heard the comment almost straight away 'That's going on facebook/bebo tomorrow' Maybe people just have an over inflated opinion of the interestingness of the rather mundane stuff that happens in their lives.


On another note, as a teacher, I hate seeing students being bullied through social networking sites, or feeling their not liked if they don't have at least 400 friends or don't get poked/receive love etc or don't accept every friend invite they get in the school. It does feed on their insecurity.


Having said all that if people use it as it is intended - to keep in contact with people - and don't get caught up in it and let it take over their lives, there's no harm, but it's pretty mundane really.