Is social networking a good thing?

fakearms123 · 27-07-2010 02:22PM #1

I'm sure most people on here have a social networking page be it Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, etc but is social networking a necessity or are we better off without it? I was trying to round up my reasons for having it there yesterday when I realised I spend far too much time on it and worrying about it when I could be doing other valuable things. I mean my friends on facebook can easily be contacted by phone or by email if I want to chat to them, do I really need the rest of the people I know on facebook to read what I have just sent my friend (i know there is mail/private chat on facebook, etc but lets face it, its crap, almost always breaks down). So I have tried to round up the good things and bad things of social networking.

Good:
Easy way to keep in contact with friends.
Share pictures, videos, etc with friends.

Bad:
Bad for future employment.
Can cause a lot of frustration, worry and bitchiness amoung people.

Why do AH peeps use social networking such as facebook, myspace, etc? What do you feel are the good and bad points of it?

dlofnep · 27-07-2010 02:24PM

Tis dead handy for keeping in touch and finding people you forgot even existed.

Risteard · 27-07-2010 02:25PM

Surely it's only bad for future employment if you're stupid enough to leave your page public and put up stuff that people could hold against you?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 27-07-2010 02:25PM

Keep up with friends I'd otherwise lose contact with.

I don;t have it under my real name, don't post **** about people I don't know or companies I work for (that's just stupid if you ask me).

If it's going to cause bitchiness amongst people, my guess is that these people are goign to be bitchy anyway.

astra2000 · 27-07-2010 02:28PM

I Think you have managed to summon up all the good bad points that I can think of. The main problem I have is going on for 15 mins and still been on it an hour later when I have more pressing things to do I wish there was a better way of limiting the time I spend on FB rather than self control!!!!

kfallon · 27-07-2010 02:28PM

dlofnep wrote: »

Tis dead handy for keeping in touch and finding people you forgot even existed.

If you forgot someone existed why would you bother to get in contact with them again??? It's obvious you didn't particularly get on so well with them or you couldn't give a toss about them.

It's all a load of bollix!

WindSock · 27-07-2010 02:30PM

Yes. &

lol @ tag :pac:

Banned Account · 27-07-2010 02:30PM

To be honest, while i'm sure it has it's uses, I'd rather head down the pub or pick up the phone and talk to people. When it begins to encroach on reality it's time to consign it to the scrapheap.

Dermo · 27-07-2010 02:31PM

The only social network that anybody from work can find or see is my LinkedIn page. Everything else is under a nickname I'm not known as in work and if it did become known I would be privatising/deleting information.

And because of that I find social networks to be a fantastic thing, I don't miss out on events that I wouldn't have known about otherwise, keep up to date with friends I don't see that often/live overseas.

edit: Thanks Fitzcaraldo for pointing my postcount out, now I can't post again!

fakearms123 · 27-07-2010 02:31PM

dlofnep wrote: »

Tis dead handy for keeping in touch and finding people you forgot even existed.

sounds like you didnt really care about them in the first place...

27-07-2010 02:31PM

A lot of my friends are abroad longterm so it's useful to keep in touch.
I don't spend much time on it though

Risteard · 27-07-2010 02:32PM

Actually this reminds me of the time in school where some of the school staff went on to all our bebo pages and anyone in the school that said anything bad about it was suspended. It was havoc that Friday morning about 50 people called out over the intercom.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock · 27-07-2010 02:32PM

Fitzcaraldo wrote: »

To be honest, while i'm sure it has it's uses, I'd rather head down the pub or pick up the phone and talk to people. When it begins to encroach on reality it's time to consign it to the scrapheap.

... said the man posting 12 messages a day on boards.ie!

Banned Account · 27-07-2010 02:33PM

Dermo wrote: »

The only social network that anybody from work can find or see is my LinkedIn page. Everything else is under a nickname I'm not known as in work and if it did become known I would be privatising/deleting information.

And because of that I find social networks to be a fantastic thing, I don't miss out on events that I wouldn't have known about otherwise, keep up to date with friends I don't see that often/live overseas.

Ignore this - look at the post count - he's obviously the devil!

*runs away screaming - realises how stupid this post will look when he posts again:(*

kfallon · 27-07-2010 02:34PM

Fitzcaraldo wrote: »

To be honest, while i'm sure it has it's uses, I'd rather head down the pub or pick up the phone and talk to people. When it begins to encroach on reality it's time to consign it to the scrapheap.

Well said!

Kasabian · 27-07-2010 02:35PM

I recently ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while tell me she had been checking to see if I was Facebook as she wanted to get in touch.

I asked her why she hadn't called up to the house and knocked at the door. We live about 2 miles from each other.

Ridiculous the way some people carry on with these social networking sites and forget what real social contact is.

Banned Account · 27-07-2010 02:36PM

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

... said the man posting 12 messages a day on boards.ie!

Touché sir *doffs hat*

This is my day job - if i wasn't doing this I'd have to do equally unsocial work - the evenings and weekends are my social time - I will not be near a computer then.

Lux23 · 27-07-2010 02:38PM

I just use to mess around with people more than anything but if I didn't have it I think I would feel like I am missing out or something.

storm2811 · 27-07-2010 02:38PM

When plan to go on for 15 mins I only go on for 15 mins,there's feck all to do unless there's someone you want to talk to online.

Found a load of relatives who live abroad on it though that I haven't talked to in ages so it's handy for that stuff.

ScumLord · 27-07-2010 02:40PM

It's handy for having a way of contacting people outside the country, but I'd use skype to stay in contact with close friends and family abroad. TBH I don't really make much use of facebook, I have people that I met while on holiday on it but never talk to them or even close friends through it.

dlofnep · 27-07-2010 02:43PM

fakearms123 wrote: »

sounds like you didnt really care about them in the first place...

Not really - the older you get, the more people you meet in life.

To put it mildly,

I've been in 2 primary schools, secondary school, 2 colleges, FÁS - worked in about 9 different places, and have met people through hobbies, politics, irish language circles and so forth.

It is very easy to forget someone that you might have got on well with, but only worked with for 6 months or so. I've worked in the same job for 7 years, with a high turnover rate. If I had a euro for every person I met a couple of years down the line and their face rang a bell from work, I'd be a millionaire.

GavRedKing · 27-07-2010 02:43PM

Its handy for creeping, thats it :cool:

dlofnep · 27-07-2010 02:44PM

kfallon wrote: »

If you forgot someone existed why would you bother to get in contact with them again??? It's obvious you didn't particularly get on so well with them or you couldn't give a toss about them.

It's all a load of bollix!

How old are you?

Azureus · 27-07-2010 03:08PM

I love facebook for the ease of keeping in contact with people, handy for sharing photos, getting event invites, and even stuff like fundraising is made a lot more effective by social networking which has proven very useful to me in the last few months.

As for the negatives listed, I wouldnt use my actual name and I certainly wouldnt put up anything so negative thatd damage my future job prospects. I also never even mention my current job, or anything work related. Social networking being the point!

RolandIRL · 27-07-2010 03:18PM

i just use facebook to chat with people i'm too lazy to text and too stingy to ring.

WindSock · 27-07-2010 03:46PM

Fitzcaraldo wrote: »

To be honest, while i'm sure it has it's uses, I'd rather head down the pub or pick up the phone and talk to people. When it begins to encroach on reality it's time to consign it to the scrapheap.

I can do all of those things and still have a facekick account though. Having one doesn't restrict you from doing any of those things. In fact, it may even enhance your social life.

There still is only one good tag there. The rest are crap and takes away from the good one :mad:

jester77 · 27-07-2010 03:53PM

fakearms123 wrote: »

Bad:
Bad for future employment.

Depends on how you use them. I get contacted nearly every week regarding prospective jobs.

starbelgrade · 27-07-2010 04:04PM

I used to have a Facebook account, but it really annoyed me... "Sean is on holidays tomorrow - yipee!", followed by "Cool! Have a great time Sean" etc. Then 2 weeks later, the inevitable photos of Sean, standing on a beach in horrible shorts & bad shades, Sean in an Irish bar, looking like a lobster & half cut etc etc.

I often got the impression that people used Facebook in an attempt to try & prove that their lives were more interesting than they actually are.

And then there's the people who have their first kid & post 20 new photos a day & expect everyone to "coo" over them. It's only a baby. It's not the first one ever born & it won't be the last. Congratulations - your reproductive organs are in working order. Now, get over it.

So, I don't have a "social network" account anymore. My rule is - if I haven't rung you in a long time, it's most likely because I haven't anything to say to you & if I don't post "updates", it's because I'm too busy complaining about you on Boards.

27-07-2010 04:09PM

dlofnep wrote: »

Not really - the older you get, the more people you meet in life.

To put it mildly,

I've been in 2 primary schools, secondary school, 2 colleges, FÁS - worked in about 9 different places, and have met people through hobbies, politics, irish language circles and so forth.

It is very easy to forget someone that you might have got on well with, but only worked with for 6 months or so. I've worked in the same job for 7 years, with a high turnover rate. If I had a euro for every person I met a couple of years down the line and their face rang a bell from work, I'd be a millionaire.

I agree. I went to about 6 primary schools, 2 secondary schools and lived on about 10 different estates. It's just impossible to keep contact with everyone, you have the best intentions when you move on, but nobody has the time to constantly write and phone friends from previous schools when you're trying to fit into your latest one. I don't think people who have lived their entire lives in one place will ever get this. I don't have a single lifelong friend, or a group of people I grew up with, I've constantly had to make new ones all my life. I love being able to log onto Facebook now and then and chat to my best friend from 5th class, or the guy I lived next door to when I was 10, or cousins I haven't seen in 4 or 5 years. People can easily share photos on Facebook as well, it's unlikely they'd think to email them to people they knew years ago, but it's great to see what people look like now. I think people are too judgemental about social networking sites. I hardly ever use them to talk to people I know in real life, except for arranging the odd event.

Sea Sharp · 27-07-2010 04:11PM

As the OP says, it has it's pros & cons.

It helped me get in touch with cousins I've never met but on the down side everybody in my family can see what I post.
Everyone can see the drunken shenanigans etc..

and most of the time you add some1 you haven't talked to in a while and then you suddenly remember why you stopped talking to them.

Mal-Adjusted · 27-07-2010 04:13PM

As with most things in the world, it's completely neutral & can be used for good or bad. Like the force, just not as bad-ass!

Is social networking a good thing?

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