Deleted my Facebook account . . .

[Steve Foss]

. . . and I feel like I've got nowhere to go!!

Seriously, I did delete it. Just a little too much Big Brother mixed in with the friend/family connection, of late.

Time for a brave OLD world.

[Pinusbanksiana]

. . . and I feel like I've got nowhere to go!!

Seriously, I did delete it. Just a little too much Big Brother mixed in with the friend/family connection, of late.

Time for a brave OLD world.

When you going to delete this account?

[upnorth]

There is Google+ I and a few others are testing the waters.

[Steve Foss]

The Facebook thing also came because sitting at a computer chatting with people is a lazy excuse for not getting out and living life. It's silly how easy it is to fall into too much of one and not enough of the other.

If I'm going to have a heart attack and drop dead, I'd very much rather that happen when I'm out photographing, fishing or hunting, not with my a$$ in a chair yakking online.

So, Pinus, you'll see me around here less in the future than you have in the past. I'm sure we'll miss each other very much.

[upnorth]

I wind up checking mine quite frequently, but I stay away from doing a whole lot of chatting. It can get too time consuming. And I have done a few things at home to make it less convenient to sit on this stupid thing all day long. I spend most the time on the laptop, so I put the charger in the other room from where I normally sit so I have put thing dang thing down to charge it. When you get the 10% battery left message it does tend to trigger the time to get up and do something different.

And It seems you aren't the only one who has got fed up as I seen my friend list drop by 2 in the last day or so.

[Scott K]

Steve, one question though, do you not get a few clients from facebook? I hardly post on it, and when I do, it is just babble anyhow. What I dont like is reading through all of the,

woke up, nice day

then 5 minutes later, Making coffee, then 5 minutes later, ahh, morning coffee, then time to make breakfast, then ughh, dishes need to be done, then had a busy morning so far, and the dishes are done, then time to relax, etc... all day long. I have/had a few friends that find a need to post every body movement, and thought they have. I may check it a coouple times a day, but I just skim over the majority, and look for notifications from people. As I do get a quite a few side jobs off of facebook.

[Pinusbanksiana]

The Facebook thing also came because sitting at a computer chatting with people is a lazy excuse for not getting out and living life. It's silly how easy it is to fall into too much of one and not enough of the other.

If I'm going to have a heart attack and drop dead, I'd very much rather that happen when I'm out photographing, fishing or hunting, not with my a$$ in a chair yakking online.

So, Pinus, you'll see me around here less in the future than you have in the past. I'm sure we'll miss each other very much.

I don't even know you, how can you say that? You were on several of my friends list on facebook though, imagine that only one degree of separation! I simply commented on one of your posts and you bit my head off. Maybe stepping away is good..... Best of luck to you.

[upnorth]

Steve, one question though, do you not get a few clients from facebook? I hardly post on it, and when I do, it is just babble anyhow. What I dont like is reading through all of the,

woke up, nice day

then 5 minutes later, Making coffee, then 5 minutes later, ahh, morning coffee, then time to make breakfast, then ughh, dishes need to be done, then had a busy morning so far, and the dishes are done, then time to relax, etc... all day long. I have/had a few friends that find a need to post every body movement, and thought they have. I may check it a coouple times a day, but I just skim over the majority, and look for notifications from people. As I do get a quite a few side jobs off of facebook.

I limit my friends on face book too. A few that I know from here, and the rest are family, friends and former classmates. And yeah there are few that post incessantly, but most are a post or 3 a day type of thing.

[Wanderer]

What's Facebook?? Isn't HSO the only social media out there??

See you on the ice Steve.

[DTro]

I think it's what you make of it. All I know it that it makes for a convenient way to see new photos of family and friends and catch up with old ones.

I do get quite tired of certain businesses and people ONLY using it for marketing purposes. That gets old.

But, I appreciate the fact that I've been able to connect and actually have virtual discussions (chat) with some people in the fishing industry that I might never have to chance to otherwise. That is pretty cool.

As with any casual discussion, keep politics and religion out of it, add a little humor every now and then, and it can be enjoyable.

My two cents

[LMITOUT]

I just signed up for FB a few months ago. The only reason I did so was to keep tabs on family and "stay in the loop" since all my family is in ND. I've had friends see that I've joined and wanted to "friend me" but I declined. Keeping it to family only.

Twitter on the other hand...I check it waaaay too often throughout the day as a way to keep up on news, sports, and other current events. Great source of immediate information.

Google+ has a ways to go just because they haven't allowed businesses or other organizations join (maybe they have now?), and that is about the only other reason I check on Facebook is to see new product announcements or information on various companies that I follow. Now they've put the hammer down on me because I signed up as "LMITOUT" and they want real names only, which I'm not going to do.

[CAMAN]

There is Google+ I and a few others are testing the waters.

Some may say Google is more "Big Brother" than Facebook

[Steve Foss]

I don't even know you, how can you say that? You were on several of my friends list on facebook though, imagine that only one degree of separation! I simply commented on one of your posts and you bit my head off. Maybe stepping away is good..... Best of luck to you.

PB, I honestly did not mean it the way you took it. Truly. I'm sorry it came across that way. It was just an attempt at goofy banter. My apologies.

As for clients, I actually haven't gotten any clients that I know of from Facebook, though many of my FB friends are clients. Quite a few from this site, and the majority from word of mouth. Though I'm not sure of getting work from FB, it's still a great way to connect with far flung family and friends, and networking with clients is a great way to secure repeat business.

And it is absolutely what one makes of it. True about most things in life. if I can find a way to use social media in moderation instead of letting it keep me from doing things I enjoy and need to do, I'll reactivate the Facebook account. It might be something as simple as setting a time limit per week. I do tend to be an all or nothing sort of fella.

Thanks, everyone, for the food for thought.

[Pinusbanksiana]

Get back on facebook, I will friend you. Live your life as you wish, but remember what century this is. I can see you have a good heart please don't let the social media curve get to you! Use it to your advantage.

[upnorth]

I agree social networking and even sites like this can suck up way too much time if we let them. I even sometimes regret getting a smart phone as sometimes the email dinging etc can get a bit distracting when I am doing other things.

But for the most part I try to live my life by either doing something fun or productive. I enjoy and have fun with some of th stuff on the computer, and of course there are productive thing too, but there comes a point where I am just wasting time and then it is time to get up and "do something".

[delcecchi]

Gee Steve. Now that you mentioned it, I hadn't seen anything from you for quite a while. But you probably unfriended me long ago. Sorry I didn't notice. It must be sort of a stealth process.

Or else you just went totally quiet.

No, facebook isn't very important but every little bit of socialization helps for me.

[Steve Foss]

Del, we're still FB friends as far as I know, but it's hard to know sometimes with all the doofus nonstop changes on Facebook. I just now reactivated my FB account. Might as well cultivate an attitude of discipline instead of balls-to-the-wall or nothing at all.

And hey, with all the guiding I've got lined up for fall fishing and grouse, not to mention cabin closings, maybe I won't even have time for social media. Well, not much.

As for HSO, it's been going on 10 years, and I feel about HSO like I do about a longtime and much-loved spouse. Sometimes we irritate each other, but there is investment and commitment, and it only takes a day or two away from each other to rekindle the love affair.

[Tom7227]

The media analysis if what as going on with the changes mentioned that the ability to develop data and thus profiles of users seemed to be a major rason for the changes. Sort of got me thinking how the kid was able to make it onto the list of richest people in America. Since we don't pay to use it he's got to be making dough somehow.

I guess I don't think I want to be tracked and 'sold' to anyone for anything.

About 50% of what I see on FB is pictures of people's kids, the food they're eating (what's the the plate pics?) and short notes about new friendships. I've toasted a few people who turned on the auto not thing that makes an entry every time they enter a store that has that thing set up.

I was thinking about just not using FB for a while but I haven't made up my miA number of times I’ve gotten great advice from folks on FM and that makes this HSOforum worth it for me. I can’t think of a single thing that I learned from FB that I couldn’t live without.

[leech~~]

All my family wants me to join up so we can talk! I say whats wrong with the phone or email? Besides I don't need to meet any old girl friends or 15 year old girls to get in trouble with!

I already spend to much time on this site not getting any thing done around the house as it is!

[bobbymalone]

I held out from myspace and now I'm holding out from facebook.

Just don't give a rip about people I went to high school with and haven't seen since. Any "real" people I'm interested in communicating with know how to find me.

Not to mention it's well documented that Facebook does some stuff with your info and tracks your online activities in ways that I find unfortunate.

I sometimes do wish I could see the pictures and whatnot that real people that I know post, but meh - i've made it this far.

A lot of wasted electrons and garbage on there though. I blame reality tv tripe for the mistaken notion that anyone gives a silver carp what you had for breakfast or when you took a dump.

[Down Deep]

FaceBook might be Big Brother, but no one should expect any degree anonymity when using social media. If a person doesn't want it out there then they shouldn't type it and send it. I personally like FB and some of the other media I use. I spend on average about 30 minutes to an hour a day reading and commenting on posts on all the forums. Most of it is done on my cell phone during times of day I have a few free minutes or late night when I'm chilling out. One thing I don't do is chat or send PM's. If I want to talk to you I will call you.

FaceBook makes it clear that they require your name if you want to have an account. The reason for this is that it is a networking site and your name helps other people find you. Using real ID's also helps keep the conversation on the up and up for the most part. I can always un-friend people which I have several times. All of who have been the incessant political posters or the Jesus freaks. This is a free country and there is no requirement to have an account. There are plenty of sites that don't require a person's real ID.

[upnorth]

I tightened up my security setting so less is public, especially posts. There are comments that are not meant to be read by someone just snooping around for info on Scott. And yes even then there are comments I won't make and or will use the messaging/chat system instead.

One should be aware that employers are no using FB to check on potential employees prior to hire.

[toughguy]

I say stay away from facebook Steve. I'm in my mid 30s and have never had a facebook acct. I'm actually pretty techy so that's not why I don't have one. I just don't see the need for it. My real life friends know I respond quickly to emails, calls and texts so they just talk to me that way. I see and talk to my real friends often enough to know what's going on in their lives. To me a friend isn't someone who I went to high school with and never talked to back then, but for some reason they what to know where I work and live now. I don't need to see pictures of my former co-workers dog and I really don't care that much about my cousins new car or where she's going this weekend. If we haven't bothered to see or call each other in 2 years you're not my friend. To me facebook isn't bring society together. We're just learning too much about distant people in our lives and not enough about you're real friends and family. So instead of meeting a real friend or relative for dinner or coffee we type away in the dark. Kind of sounds depressing. I read something a while back that people were becoming depressed from FB because all you see is everyone else's good times. You begin to think everyone else has it so good. What are we going to be saying about people at funerals in 50 years if we never really get to know anyone? Will we even go or just write one last message on their wall? I know a lot of my rant is a bit an exaggeration but social media is changing our society. I think FB has its place and I won't bash anyone that has one. All I'm saying is it's like Steve mentioned; get out there live.

I'm with LMIT on the Twitter thing though. I love it for getting breaking news or staying on top of specific topics. Maybe someday I'll get a facebook. Just seems like a waste of time to me right now.

[TruthWalleyes]

I check up on my Facebook page two to three times a year. The 2nd time was this last saturday...I visit so infrequenty now that i haven't a clue how to operate the darn thing...thigs change all too often for me to care to keep up with.

For the most part, my best friends i socialize with frequently. I do like to see how those long distance friends are doing a few times a year though.

[hanson]

I really enjoy Facebook... Steve you are one of my friends.

I'm not sure if your recent move was because of Facebook's new format or what the reason may have been but here are some of my thoughts which I think have been touched on:

The internet, social networking, and flippin' smart phones are all too consuming. I had a Blackberry for 2 years... wanted a "cool" phone, wanted to stay in touch with everything, etc and got so sick of that thing. I even posted in the Electronics forum here about ditching my smart phone and going back to a flip phone. Shoot I've had my flip phone for over a year now and don't miss that BB one minute. My company has even volunteered to give me another BB (and obviously pay for it) and I said no way, no how... I don't want to get those kind of e-mails (bitchy clients) on my personal time. I'll deal with them when I'm in the office.

I'm all about un-complicating my life and enjoying it, not being tied down to technology which is what that dang phone did to me. I think I still have control of the internet in general and Facebook but there may come a time where it is too much once again.