Friday, June 25, 2010

Facebook... Good or Bad?

I have been on facebook  crackbook  now for a couple of years...
and believe it or not..after all this time..
I am still undecided as to whether it is a good or a bad thing...

As a tool...It is great..
I keep in touch with people I haven't seen in years...
I can update my family and friends with pics, videos
without making a call...and anyone who knows me knows I hate the phone...
I am able to reach my older children most of the time
which is good, because they are almost impossible to reach them any other way..
They are connected, so I am connected...
It is also a great marketing tool,
you can reach everyone in your target list with one push of the button...

HOWEVER
and this is a big However...
Why is it, that people feel the need to discuss every aspect of their lives in one sentence on facebook..
 Really folks..I don't want to know what happened at that party,
and who slept with who....
I also find that some of the biggest misunderstandings happen on face book...
Internet communication has been known to be confusing at the best of times..
but make a statement on facebook and EVERYONE feels that they need to voice their opinion...
Some of the biggest arguments have been started by people misunderstanding what others are saying..
or not being careful when posting their remarks...
or WORSE...by purposefully leaving rude comments on the main page to be witnessed by others..
In the last several years, there has been countless cases of bullying on Facebook...
At least one that I know of...ended in the young persons suicide..


AND.. if someone chooses to remove a comment...
it is their progative..no matter if you agree or not...
after all.. it is their page.


If you follow me on Facebook..or on One of the Jones..
You know I love Photography...
I don't mean little L love...I mean LOVE photography..
I don't claim to be great at it...
I am learning all the time in fact...
I am blessed enough more recently to be able to do some photography jobs..
and I LOVE it... I love working with the people..
I LOVE learning about their lives..
I LOVE being able to give them something they can treasure forever...
I LOVE telling the story...in photos...
I LOVE the whole process of taking the picture...editing and seeing the finished product..
Will I continue on in a more professional manner?
At this time..I don't know.
I would like to at some point but...
I am happy being a mommy to my little ones...
and doing the photography jobs I am doing now is keeping me busy as it is.


This should never have been an issue, but it has become one,
since another person wasn't happy with my response when I removed some comments
on my facebook..
I should have e-mailed right away and told them why I guess,
but I wanted to discuss with my husband how to handle
something I wasn't comfortable with while at the same time
causing the least amount of friction.

Unfortunately that didn't happen,
as the person in question decided to make it personal,
despite a lengthy e-mail explaining my reasoning, '
and welcoming PRIVATE discussions about my work in the future..
Instead this person actually called me names,
called my faith into question,
and blocked me from facebook!!!!

Wow.
These are the times when I question my reasoning for being on facebook.
In the words of Thumper.....
"If you can't say anything nice...then don't say anything at all...."

So...now it is time for open discusssion.

What do you  REALLY think of facebook.
Do you feel people should be allowed to delete comments off of their own page?
Say what they want on their status updates?
Do you feel facebook has been a detriment to our society? Or a good thing...
I would love to hear what you have to say....

and in this forum I AM welcoming both negative and positive comments..
just try to keep it polite...  :)

3 comments:

Barb said...

I think anytime you put yourself in a public forum like blogging or FB you open yourself up for an occasional negative response. I've gotten my share of them I can assure you.

I am thankful for that little option called "delete." I think it's there to be used. It sounds like you made good use of it.

I agree with the 'if you can't say anything nice..' theory. Too bad everyone doesn't.

Peggy said...

I'm not a facebook fan, but I'm old:)
Three of my kids are teachers and I have heard stories from them that deal with bullying to loss of teaching positions due to things being posted on facebook. If someone wants to go after you for any reason, they have quite the network to do it.
All my kids are on it, but they know the dangers in what is happening and appear to be cautious.?????
I told them I don't know and I don't want to:)

Jackie said...

I've only been on facebook for a month and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I'm still getting used to it. But, If there's a delete button and you want to delete something, then I think that's fine. It's your page so why not.

I post status updates almost everyday (what can I say, I'm fairly new to this), but I feel kind of weird sometimes because I'm a really quiet person in real life and almost all of my husband's family is on there and they see what I post. So, I have to think whether or not I'll mind if they see it. My family is on there too, but I could care less what they think about my posts because they know me better than my husband's family. Plus, I'm much more of a talker via email, text, blog, etc than in person.

I think it can be a detriment especially when you are posting stuff while at work or about work like my sister does. She is ALWAYS logged on there, and I keep telling her her co workers will see that. Her response is they're on there too. Ya, but I think she should be careful with her postings because one fight with any of them and it can backfire.