<p>non-conformists are awesome</p>
<p>Maybe they are fed up with Facebook’s assaults on privacy? Maybe they have a Google+ page instead?</p>
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<p>This seems to be the best reason that I’ve ever heard for not actually having a Facebook.</p>
<p>Why should someone have to have a reason to not use a service? Shouldn’t someone instead have to have a reason to use it? The natural state is without a facebook, not with one, so it seems more important to justify why rather than why not.</p>
<p>a. some people take this thread way too seriously</p>
<p>b. some non facebook users here get a little too defensive about posts that i see are not serious at all</p>
<p>^The reason to have a Facebook, essentially, is the same reason to have a phone, an email, a mailing address. It’s for communication. If you want to communicate with people in the most efficient way, Facebook is a top contender. For mass group messages, it’s more effiecient than a phone call. There are many times when one needs to get in contact with someone, but they don’t have their email or their phone number. If they have their name, then they can usually find them on facebook if they aren’t already friends on facebook.</p>
<p>That being said, I completely disagree with the idea that someone who doesn’t have Facebook hasn’t ever considered having one. Facebook is so prominent in our culture that almost everyone has heard of it. Companies use it now when advertising. “Like our page on Facebook.” There are contests on Facebook. My sister’s school won $500,000 last year in a national contest on Facebook. If someone hasn’t considered having a Facebook at some point or another, then that would be a rarity.</p>
<p>People who don’t have facebooks have consciously made a decision to not have one.</p>
<p>The thing is, Facebook is just a communication device. We don’t think twice about having other forms of communication devices: email, telephones, cellphones, mailing adresses… But for some reason, Facebook is special.</p>
<p>Most people I know that don’t have a Facebook just don’t have time to keep up with it, because they have school and are in a lot of clubs.</p>
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Perhaps for American young people. And all people who do go on that website have obviously made the choice. When you see something you could do, you make a “yes” or “no” choice. I don’t get what you’re saying.</p>
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Because Facebook isn’t as standard or necessary as the other things. You must have a mailing address if you aren’t homeless. Telephones are pretty much a necessity. As for email/cellphones, I know a couple people without them, but it’s more of a rarity. Plenty of people simply don’t like the way the website runs, how their private information can be distributed (yes, “privacy settings,” the reason why Facebook is in the news every month or so for violations), or simply find it redundant to phone calls and mass emails.</p>
<p>The privacy issue is legit but not really relevant here. Just don’t post anything you aren’t comfortable giving to Facebook for whatever purposes they have.</p>
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I’d rather not let them have anything, though privacy isn’t my main reason for not having one. That would be simple lack of desire.</p>
<p>It’s also messed up that they own any picture you upload. Even if you take it down later.</p>
<p>My 0.02 here… not that my opinion will matter much as I am of a certain age…</p>
<p>Its probably my generation, but I feel that FB is a waste of time for older folks such as myself… we come from the age of rotary telephones…the ones with the cords no less! LOLOL so all of this technology really doesnt move me at all. I also feel like there are other things that I can be doing with my time… like being a parent to my teens, working, cooking, playing chauffer, being involved with the PTSO etc. I have seen too many instances where FB is the focus and NOT the family… Have you guys heard of the increase in divorces d/t FB? Or what about the FB depression phenomenon? Both of these topics have been discussed on FOX/CNN/MSNBC on several occasions… </p>
<p>I barely want to see my old classmates in the grocery store… let alone hear about sordid life details on FB! I am from the generation where privacy is refreshing… can anybody say TMI? Do I really need to see a million vacation pics or pics of your new car/recent tummy tuck? </p>
<p>On the side of that coin, my college age son has FB and I see no issue with that…</p>
<p>My daughter who was 14 at the time made a page(last summer) and I made her delete it 4 months later d/t her “friends” innappropriate updates etc… the topics ranged from group sex, oral sex, begging for $ in front of bars to buy drugs, pilfering of parents prescription meds, sex toys, pics of young teens in adult poses in scanty attire, pages where girls are “rated” and called horrible derogatory names, bullying, girls fighting over boys… etc… so I felt that her presence on FB was not only negative, but also useless… teens boys also use FB to meet large #'s girls @ once without any chivalry/effort… and they only had one thing on their minds!</p>
<p>I know that for a certain population that FB is a great tool… but I feel that FB has no true benefit for MY life… and I have a full, interesting, amazing life without it…our lives were pretty damn good prior to FB right? </p>
<p>I felt that my daughter(who is now 15) was exposed to too many detrimental influences and she has not missed FB at all. She was a straight A student her freshman year and I wonder if she would have been so successful if she was still on FB… it took up far too much valuable time last summer. </p>
<p>Most of her friends parents laughed @ me… told me how strict I was… overprotective… and 5 of them admitted to me this spring that they made their kids delete their pages d/t poor grades and questionable behavior… and how they wished they had done it earlier…b/c as soon as the pages were gone, the kids were able to focus on school work and not what their FB friends were doing…and their grades improved!</p>
<p>I agree that technology is great, but not when it exposes teens to negative influences and when adults use it to show off every aspect of their lives…</p>
<p>I had a Facebook page for years but recently deactivated it. It just wasn’t adding anything to my life and is now one less thing to worry about. If my friends are actually interested in interacting with me, they’ll call me. And for all the others who hit the like button on everything I do and wish me happy birthday when I know damn well they wouldn’t have known it was my birthday if Facebook didn’t tell them, oh well. I doubt they’ll notice I’m gone. Needless to say, I’ll probably reactivate it eventually.</p>
<p>A lot of kids in my grade that are extremely intelligent do not have a facebook, obviously because they will opt for studying instead of fb stalking. But, there are exceptions. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have a facebook… very distracting at times!</p>
<p>no its not just old people i am young and feel the same way.</p>
<p>DS has little to no interest in myspace, facebook, twitter, msn messaging. He does like to txt but msgs are short and to the point. He does have a FB but uses it rarely. We have some nieces/nephews that live and die for their FB pages…</p>
<p>DS is off to college this fall. He does love his smartphone as he can read news on it and find where he’s going.</p>
<p>i don’t even really use a cellphone that much either.</p>
<p>oh wait thats right i don’t get service anywhere around where i live…</p>
<p>I feel like having a fb makes you more responsible in ways because you have to balance life and fb but I feel like people that don’t have it dont always have that experience because they push everything like it away. Fb helps you connect with people and it actually helps me do better in school because I am in contact with people that I need to talk to easily so I feel like fb is definitely a good thing :)</p>
<p>Balance life and facebook huh?</p>
<p>So what you saying is, if you stopped Facebooking the balance would shift and you would have too much life?</p>
<p>I agree with NewHavenCTMom, and I’m 17 years old.</p>
<p>I do have a Facebook. I find it easier to connect with some people through Facebook. One of my best friends, for example, doesn’t own a cell phone, and her parents are very strict on her home phone usage. We’ve been able to communicate a lot more often through Facebook because our communications don’t have to be limited to face-to-face contact and rare phone calls.</p>
<p>When it comes to event planning, I do find that it is more convenient to invite people to certain events through Facebook, but I don’t limit myself to this form of communication. I find it impersonal. If I’m having a small get-together, I’ll call each individual person, or if I’m having a party, I still take the time to email or mail personal invitations. For spur-of-the-moment activities or for activities where there are a lot of people coming, I do use Facebook.</p>
<p>People will have different perceptions of Facebook depending on who they friend. My friends on Facebook do not curse, do not talk about drugs, alcohol, or sex, and are not prejudice. Like NewHavenCTMom’s daughter, I did friend some people who did discuss their drug use, post drunk pictures, and explicitly discuss sex (one person changed his middle name to PantsOff). I unfriended these people (as well as one person who went on an anti-gay rant). Facebook would have been overwhelmingly negative if I kept these people as friends. </p>
<p>I think that’s why parents should forbid their young children from getting a Facebook. I hated that my parents wouldn’t allow me to get a Facebook at the same time all of my friends did, but when I was younger, I wouldn’t have understood what to post and and what not to post, and I don’t think I would have had sound enough judgment to not friend or to unfriend certain people. I commend NewHavenCTMom for monitoring her daughter’s Facebook use when she was 14 and taking a stand.</p>
<p>I use Facebook to get coupons, to plan certain events, to talk to people I wouldn’t otherwise be able to talk to, to like some groups for various reasons, and to post a good quote or share interesting news every once in a while. What I will never understand is people who update their status every hour. (I don’t care that you’re tired! Why do you feel the need to tell the world what you’re doing all the time?!?) I think some people need to invest in a diary or journal and a lock if they feel the need to write down everything that happens in their lives. </p>
<p>Another thing I don’t understand is the people who update their status or upload their pictures constantly while on vacation, saying they’re having fun. If they were really having that much fun, they wouldn’t be on Facebook! Are they really that self-conscious that they need validation that their vacation really was that fun?</p>
<p>Some people really do need to watch what they post. Ten kids in my school got suspended for cheating over Facebook. Another kid got sent to boarding school because she posted pictures of herself doing drugs. (Why do people feel the need to post a million and one pictures of themselves?) If you wouldn’t want what you posted plastered on your forehead, don’t post it!!</p>
<p>Is Facebook like a puppy or something to some people?!</p>
<p>You don’t even have to go on it every day or even every week. It’s just nice if you want to keep track of people, and it’s nice to stay updated on events or what your friends are doing. People who have Facebook also appreciate when you do have one because then they can better get in touch with you if need be.</p>
<p>I personally wouldn’t understand not having one, just because I feel like you make yourself harder to reach and therefore could miss out on making some friends. Not everyone you meet is going to want to make a huge effort to get in touch with you at first (notice I said AT FIRST, as in someone you just met), that takes time. So having a medium to communicate that doesn’t take a lot of effort helps build a lot more friendships that eventually get stronger (to the point where people would put effort into getting in touch with you). No one’s making you go on it 24/7 though…hell, I don’t even do that.</p>
<p>I’m an admitted Facebook addict but I use it to make plans in real life and keep track of invites in real life. It’s something I use to organize my social life. It’s not the devil, it’s not a drug, and people who do have Facebook aren’t stupid or lame. You’re allowed to use Facebook as much or as little as you’d like. There aren’t rules. Some of the responses here are crazyyy.</p>