Ask Slashdot: Living Without Social Media In 2015? 394
An anonymous reader writes On Slashdot, we frequently write derogatory comments regarding social networking sites. We bash Facebook and the privacy implications associated with having a great deal of your life put out there for corporations to monetize. Others advocate for deleting your Facebook profile. Six months ago, I did exactly that. However, as time went on, I have fully realized social media's tacit importance to function in today's world, especially if you are busy advancing your career and making the proper connections to do so. Employers expect a LinkedIn profile that they can check and people you are meeting expect a Facebook account. I have heard that not having an account on the almighty Facebook could label you as a suspicious person. I have had employers express hesitation in hiring me (they used the term "uncomfortable") and graduate school interviewers have asked prying questions regarding some things that would normally be on a person's social media page. Others have literally recoiled in horror at the idea of someone not being on Facebook. I have found it quite difficult to even maintain a proper social life without a social media account to keep up to date with any sort of social activities (even though most of them are admittedly quite mundane). Is living without social media possible in 2015? Does social media have so much momentum that the only course of action is simply to sign up for such services to maintain normality despite the vast privacy issues associated with such sites? Have we forgotten how to function without Facebook?
Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Funny)
Just be an old codger like anyone with a 5 digit UID. They don't expect that much of us. If we can handle email then we're doing better than our elected representatives.
And, if you don't mind, off the lawn.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Interesting)
Linkedin setup a shadow account for me. Too many people wanted to vouch for my skills.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:4, Insightful)
Same here... I ended up filling in a bit of detail on it too, so it's now my online CV. However, I don't use it like a social network, just as a place for people to find my employment info.
Facebook? Never had an account, never plan to, and never missed it. My social life is already busy enough without it thank you.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed - I have no facebook account, no twitter account and I don't do the iggy either... (Simpsons ref) (Don't have a 5 digit UID But I'm old enough that I have to start qualifying my pop culture references coz you young whipper snappers probably weren't even born when the reference was made!) I've got old friends that decry that they can't keep me informed with their lives because I don't have a facebook account. (Hullo, I HAVE a smart phone and you can call or text me... Is that too much of an effort for our relationship?)
I've got a LinkedIn account that's strictly professional and that's as far as it goes I don't even really communicate on it other than to answer the recruiters or to hook up with some ex-coworkers (which I then take off line). I am amazed at how many people keep sending me personal or political information (all flavors) on it as if employers wouldn't care about that when hiring - The adage is still true - Don't discuss politics, religion or the Great Pumpkin in polite company.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:4, Funny)
I don't have any of that junk either ... but I'm also an old codger who thinks email is modern and up-to-date, and since I play on chess.com I think I'm an advanced internet user :) I don't bother with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, SnapChat, or any of the others. I sometimes wonder why I bother with /. for that matter.
But hey, I run Linux and I use Emacs org-mode, so I'm hip, right?
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Funny)
No. vi would be hip.
Re: (Score:3)
Anybody who asks me for a Facebook account in the process of hiring isn't worth MY time.
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I don't have Facebook, I'm thinking of giving up on Twitter and I do have LinkedIn for professional presence only. I'm 65 this year and have spent my whole life in tech, my house is full of computers, but I see no need for permanent connection with superficial social transactions.
News at 8, Facebo
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Interesting)
A couple of years ago, my boss sent me a LinkedIn invite. I said "Well, it's my boss; so..." and started to fill-out the application.
I got to some point, and said "Screw this. I'm not giving up (whatever info it was it wanted)." , and CANCELLED the rest of the application. Mind you, I had NOT completed the Application, so theoretically, no LinkedIn "Account" was created...
Too late! My work email, which had been blissfully SPAM-FREE for two years, INSTANTLY started receiving about a dozen pieces of SPAM per day!
It eventually (almost) stopped; but I learned a valuable lesson: Despite the language regarding "We won't sell your email addy into cyber-slavery", it's all a big lie (go figure!)
So that, was that. I stuck my toe into Social Media, and promptly got it bitten-off. So, no more for me!
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Informative)
I've seen this before. I think their system does it unprompted.
That is, your boss has no idea s/he invited you to jack shit.
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I used to get a lot of emails of a closed LinkedIn account as well. This untill I found somewhere on their site a way to REALLY block the receiving emails. After that nothing anymore.
So regardless of what you think of them, that is at least something that was possible to do. And no, I never received spam via them. What I do is use e.g. for /. the email adress slashdot.org@example.com so I KNOW where it comes from.
Thanks for the tip(s)! Glad to see they actually HAVE a way to stop the ILLEGAL onslaught of non-solicited, soliciting emails...
Yeah, back in the days of Radio Shack (RIP), et al, asking for name and address so they could "SPAM" you with snail-junk-mail, I used to intentionally vary my name slightly, so I could tell who sold what list to who.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Insightful)
Too many people wanted to vouch for my skills.
This is what makes LinkedIn 'references' bullshit. People have recommended me for skills they can't possibly know I even have. It devalues the whole system.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Funny)
I swear I'm the only person in my subdivision who isn't talking on the phone while walking my dog.
That's a friendly neighborhood to all be willing to walk your dog...even if they do talk on the phone while they're at it.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Insightful)
What can I say?
I *am* antisocial. If I'm outside walking/cycling/skiing/whatever, I don't want to be telephoned. Interactions are face to face or not at all.
I may have a google+ account (it came with the gmail address, which was a necessity when I bought an Android phone) but that does not mean I have ever used it, or the gmail account. No Facebook, no Linkedin, no Whatsapp, no whatever-the-other-one-was-which-Rupert-Murdoch-bought. I don't see a problem.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Funny)
I *am* antisocial.
Interactions are face to face
You're doing it wrong.
or not at all.
That's the ticket!
I have a phone. Almost never use it for calling people and rarely get calls on it either. I use it more as a glorified GPS+music player+reminder pad+internet browser+basically everything else a modern phone can do except actually be on the phone.
Honestly, I couldn't live without the thing anymore. Its just so damned convenient for everything. Being able to receive phone calls is almost a detriment to an otherwise amazingly useful tool.
That said.. if you want to talk to me, I'd much rather you send me a text message. I hate when people just drop by out of the blue. I hate when people call out of the blue. If you want to do lunch, text me a time and I'll get back to you when I can. The only acceptable reason for a call rather than a text is if you want to do lunch in the next 10 minutes and "when I can" may not be a reasonable response time.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:4, Funny)
I swear I'm the only person in my subdivision who isn't talking on the phone while walking my dog.
Likewise, if you haven't bought a phone for your dog yet, I'm afraid I'll have to report you to the ASPCA.
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It's not antisocial to not be on your phone. In fact, it's the antithesis of not being antisocial.
Imagine what would happen if people weren't on their phones every waking moment. They'd have to TALK to someone they met on the street. How weird is that?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Just do it. Once I realized that people who I enjoy talking to don't care if I have a phone, my life got a lot better. $80/mo is better spent on bar tabs with friends than on a cellphone. I sleep better, work better, think better, and live better. Granted, I've got a google voice number so people can text me, but I check that when I check email, 3 times a day. The people I want to spend time with find me valuable enough to call or schedule ahead, and the people who are offended that I'm not obligated to imm
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Do what I do... forget it. I'll often just let it ring, too. But that's because I'm the one in charge of my phone, not the other way around.
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5 digits? You got SIX!! Maybe you're a mutant? Let me count your fingers.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:4, Funny)
Careful with that talk about the six-fingered among us being mutants. You might hurt my cat's feelings: she's polydactyl [wikipedia.org].
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
...difficult to even maintain a proper social life without a social media account
Don't try to socialize with fucking morons.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:4, Insightful)
This.
I've been told a couple of times that calling/emailing/texting me is too hard, that they do all their socialising via facebook, and it's inconvenient to contact me any other way.
Setting aside all the privacy implications, If you can't be bothered talking to me as an individual rather than as part of a herd, I'm not really interested in anything you have to say.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Insightful)
Dab nag whippersnappers! Get off my lawn!
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, and fuck FaceBook.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, you numbered people... I'm like a ghost!
Living without a Facebook account? I live without a Slashdot account!
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I remember thinking long and hard about getting an ID. I remember why slashdot went to having signons, and the biggest worry voiced on irc was because of the possibility it might cause spam. Oh, and on topic, I have a Facebook account. I'm close to retirement and it's a great way to keep up with what has happened with childhood friends, and relatives. Oh and cat videos too :)
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Interesting)
Four digit codger here, I rm'd my facebook profile over a couple of years ago and haven't looked back. It's refreshing. As an uber tek nerd, mmo fiend, etc. now "old codger", take it from me... rm facebook, rm your mmo, limit Steam to a few hours a week, and go outside. Hike, Fish, buy a cheap sailboat and goto the Bahamas or the Keys. Stop searching online for that cool landscape wallpaper for the latest greatest distro you installed, and go outside and see that beautiful landscape in person.
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I've no facebook. I purposely use G+, since no one is on it, and I get some good tech feeds on it. I don't miss social media (and yes, i said I have G+ and say I don't really have social media).
I was on the Internet in pre-web days. FTPspace back then. Sumex-aim anyone? Does anyone else know that Wuarchive is not about the Wu-Tang? Sadly neither responds to pings anymore.....
But even though i saw the web grow, then web 2.0, and now the "everything needs a social network angle" web, I never thought tha
Re: (Score:3)
goto the Bahamas or the Keys
Are you sure that won't be harmful?
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Exactly, I'm getting to be a codger with a 5-digit ID. But, I recognize that if you don't have some social media presence, then you just don't exist. And it isn't really an age thing. Plenty of people twice my age look forward to seeing what I'm doing through Facebook. I'm lucky that my wife does most of the posting for both of us because I just don't want to spend time on it.
But that is the real difference, do you text and check Facebook when stopped at every red light, or do you keep one foot planted
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, as a 5-digit ID owner, I can confirm that the only thing that not being on Facebook has brought me is more free time. I do have a Xing profile and that one is the only thing professional contacts ask to be linked to. For all others, email and/or phone number is quite enough. Of course, I am doing the "technical career" thing, where I actually improve my skills and capabilities and it is important what I can do, not who I know. If you do the bullshit/old-boys-club career, then things like Facebook may be critical.
Re:Oh this is easy .... (Score:4, Informative)
Pssshh, 80k...
But seriously, confirmed. Never had or wanted a Facebook account (or Myspace, shudder). Idle Linkedin account that I got talked into making when I was job hunting a few years back, but it was never really useful for anything. If you can't be bothered to e-mail or call me, I guess you didn't need to reach me that badly. My social life is plenty busy, and like you say, my technical skills, knowledge, and experience are more important to employers than my "social media footprint" (eyeroll).
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I think these people drive themselves into a panic by vastly overestimating the worth of social media. And if a prospective employer was more interested in my "social media footprint" than my knowledge, experiences and capabilities, _I_ would be walking out the door.
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All I have are Slashdot and Github. If they ask for anything else they can blow me.
yes and no (Score:5, Interesting)
I get having a "professional" social media profile (a la LinkedIn) but no way in hell is a personal profile going to be up for discussion in any job interview I have. My private life is my life, not my employer's or prospective employer's. If they can't understand that I don't want to work for them anyway.
I don't give a shit, in my personal life if people "expect a facebook". I don't even have all my real-life friends associated with my one social media profile, I'm sure as hell not handing it out to every person I meet at some bar or party.
Re:yes and no (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:yes and no (Score:5, Interesting)
Religous usage? (Score:3)
My wife uses Facebook Religiously - does that count?
Seriously though - I've got no Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. and I've managed just fine. :)
Re: (Score:3)
There is a resurgence of the anti-intellectualism culture in this country, and it's being elected into positions where it can do unimaginable damage to our country.
Resurgence? It's been going on longer than we've been alive. "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."" - Isaac Asimov, 1980
Stupid people make stupid decisions, and when those stupid people are in public office, they make stupid decisions that fuck up everyone's life.
Where to begin? Unfortunately stupid people do not hold a monopoly on stupid decisions. Ever tried ordering lunch for an entire
Re: (Score:3)
Take Me As I Am (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Take Me As I Am (Score:4, Funny)
I don't work for narcissists, so we're both good.
"social media" = text/images (Score:3, Insightful)
tl:dr - use whatever internet system that has the functions and control of your data that matches your requirements
First, employers are not demanding LinkedIn pages or broadly looking down upon applicants without a facebook...and the idea that they mentioned it in an employment situation, with all the laws in place about fair hiring, *multiple times*...it seems like exaggeration...
However, the question of what kind/how much of your life to share on the internet is definitely a worthy question.
The answer is the understand the function and complexity of the system, the internet in this case. Facebook is one system of many. It has characteristics. One is the default to "sharing".
Instagram is another system...it has less information and simpler controls on "sharing"
**your instagram or twitter can hook into your facebook**
so, a person could use exclusively Instagram, Twitter or even a blog of their own creation, and have it **auto-post** to facebook...thereby having dynamic content on their page without ever going to facebook.com regularly.
the answer is CONTROL
what "social media" internet system should you use?
the one that has the FUNCTIONS you need and gives YOU the CONTROL over your data at a level you are comfortable with
Fine with me (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't need email, either (Score:3)
Or a phone, for that matter.
You can always send a letter. It's not like it's a big deal if we can't get to you TODAY. Anyone who doesn't plan more than a few days ahead is just asking for trouble anyway. The US was founded in a time when it could takes months to get a response from Europe.
So, no, it's really not necessary.
Re:You don't need email, either (Score:4, Insightful)
I get a cell phone stipend through work. As such, if they want to get ahold of me in-real-time they call me. No other medium has an instant confirmation that that they've reached me upon actually doing so. If you need me right now don't e-mail me, don't SMS-message me, call me. I might be in a building that makes for poor service. Odds are if calling me doesn't result in my answering the telephone, I won't be able to receive text messages or e-mail either.
Only criminals have something to hide (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason employers want everyone to be on social media: They can use it to gather information about you that would be illegal or inappropriate to ask in a job interview.
Very simple answer (Score:5, Insightful)
Whenever someone asks why you don't have a social media account, all you need to tell them is:
I'm not a narcissist.
You don't believe your life is anyone else's business, no need to show them pictures of your latest adventure, no need for gratification from the unwashed masses. You are who you are.
Re:Very simple answer (Score:5, Funny)
Whenever someone asks why you don't have a social media account, all you need to tell them is:
I'm not a narcissist.
You don't believe your life is anyone else's business, no need to show them pictures of your latest adventure, no need for gratification from the unwashed masses. You are who you are.
ah yes. It's a classic page right out of "how to win friends and influence people". Impress them with your smug sense of superiority!
Re:Very simple answer (Score:5, Insightful)
What a terrible book.
Better title: 'How to be a weasel and manipulate people'. Those that follow it, have not a single true friend in the world.
Re:Very simple answer (Score:4, Insightful)
Bullshit. It's about faking sincerity. Something weasels do constantly.
If you sincerely appreciate someone or something, you don't need a book to tell you. Anybody telling you to 'be sincere and do what I say' is saying 'fake sincerity, copy me'.
Re:Very simple answer (Score:5, Interesting)
Tell them you never saw the need. That your close friends and family don't use it much so you never bothered.... Although your sister has one and all does is plays are silly games and gossips all day and you really don't have any time or interest in that.
Then deflect the idea that you are somehow superior to people who do have facebook accounts by just discussing something you ARE active in.
The key is to appear "normal but without a facebook account" rather than "secretive or condescending".
Once you've leapt over that hurdle, you can talk about privacy harvesting, the study showing that facebook corresponds with lower levels of happiness, the estimated $30 billion in the US alone in lost productivity due to time wasted on facebook, the risks of oversharing and that anything on the internet is public and forevor, and then joke about the absurdity of voluntarily "joining an advertising company".
By the end of most conversations I have with people about facebook they don't think I'm suspicious or condescending or weird. I haven't sold them them on closing their account and I always concede that facebook has its uses and agree that its great for keeping in touch with friends and family abroad... although I already use X,Y,Z for that myself (steam, skype, facetime... whatever...).
Not only possible but easy (Score:5, Interesting)
Is living without social media possible in 2015?
Stupid question. It's not only possible, it's easy. I've never had a Facebook or Twitter account and frankly it hasn't mattered a bit. Those services offer me nothing I value. If someone thinks you are odd or "recoils in horror" that you don't bother with Facebook then that tells you everything you need to know about them right there. Someone who looks down on you for ignoring the latest fad is an idiot you probably don't need to associate with. You don't actually need to know the banal details of everyone's Facebook account to have an active social life.
You do not need Facebook to have friends.
Nobody really cares what you say on Twitter.
You can get a job without LinkedIn.
Plenty of ways to share photos without Instagram.
Have we forgotten how to function without Facebook?
No. Seriously Facebook is NOT and never has been a necessity for most people. If Facebook entertains you then by all means have at it but it is unequivocally not a necessity. Email might almost be a necessity though even that is debatable.
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I do not have a Facebook or Twitter account too. I do read some tweets posted by some people, but I have blocked Facebook IPs in my router.
I do not put my real name somewhere public. This is the reason why I do not have an account at radiomuseum.org too (even though it would be useful to me, much more than an account on Facebook).
If people want to contact me, they can call me or email me. I do not see a reason to have another account, especially with a company like Facebook. I think that the NSA and the equ
WTF (Score:4, Informative)
I don't have a FB or LinkedIn account and get along just fine.
Re: (Score:3)
Slashdot is more like 'antisocial media'.
Ask Slashdot: Is Slashdot Social Media? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd like to know why people consider Facebook to be the epitome of social media when Slashdot's been in the business for way longer.
Really... take a look at someone's profile on here sometime. You can learn a lot about a Slashdotter with an account. No need for Facebook.
Not to mention the fact that Slashdot accounts get ranked at the top of search results....
Re:Ask Slashdot: Is Slashdot Social Media? (Score:5, Funny)
So it's sorta social, demented and sad, but social.
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Because Slashsot has at best 0.1% the user base that Facebook has? On top of that, I'd be surprised if 10% of Slashsot accounts have been used within the last year.
anything but social (Score:4, Insightful)
FB / twitter/ myspace/friendster/ whatever are the exact opposite of 'social'.
Reading people's status updates, or liking a photo does not constitute being social. Having people over for dinner, meeting for coffee.. that's social. Basically; interacting face to face is really the only acceptable definition of the term.
Things like FB detract from that, giving a very poor simulacrum of social interaction -- all the while further removing ourselves from actual social interactions and pushing the boundaries of autism ever outward.
Civilization has existed for ~12k years, human beings have not changed. Social interaction has not changed -- deluding ourselves into thinking that "Social Media" is somehow a surrogate, or worse a replacement, is top shelf idiocy.
Re:anything but social (Score:5, Insightful)
That's interesting. I'll remember that the next time I have a huge swath of common interests to talk about with people I've just met at a weekend convention - common interests we discovered not through weeks or months of guessing, but with a quick glance at a public profile. I'll remember that the next time I see my cousins and we talk about all the shared experiences with have with out kids - spurred by our keeping in-touch through FB and seeing our kids grow up. I'm sure I felt that reconnecting with an old college buddy online was totally non-social. It was so non-social that he used FB to let me know he was going to be in my town for a night on business, and we get together at a pub and killed a couple of pitchers of Guiness over the course of a long evening. I met a woman from England at an event about 4 years ago. We see one another - at most - once a year. But when she comes to the states it's like we've been best buddies the whole time and we always have a fantastic time together with friends.
Social media, in general, is about keeping in touch with people and interacting. It doesn't take the place of face to face meetings - it bridges the gaps between those meetings. If you're not closer to your friends with social media than without, you're doing it wrong.
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No, it works as long as you use FB to _supplement_ your friendship. That's not the same as using FB to _replace_ a friendship.
All of the social media haters seem to think that so-called "social" people have replaced their social lives with FB stalking and that's 100% not the case.
What has happened is that many people who would previously have had little or no social interactions in the first place now have _some_ social interactions through FB and you're telling them that they'd be better off not using FB.
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Civilization has existed for ~12k years, human beings have not changed. Social interaction has not changed
12k years ago we were still in the paeleolithic. We don't have a lot of idea what social interaction was like back then but probably involved a certain amount of smacking each other with sticks and crudely chipped rocks.
In the intervening millennia social interaction has changed out of all recognition.
Your assertion that a chat on Facebook is not being sociable is pretty comical, and if you think it is so unacceptable why are you discussing the issue on slashdot? Surely slashdot is nothing but a geeky socia
I don't do facebook (Score:3)
... and yet I do have a LinedIn account... and I still have a few active circles in Google+
I ended up at LinedIn just because it was the easiest and simplest way to keep tabs on people I used to work for and with. It's handy for that.
As for Facebook, I just don't have any reason to use it. I like my current active circle of friends and we call and email each other directly when we want to be in touch. I'm not interested in the time-sink that it is for so many people. I keep hearing tales from friends about the politics of "friendship" and all the goofy crap they get from people they really don't know, or don't want to know anymore.
I also don't want to share a whole lot of stuff with the wide-wide world. I don't want to read what other people are sharing. I just don't care about that crap.
This notion that Facebook is a kind of adjunct to a resume is a little disquieting. I mean, if someone wants to know more about me, all they have to do is suggest that we go out for a long lunch or maybe a beer after work and I'm happy to talk about just about anything. No window dressing, nothing in print. If someone wants to get to know me, they can do exactly that, with me, in real life.
Fortunately, I am also old enough that not having a Facebook page isn't so unusual in my age group. So at least I have that.
I think it's in your imagination (Score:5, Interesting)
Declining FB and Twitter looks like the way to go (Score:4, Insightful)
From where I sit it marks people as obviously more intelligent. Both services are little more than negative lottery tickets for most people. They gain nothing on the upside and open themselves up to the wrath of the mob. http://digg.com/2015/shame-and... [digg.com] .
If an employer has trouble with that. Just ask him if he wants to risk the splash damage of outrage directed at his employees, because they had the misfortune to say something that mobs of village idiots were waiting to misconstrue, or people who were looking for things to take offense at happened to find ?
I do it. (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Set up a personal web page - a blog, works, but it doesn't ahve to be one. You can put whatever you want on it. This gives people something to check online - but gives YOU the full control over it. No one linking to you, posting to your page, no advertisers steeling your information.
2) Maintain weekly contact with your friends by hand. Pick a single day - Sunday, whatver - and email (or call your good friends) all your actual, real friends about what you are up to and ask questions. If they are really your friend, they will email you back.
3) If a potential employer asks an inappropriate question be polite but call them on it in a way that makes you look good. "How often do you drink?" should be responded to with "I don't drink at all at work - do you have a problem with people drinking on the job?" Any question about your sex life should be politely taken as if they hitting on you. "I really don't think it's appropriate to date potential coworkers".
4) Be ready for questions about Facebook and have a good answer to it. Something that sounds sane, rather than crazy. If you are female this one works VERY well "After I found out an X stalked me on Facebook, I decided to delete my account. I get so much more work done now." It also works for men, but not as well.
Be prepared to lose some fair-weather friends/work. Just as a TV Producer would lose jobs if he decided to no longer watch TV. But your real friends and most worthwhile jobs will still like you. (Except with Facebook - if you want a job with Facebook, JOIN FACEBOOK)
Re:I do it. (Score:4, Interesting)
"How often do you drink?" should be responded to with "I don't drink at all at work - do you have a problem with people drinking on the job?" Any question about your sex life should be politely taken as if they hitting on you.
I've been to (and conducted) a lot of job interviews over the years, and have never once been asked inappropriate personal questions like those. If it ever happened to me, I would be too stunned to come up with a witty reply. Instead, I'd just be honest and say something like "your questions indicate that this is not a professional workplace, so I am no longer interested in the position" and leave.
What's this Social Media? Some Commie Thing? (Score:3)
They have their uses. (Score:3, Insightful)
Facebook: Actual friends and interests you have.
LinkedIn: Keep it strictly business.
Twitter: To follow the odd interest.
Google+: So you can say "I'm on Google+!"
I hate it when you see someone posting the same tripe across all their social networks. No one on LinkedIn cares what you ate for lunch.
What if you use alt social? (Score:4, Insightful)
Most I know don't use Facebook (Score:3, Interesting)
I would wager that 80% of my social circle all don't have a Facebook account. (age 28-36), non-tech people primarily [doctors, grad students, mechanic, cooks, artists]; all university educated, and well-learned.
It's generally not viewed as a "safe" item to have, or to participate in.
We are the transitory age of people where the internet kinda took off during high-cshool, and for me, the huge dot-com crash happened the year before I entered college, so I was completely isolated from that entire scenario, and have no real context for it. But, it presumably shaped how our education was, and to be taught to be suspicious of consolodating information online, because "anything you say can and will be used against you"
Educated Social Circle mostly abstains from FB (Score:5, Interesting)
I would wager that 80% of my social circle all don't have a Facebook account. (age 28-36), non-tech people primarily [doctors, grad students, mechanic, cooks, artists]; all university educated, and well-learned.
It's generally not viewed as a "safe" item to have, or to participate in.
We are the transitory age of people where the internet kinda took off during high-cshool, and for me, the huge dot-com crash happened the year before I entered college, so I was completely isolated from that entire scenario, and have no real context for it. But, it presumably shaped how our education was, and to be taught to be suspicious of consolodating information online, because "anything you say can and will be used against you"
I cheat (Score:3)
I don't have any presence on Facebook. If asked why not, I point out the similarities between Mark Zuckerberg and Satan's representative on earth.
However, my wife is on Facebook - she friends the children and handles any mass communications that must happen over there.
Never Had - MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Never had any of these "social" site profiles nor even any firm presence since the dial-up BBS days since none of them would make me any more sociable or charismatic since I'm a boring geeky nerd that only hangs out with other boring anti-social people. Instead I reach out of the people that I still keep in touch over direct communications methods or in-person and when I need to organize or attend a group even I send direct invitations or get them directly without broadcasting them publicly. Seems to work just fine and it's more direct and personal to keep in touch. Other people show up and disappear from my life if we don't communicate directly and that's normal part of life, the ones that keep reaching out to you or you to them mean something more and those relationships last longer.
Judging from what I hear and I've seen about social media it seems like a waste of valuable personal time on mundane and boring things that people end up posting and others end up reading. If something is important enough for you to hear someone will tell you about it the next time you actually communicate with them directly.
Old Codger Signing Off... +++...ATH...
There's a middle path (Score:3, Insightful)
A facebook account is useful for a few things, like event invitations, birthday reminders, and getting in touch with some people who seem to use it as their principal means of communication.
You can have a facebook account, and just keep tight control over what is on it, or even not post anything at all, or delete what you post after a while. This is basically what I do. I rarely post and sometimes go through and delete old posts. I also don't post any photos of myself on my profile, and don't allow tagged photos to be posted either.
You can control most of this. You could basically treat your Facebook account like your LinkedIn account and keep it clean for a general audience. Get closely familiar with all the privacy controls as well.
In other words, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Re: (Score:3)
getting in touch with some people who seem to use it as their principal means of communication.
So, how do you get those event invitations out to people who don't use Facebook?
Says more about the author than anything (Score:5, Insightful)
Millions of people have perfectly normal social lives without facebook or with really minimal facebook use. I know a lot of people who log-in once a week. I know a lot of people who go long periods of time without ever using facebook.
I think the fact that the author thinks its almost impossible to live a normal life without it says more about him/her than it does about facebook.
April Fool's? (Score:4, Insightful)
When I read the headline, I sincerely thought this was an April Fool's joke, but then realized it's the day after. How sad. I'll knock out some of the more egregious lines from your submission.
"Employers expect a LinkedIn profile"
I've interviewed on site (and was hired on with some) with Google, Amazon, Blizzard Entertainment, SpaceX, StackExchange, Lockheed Martin, Siemens, Disney, and more. Not a single one of these groups has ever referenced my LinkedIn profile at any point during the interviewing process. Where are you getting the idea that it's expected?
"people you are meeting expect a Facebook account"
Who? I meet my wife, friends, family, and their extended colleagues regularly without ever referencing Facebook. You need to elaborate.
"I have heard that not having an account on the almighty Facebook could label you as a suspicious person"
You know what they say about rumors and opinions.
"I have had employers express hesitation in hiring me (they used the term "uncomfortable") and graduate school interviewers have asked prying questions regarding some things that would normally be on a person's social media page."
Anything on a person's personal social media page is off limits during a professional interview. LinkedIn? Sure. Facebook? Why would they even ask? What kind of "prying" questions are they asking? What's your favorite movie? Are you married? Fortunately, you can easily turn these idiots down by rejecting their questions.
"Is living without social media possible in 2015?"
Yes. Next stupid question?
People are on but not on. (Score:5, Interesting)
Most people on facebook are not on facebook. They have inactive profiles. They may check to peep those who are active, but beyond that, there is very little utility or upside to those who quit caring. And this is always a simple function of time; everyone quits caring eventually. Facebook will continue to insist these peepers are "active" but no, this bluff was tried by Google+ and it won't fool anyone. Those looking for a job might clean up their profile just in case, but this doesn't mean they're on or using facebook.
Facebook will become the next myspace. That's why Facebook, being run by people who know this well, is buying what could be to facebook what facebook was to myspace. That's why Instagram and WhatsApp needed to be purchased.
Facebook is moving beyond a platform. Social media to them is now about real estate. You can move off from facebook to instragram like one would from Santa Monica to Venice. But your landlord is still facebook.
Here is one concrete example of why Instagram is amazing and Facebook sucks. When a brand posts something on Instagram, there is no "promoting" their post, there is no "mining impressions", and there is no "paying for likes". There is no machine learning optimized feed. Instagram pushes a photo to everyone instantly, and the response is also unencumbered and immediate. And it has no ads. Unlike facebook, Instagram does not stand in between you and your followers. All their efforts into the quality of what facebook should be doing on facebook, yet the answer was to not be there at all. The presence of the "host" is not welcome in any social setting, not online or offline. We don't need the waiter or waitress to feed us at the restaurant while reading ads. That's facebook.
Seriously, facebook sucks. It's future is dead. Even just for the reason that my mom has twice as many friends than I do and all her peers love it. She just turned 70.
Can't win either way (Score:4, Insightful)
If I don't have a FB account, people think I'm suspicious. If I do have a FB account, people KNOW I'm suspicious!
Try Before Buying? (Score:4, Insightful)
Not really (Score:3)
Antisocial Madia (Score:3)
I confine my activities to the antisocial media, such as Slashdot.
Re:Employment (Score:4, Insightful)
When I was relatively young in the world of work I had listed my social club memberships on my resume as I had held officer positions in those clubs at times. Now that this social crap appears to be a problem I think I'll have to leave such memberships there so that I look 'well rounded' without having to deal with an online presence.
Re: (Score:3)
Employers should prefer you not to be on Facebook. My employers expect me to maintain their security and not to blab about their business to the world. Interviewers who knock people for not having a social media profile or a "fully developed" Linkedin profile are idiots. Unless you are in marketing or PR fields it shouldn't matter at all. Socially, you can compromise your own personal values to blend in, or you can live as you choose and not give a shit. The idea that someone without a social media presence
Re: (Score:3)
You dodged a bullet..
Re:A great deal of your life? (Score:5, Insightful)
The only winning move is not to play.
Re:A great deal of your life? (Score:5, Interesting)
The only winning move is to install noscript.
Or redirect their entries in /etc/hosts to 127.0.0.1.
That way myspace, digg, reddit, twitter, google+, pinterest, linkedin, and every other social site that's managed to get tracking scripts installed in other sites won't be able to track you.
Re:A great deal of your life? (Score:5, Interesting)
Facebook, et al. can only "put out" as much as you put in.
No, Facebook can only "put out" as much as everybody else puts in. For example my classmates from primary school are a tightly connected clique and since some of them have told Facebook they went to the same school, Facebook has correctly deduced that everybody in that clique probably went there too and is asking me to confirm it, but they basically know anyway. Another relative of mine did some genealogy thing and basically drew up the whole family tree for Facebook. Same with people tagging you in photos and checking you in and whatnot, even though you can hide it from your own timeline or even untag yourself Facebook knows that when a friend tagged you it was almost certainly correct. I doubt they really forget anything.
And most annoyingly, Facebook often knows when I send email because the one I send to has shared their address book/inbox with Facebook. There's no other way some of those "friend suggestions" could turn up on social media, so even when you try to keep a life separate from Facebook it's no good when the other end is being a tattle-tale. And I don't know if it's just my friends, but my impression is that you don't reach out and actually tell friends about the things that friends normally get told about. They post it to Facebook and expect people to have read it there, that's more or less the expected way to socialize. Not reading Facebook gets you the "Oh sorry, I didn't know you were stationed on a nuclear submarine under radio silence" looks.
Re: (Score:3)
Good analogy, and I'd propose another one: social media is like alcohol. If you never go to a bar you may miss some situations where interesting people are met and friendships are made, and if you use it too much... well we know what happens. Also some people are naturally very attracted to it, and some not at all, while some have to force themselves to stay away.
I think it's best to drink the FB booze in very small amounts. Have an account, but don't put anything of value in there, just a couple of pics an
Re: (Score:3)
Not really a great analogy... People without knives (but who at least know of their existence) can immediately see their utility, regardless of their danger. Although some people without Facebook pages may avoid it out of some variety of fear, I dare say that the majority of people without them simply don't want one.
I think as a better analogy, you might compare FB to a sous vide machine - Yes, it serves a (very, ver
Re:Don't forget... (Score:4, Interesting)
All of my friends and family know that I don't have any such account, so they wouldn't be fooled in the first place. Even if they were, they'd certainly ask me about it! I don't see any real risk there.
Re: (Score:3)
When they ask for your Facebook profile give them your Github profile instead.