Bend Over, Facebook is Back

[erimir]

I dunno... I find you highly suspicious. And so is lisarea! There might be something to this theory

[Ensign Steve]

You're just begging for the rusty crowbar!

[Demimonde]

Hushed intonations of "didn't have a facebook account" is the new, "quiet and kept to himself."

Antisocial behavior has always been correlated with killers. This is just the first time there has been social media with which to associate it. That isn't to say that people have ever or will ever assume that antisocial folks are automatically suspicious or serial killers.

[lisarea]

I'm sure there is the anti-social perception going on there, but there also seems to be that weird defensiveness about it too. That one where people make really strange and hostile assumptions about people who opt out of things that are optional, but widespread. Like they do with vegetarians and people who don't watch TV. It's like people start to identify with and depend on something so strongly that they can't even fathom how someone could function without that thing, so they assume there's something twisted about those who do.

Facebook progressed to that point so quickly it's scary. Just in the past year or two, it's reached the point that not having a Facebook account is considered some radical social protest or something, rather than as a simple, innocuous choice.

As such, I've been thinking maybe I should just write down my reasons for not having a Facebook account, and print them out so I can just hand that to people who ask me about Facebook in the future. Sort of like a manifesto, you know. Maybe I can even print it on the back of the "Monozygotic Multiples: Human...or TUMOR?" pamphlets I carry with me now, just so I have everything in one place.

[livius drusus]

Your Facebook, My Teratoma by Lisa Pea.

[Demimonde]

[ImGod]

People look at me like I have 2 heads when I tell them I don't text.

I would text maybe if it was to pass on information rather than have some sort of endless chatty conversation about shit. I don't answer email or phone regularly, because I'm busy doing other things like work or eating or watching a movie and I refuse to be interrupted. If people texted me expecting a response within 10 seconds they'd be disappointed when I answered back in a hour or day or two.

Last night on the way home from work I got 3 emails and didn't even look at my phone. Lord knows I had time waiting behind the lady texting at the green light instead of driving her fucking car. She looked pissed when I honked at her, but dog knows how many hours we'd have sat there if someone like me wasn't driving instead of playing angry birds and checking a facebook account.

[Qingdai]

I like texting because half of the time my messages are, "we will meet here" or "pick up butter" which seems to be less time consuming than the voicemail stuff, but a conversation by text is just annoying.

[MonCapitan2002]

I am guilty of having brief exchanges of text messages on occasion, but if I intend to engage in conversation, my preference would be speaking.

[Shelli]

What I don't get is why do some people randomly post random stuff about random people for everyone to read when everyone, save ONE person, is going to be completely clueless as to just wtf this person is going on about?? Really? Why? I don't get it and I probably don't want to get it.

[Ymir's blood]

It reminds me of the passive aggressive crap that my former boss used to pull, when he'd rant and rave about something bothering us in a safety meeting. He would never confront the person about it privately or publicly, just made everyone sit through an undirected tirade.

[Shelli]

The only thing that annoys me about texting is that I can't use the keyboard like a, well, keyboard; both hands, no lookie, zip zip, done.. like I do when I'm typing on the computer. It takes so much looooooooooooooonger to text out something than to type it. It's like waiting for water to freeze, I swear.

[Ohm]

Google Plus is better, in my opinion. But it seems like everyone wants Facebook. Meh!

[livius drusus]

Hiya Ohm! Long time no see.

[MonCapitan2002]

Wow. Guy's been registered since 2005 and only has 660 posts. Well, hello there Ohm.

[Ohm]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

Hiya Ohm! Long time no see.

It's been a while, 1 year 1 month and couples days to be "exact".
I made just in time, before the "Twilight Zone Marathon" begins this year.

Blame it on Xbox, Studies, and "Social Networks".

Originally Posted by MonCapitan2002

Wow. Guy's been registered since 2005 and only has 660 posts. Well, hello there Ohm.

Hey Mon, how are you? Long time.

[MonCapitan2002]

I'm good. I have been around intermittently myself.

[Ohm]

I'll probably get the App. Cause forums then to not have Mobile version web pages.

[Megatron]

My facebook account has been destroyed.

[livius drusus]

By force majeure or your hands?

[The Lone Ranger]

Golly, I am that antisocial guy, apparently.

As I've mentioned before, I got a Facebook account only because it lets me keep up with my nieces and nephews. I log on maybe once a week. But honestly, every time I log on, the place strikes me as such a cesspool -- I'm seriously considering just deleting my account.

I've never texted, and don't use a cell phone. I do own one, but it's kept in the glove compartment of my car, and turned off. It's there only in case I might need it one day in an emergency. I don't have a telephone at home. After all, I figure, I have a telephone in my office and it has voicemail. So if anyone wants to get in touch with me, they can reach me there or by e-mail. Therefore there's no reason for me to have a home telephone.

I have a television, but it's not hooked up to cable or a satellite receiver, or even an antenna; I use it to watch dvds. The only time I watch on-air television is when I'm traveling, and I'm always amazed by how annoying it is. How do people put up with the constant interruptions from commercials? If I hear about a show that seems interesting, I can check it out on dvd, I figure.


On those occasions when it has come up, my students express outright amazement that I don't text or even use a cell phone, and that I've never seen (or in some cases, heard of) all the "cool" television shows. They act like they think I'm from another planet. People sometimes think I'm a Luddite. Not really, but I'm not interested in "being connected." I couldn't possibly care less about what somebody I went to high school with had for breakfast this morning, and when I'm relaxing at home or wandering in the woods, I don't want to be bugged by a telephone call, much less a text.

[The Lone Ranger]

One day, years ago, I was visiting some friends and we were watching something or other on television. This was when cell phones were just becoming popular.

A commercial came on. In it, a guy is climbing a mountain. Just as he reaches the summit and is admiring the beautiful view, there is a ringing sound. He reaches into his pack, pulls out a cell phone, and begins talking. The tagline was something along the lines of, "Now you don't ever have to be out of touch."

"That's disgusting," I blurted out. "Under those circumstances, the last thing I'd want is to be interrupted by a telephone call."

But I'm clearly in the minority.

I was reminded of that a couple of weeks ago when, upon hiking to the top of a mountain in Shenandoah N.P., I encountered 4 young people sitting on a rock outcrop. None were paying the slightest attention to the surrounding scenery, so far as I could tell. Every one of them was talking on a cell phone or texting.


Maybe they were texting "OMG! The scenery here is magnificent!" Even so, it just seemed ... wrong.

[naturalist.atheist]

I guess you can tell those that are actually trying to get away from it all from those that are not, in that those that want to get away from it all go to places where there are no roads or cell phone towers or civilization of any kind, except perhaps for a few outposts where you can resupply.

[Janet]

I have discovered that if one of my Friends invites me to join a group, I have no option to refuse. I don't know why they still bother to call it an invitation if there is no choice in the matter.

[The Man]

Number Of Users Who Actually Enjoy Facebook Down To 4 | The Onion - America's Finest News Source