<p>You’re kidding me, right? Even five years ago, almost everyone I knew had a cell phone, and I was only 14/15. I didn’t live in a particularly rich neighborhood or anything, either. </p>
<p>I can’t imagine not having a cell phone. One of my bosses has told me straight that they can only hire people with cell phones. It is how business gets done since we don’t work in an office. </p>
<p>As to the original question- no, probably not. However, be advised that some employers may question whether or not you’re technologically savvy- something crucial to every field.</p>
<p>LOL @ pjLoyd. A ■■■■■ who has 7 posts is calling me ignorant. LOL. Nice one ■■■■■.</p>
<p>And when did I ever diss people who have one, moron? I simply asked would I be disadvantaged on Wall Street for not having one. Seeing as you gave me a useless rant about how “@W3SOME FAC3B00K 1S!1111”, your input (much like your account) is useless. </p>
<p>Kthxbye. <3</p>
<hr>
<p>@roman, thanks for actually answering my OP. I am technologically savvy, I just don’t want a Facebook account. I know how important email and cellphones are, hence why I have a professional Gmail account and a blackberry smartphone. I am prepared for Wall Street (in terms of technology and communication), I just wanted to know if Wall Street was big on Facebook, but apparently not. </p>
<p>Obviously if Facebook becomes the new gmail/blackberry (which I highly doubt), then I would have no choice but to get a Facebook.</p>
<p>I’m going to agree with sadcollegestud. I found this on the internet:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>(Should your business be on Facebook? by CNN money dot com)</p>
<p>Now, <em>I</em> do have a facebook, but it IS NOT PROFESSIONAL for a wall street person to use it for business purposes. Facebook is full of shifty advertisements that will just earn you calls from solcitors (today is bad spelling day), and maybe a computer virus (It’s happened to me). Myspace is even worse in that regard…once I saw an ad for hooking up with married women. Plus, personal photos? sorry, there are more professional mediums. I would not do business with someone who
deals in investingand stuff, if they are on facebook.</p>
<p>Maybe for a different kind of business, it would be okay.</p>
<p>BTW, someone thought it’s abnormal that I do not have a cellphone? First of all, I am from Montana… lots of us don’t have a cellphone…second, I can’t afford one… third, the landline works fine. I don’t receive personal calls, I don’t make personal calls (instead I post something on someone’s wall.) I call my bank, credit card company, VA, the university.</p>
<p>When I lived in Asia, I had a cellphone, because they are prepaid, cheap, and far more popullar than they are in the US (not for calls, but for texting).</p>
<p>lol I’ll slap the interviewer that asks if I have a Facebook. If they’re semi-intelligent they can just search for me anyway, but they won’t be able to see much.</p>
<p>This is a funny load of crap. Facebook will fade away due to competition and shifting interests just like every thing in a free market. FB does not own the ideas it pioneers. (well if it does, the patent will run out one day). Cell phones are just phones without a cord… and those are just telegraphs or whatever… it is the idea. Phone models or carriers change. Software programming changes. FB changes their software like every 3 months… remember ebay and amazon? they are still here, but there’s no hype about them anymore…</p>
<p>So… because YOU waste your time on something, that means that something used by a half billion people is lame? Great argument. :rolleyes: </p>
<p>Look- I don’t care if someone has a facebook or not. Doesn’t affect me. But when people bash it- I just don’t get it. If you don’t like it, don’t have one. But don’t call it lame or dumb or whatever simply because YOU can’t control yourself on it.</p>
<p>Facebook is an excellent way to show potential employers a ‘personal’ side of your life. I wouldn’t doubt that some employers do search (creepy?) facebook profiles for higher profile job applications. </p>
<p>Facebook is also an amazing way to keep up with old friends (and in some cases, family), and new friends. Facebook is lower commitment than even texting, meaning if I want to keep touch with an old friend but not spend all day texting them, I can just write on their wall once every few days and still keep up. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t say not having facebook is a disadvantage in and of itself, but having one may be an advantage (provided you keep it looking professional and dignified). I have also received a job offer strictly based on my profile for a smaller company (I’m 19).</p>
<p>It’s up to you but I see no point in not having one; if you don’t want to waste time using it every day…then don’t. You can have one and still only use it once or twice a month, it doesn’t require upkeep.</p>
<p>Leolibby, facebook will last because it has a magic touch similar to Apple. I don’t know what it is, but something about its design made it infectious compared to other social networking sites (see myspace). At 500+ million people around the world and growing every day, it will be a long time before facebook is dethroned without a complete paradigm shift.</p>
<p>Dude, you’re 19… one year is a long time to you. I said the concept of social networking might stick around, but not facebook… someone will think of something better. Apple? I just read how ipod and mp3 players were fads… you might not know this, but when I was young, we used audio tapes (analog strips of some sort of magnetic tape…) CDs were not around. Change is inevidable.</p>
<p>Don’t try to pull the “I’m older, so I’m more wise” card. I hate to pull ad hominem, but if you were around with audio tapes, you’re probably at least 30, so why are you on here talking to teens about the unimportance of technology? People 100 years ago didn’t have cars, or chemotherapy; surely you wouldn’t argue that these weren’t important and useful developments. Facebook, cell phones, and other social developments are no less useful, just in a different realm of our lives.</p>
<p>Facebook will stick around even if there is a better social networking website; at this point it is too large and all-encompassing to stop.</p>
<p>Apple is much more than iPods and mp3 players at this point. And hence why I said a ‘complete paradigm shift’, meaning these things will be at the top until something completely new and innovative comes out to make them technologically obsolete (similar to what happened to CDs, audio tapes, and yes, soon landline phones). And it’s likely that Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, will be at the forefront of the new paradigm when it comes, given their sheer power of numbers and engineering that they can throw at developing new technologies.</p>
<p>I agree with your first paragraph. (although just for the record, I’m also 19… and yes, 1 year is an eternity to me too.)</p>
<p>I’m bored with facebook talk,
I’ll just say you might be right or wrong. What if a massive sun flare knocks out electricity, and all world currencies become worthless as a result of the ensuing economic crisis? </p>
<p>Before cars and chemotheraphy, life meant the same thing as it does now to the people then, probably… I mean it was equally possible to be satisfied and happy. Humans have a set point of happiness , like a “resting heart rate,” being a millionaire or getting married or gettin the first car might make you happier for a week, but you will just return to your set point.</p>
<p>I was around with audio tapes too, but I wasn’t using them. I thought that’s what you meant.</p>
<p>Personally, a year goes by pretty quickly for me. When you’re always out finding stuff to do, it flies. I’m not judging but it’s hard to believe you’re very social if you’re 19, have no facebook, have no cell phone, and receive no calls. I know it’s ad hominem but it’s hard to take your advice regarding social technology very seriously when you aren’t social and thus have little or no use for social technology.</p>
<p>I think happiness is different from enjoying everything life has to offer. Life has much more to offer now than it did when 99% of the population were slaves in the medieval times. Sure, happiness comes from within, but there are startlingly different levels of tasting everything life has, and that is where technology comes in.</p>
<p>If you don’t think facebook is useful then don’t use it. </p>
<p>As for the notion of using facebook every five minutes…
This is classic ad hominem. Not everyone that uses FB does this or anything remotely close. Many businesses stray away from doing this as well only giving relevant updates. If you feel you would have to post every 5 minutes or it would be too much work then again stay away from it.</p>
<p>"Obviously if Facebook becomes the new gmail/blackberry (which I highly doubt), then I would have no choice but to get a Facebook. "</p>
<p>That was the point though - FB is just that. The disadvantage is because without one you automatically disconnect from 500,000,000 users and MORE because social networking tools are grouped and connected now e.g. FB + twitter + blog. You can check out the WSJ, NYTIMES, and other types of businesses to see how they use social networking.</p>
<p>Think about this when you are debating advantages / disadvantages…
Let’s say you are being interviewed for a stock trading company and your interview goes well and the interviewer says he will call you. Later that day the interviewer interviews someone else who has the same credentials as you and interviews just as well but has one major difference, followers. This other person has been posting on his blog (which is a .com website) about stock trading, and linking it with his FB and Twitter for updates. He tells the interviewer about his success and the information is relevant because it is what he is being interviewed for – stock trading. He mentions this as a personal hobby and something he just enjoys to do. The interviewer checks out his blog and notices that he has 100,000 followers and is impressed.
Let’s address what having these tools mean: It means this person is extremely tech savvy (you said you don’t use them and are tech savvy but do you have any type of portfolio to prove it?). Let’s say you have website and that is your portfolio. You put all of your credentials on a nice website that is coded well. Do you think the interviewer is going to remember that or the other guy who had people willfully following him? The type of job you take is important and think about it, stock trading is a job that requires social networking and now this other guy is proving he is very good at it. Obviously, real testimonials and all of that are more important but as something to have, something extra on top of everything else it could make a big difference between being hired or not.</p>
<p>If you don’t think it is right for you or Wall Street then don’t use it. Personally, I think it is. I could address a lot more but there is a lot of negative bias in this thread and I really don’t want to get into it. I just wanted to address the advantages/disadvantages for you and I hope that helps you understand the business angle a little more.</p>
<p>I was just answering the OP’s question. My claim is that FB is unprofessional for a wall street person, and FB sucks. I think we all know that FB sucks, but I still have one and I think it’s a good tool (that sucks).</p>
<p>hmm when I said I’m 19, I thought we were talking about Martian years. actually, now that I think of it, I was using audio tapes in high school… also, CD’s aren’t obsolete in my house.</p>
<p>Wow, I had no idea blogs were so useful. Can’t twitter handle all the updates? c’mmon, let’s all boycott FB. I had no idea FB was such a menace to society… and now I hear it’s branching into the update busiess? I’m disgusted.</p>
<p>Well, myspace was 1000 times more unprofessional ( their advertizements had a lot of sexual innuendo… and my computer got a spyware/virus from just surfing there. It was one of those things that gives you popups of a fake antivirus… and it disabled almost my whole computer. I had to do a system restore.)</p>
<p>FB has shady ads (like “get a free $1000 wal mart gift certificate”).</p>
<p>Plus FB is “friend oriented” personal… sure you can use a conservative pic… but its not intended to be a business tool… I’m not aware of any specialized ways of searching for stock traders.</p>