Facebook is what you make of it. I use it for keeping in touch with family and friends. I seldom post (except on the jigsaw group page! , seldom comment except for liking something.
But it is so easy to block someone or not comment if you disagree with anybody. I make a conscious effort to ignore comments or postings I don't like instead of causing arguments. Personally I think Twitter is far worse.
Twitter is horrible and then there is Reddit! A lot of awfulness out there...
I love my Facebook for getting pictures of my Colorado grandkids and keeping in touch with my family 600 miles away in NW Iowa! I have reconnected with some friends from college too. I belong to a couple of animal rescue groups where we network to rescue animals and even a Search and Rescue Bloodhound page. A lot of small businesses also use it effectively. I want to get rid of the horrid, filthy carpet on my steps and upstairs hallway. I ran across a local young man who has a small flooring and step restoration business and based on recommendations and photos, just hired him to do my steps. I doubt he was 25, but appears to be a hard working guy trying to make a living. Same thing happened with my kitchen remodel - some of the hardest working young men I've ever met! These are the kinds of businesses I want to support!
So, like you say, Val, Facebook is what you make of it.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you tomatoes, make Bloody Marys.
Drac, good for you. I hired a guy that I found on facebook to paint my living room and after hubby said that it was too much money, he just said to pay him what I thought it was worth. some of these young entrepreneurs are just trying to pay their bills and start a business so if we can help them out, that is great.
as for e-friends, I have a bunch. I have a friend that lives in Texas, and I have never met him but we met like 25 years ago from a gaming site and he bought a bunch of my games. we have wrote each other for a long time and every year he sends me games for my birthday. Also, I have a friend from New Zealand that I met on a gaming site (she was asking for help) and we have talked for about 30 years and in fact, she came and visited us about 10 years ago. So, some of the nicest people I know are just e-friends. I wouldn't know them on the street if I saw them now, but, I do consider them my friends.
It is great connecting with people who share your interests, and staying in touch with them - I helped someone out in Tasmania get hold of the "Feeble Files" years ago now, and I've stayed in touch with her ever since.
I have had more meaningful relationships with e-friends than with a lot of my regular friends and acquaintances. Shared interests are a great foundation to start a friendship on. Has anyone here met your spouse or significant other online? I haven’t, but my 83-year-old mom met her husband online.
I met and married my second husband online - way before social media accounts like Facebook even existed. We got together through a 'penpal' site in those days and eventually met.
Will always be grateful to the internet for the chance of some happiness for the second time. Sadly he also passed on in 2000.
Aw very sweet Val. I had many penpals when I was younger. I wrote to a girl from Japan for many years and then we both were growing up and moved on. I believe I was about 8 years old when that started.
Drac, I got someone to fix my aircon off facebook - trying to support local business etc. He made it look like he fixed it while not replacing the part and took the money, leaving me with a newborn and my elderly parents with no aircon in 40 degree weather. It's certainly put me off using small businesses unless I know someone one has used them, which is really sad.
"The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it's as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it out all yourself from the clues."
— Terry Pratchett
Well, hopefully you gave him a bad review. Those businesses go by the reviews. Of course, they can manipulate them, so you still have to be careful. I would only do this with a local small business. Not only could I bash it on Facebook, but I could make sure no one used that business in the community again!
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When life gives you tomatoes, make Bloody Marys.
, seldom comment except for liking something.
