Arfa Daily wrote:


"John Stumbles" wrote in message
...
Having just, with some unease*, bitten the bullet and signed up to
facebook** I'm gobsmacked how many people it suggests as friends, most
of whome I know but some I haven't corresponded with for years. How does
it do it? I haven't offered it my address book but ISTR it invited me to
do that. Is it that everyone else has done so and it's finding my
email addy in other people's address books and offering links that way?

I've now deleted*** my 'real' email address which facebook seemed to have
listed for me (how? I didn't give it to them) and am sticking with a
" type address, so theoretically it shouldn't be able
to link people up with me through that, though if their address books
contain my real name alongside my address it may still be able to guess.


* I have a deep sense of unease that when They come to get Us we'll have
done most of the detective work for them :-

** as myself: I was already on there under a pseudonym

*** ok, I asked fb to delete it: but they could be keeping it but not
telling me

--
John Stumbles


I actually think that Face-ache and the other clones, are one of the
most antisocial and dangerous offerings that have come out of internet
technology in the last couple of years. I have three 'kids' all now
grown up and left the nest, and they are all ardent Face-achers. Apart
from the amount of time they waste on it, it causes a lot of trouble and
ill-feeling among people who are otherwise friends. I think this stems
from several issues with communicating in this way. First, it is very
strange the way that some of the postings are carried out using the
third person, like "Fred is not very happy today" or "Sally had a
stinking rotten day at work today". This creates an immediate detachment
from a 'real' communication between people. This is further exacerbated
by the fact that many people now are semi-illiterate, and use wrong
words, in wrong contexts, and often with wrong grammar. In a face to
face conversation, they get away with this, because the person that they
are talking to 'understands' the true intent because there are visual
and implied cues from the facial expressions and audible intonation
applied to the words. When these same words are typed, however, it
becomes very easy to misinterpret the real intended meaning, which may
well have been intended to be a 'throw away' comment, or a humourous or
tongue-in-cheek one. This can then lead to heated exchanges - like mini
flame wars - that often result in ended friendships, or awkward
standoffs. I have seen it time and again when my daughters have been
involved. When you ask them what is going on, and they read out what has
been said in these exchanges, very often with the benefit of being
detached from the situation, you can understand what the unfortunate
person at the butt end of one of these exchanges was trying to say in
their original post, before it got misunderstood, and out of hand.

I certainly won't be joining any of these sites anytime soon. To be
honest, I fail to see the point of having a presence on them, except as
a place to gossip. I can't understand what the attraction is of sharing
personal information about what sort of a day you've had, and what you
are doing with your life, to all and sundry. Accepted, you can set some
sort of privacy that only makes you visible to selected people, but
what's the point of that even ? You might as well write an email each
night to a copy-list of people ...

Arfa

Let's register Faecesbook, and star a REAL **** slinging social
networking site.

Facebook is lining testimony to the 'least said soonest mended' and
'Silence is Golden' proverbs.