Facebook is Freaking me Out

Now this made me smile and giggle!!!

I like to make people smile when I'm feeling in the mood to do so. Your post made me smile too.

I have made a point of not searching people out from my past and definitely do not try to friend them. I did do this when I first climbed aboard the FB train and it was excruciatingly depressing. It seemed everyone was happy and living good lives while mine in comparison was a complete failure. So now I no longer seek out people from my past - and definitely avoid checking up on past relationships. And, I'm a whole less depressed. FB is a whole lot happier a 'place' now.

I do not have a great deal of FB friends. Those that I do have are people I actually know and frequently interact with off the net.

I agree, read through this thread quickly. But staying away from it has seemed to do me better than spending too much time. I quickly skim through the newsfeed, and ignore the stuff that's upsetting. I've looked up people and realized it can just lead from one thing to another and eventually there's something upsetting. I find the bad far outweighs any good on Facebook. I'm really thinking of deleting it, but I like to keep up with my kids on there.
Sorry for what you went through Dechan

FB is very good in creating this illusion. People can control what they post, that is why. They can be miserable, and yet appear happy.

Thanks for this. There seems to be an endless stream of my extended family members on FB, posting pictures of themselves making merry. One gets the impression these people do nothing but party. I now have a small group of FB friends who post interesting stuff. My big mistake was, as you say, "checking up on past relationships." Thanks for the response. All the responses have helped me see how I might better manage my FB account.

Someone on here said they use FB to keep in touch with their kids, and that is mainly why I don't delete my account. My child is an artist and posts videos of himself working on his projects. He also posts other interesting but pretty ordinary stuff, like training his dog. Stuff a Mom would be interested in.

I think I mismanaged my FB by using that "search for friends" button! If they were friends would I really be needing to search them out? I am connected already with a few very old friends who I keep a connection with other than on FB.

I think that the most toxic thing is searching out exes. I would like to do a whole other thread and ask people if they searched for exes on FB, and what happened. For me, if felt like a bad experience.

I search the same stuff over and over. Like my husband and his posts and people who like his posts and their friends. Anyone else?

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I think we humans are curious creatures. We like to know everything. I think it is OK to be curious from time to time.

From my experience (which I related on this thread) I think searching old boyfriends could potentially backfire. My ex-husband doesn't have a FB account and seems to stay off of everyone's FB account, which I am grateful for. I recently made my account more secure, so, for instance, the public can't view my photos. If I had young kids or grandkids I don't think I would post pictures of them. I have a lot of art stuff posted, but I don't post too much personal stuff. (I'm happy I raised my kid before FB became popular.)

I think eventually FB will become old, like email, and will get replaced. There are a lot of privacy concerns.

I could also post a thread, "How nostalgic are you?" because I am not very nostalgic. I mostly live in the present moment. I am not one for too many traditions, and I don't save a lot of memorabilia. The "search for friends" space was there and I used it, but I am not really as curious as most seem to be about the past. My family members seem to have posted every photo that ever existed of my grandparents and parents, and all of us as kids, teens, then young adults. To me it is a little over-whelming to see all of that private family stuff online, and for public consumption.

Old boyfriends always look better in one's memory! I think I'd like it to stay that way.

Old boyfriends, and exes are old and exes for a reason. I agree, the memory is better than IRL today. And agree that they should stay that way too.
I have never used FB though others here and there say that they enjoy it, it just has never appealed to me. Gives me the willies for some reason.
Seems lots of people like it, but I will remain FaceBookless.
Jade

I have just a few people as FB friends. One is an elderly gentlemen I knew from 25 years ago when we both worked overseas. We are both divorced from our old partners and he has had a lovely new partner for years. He is British but lives in France and I am in America. As I said, he is of advanced age but still active and gardens and watches wildlife, feeds birds and takes beautiful and interesting photos that he then posts, of everything in his little town. So I would say he is the perfect Facebook friend. He would laugh at your statement that exes are old and exes for a reason, and totally agree with you. I applaud you for remaining FaceBookless. It's a circus!

Send me a PM some time. I miss talking to you and I want to know about that pesky oil leak!!

I deactivated my account. It was depressing that I only had 12 friends and the only person who interacted with me was my mom.

I set up a separate account just to like certain pages like science, nature, animals, world leaders, etc. Pages that can teach me something and can be uplifting. Tomorrow marks a week since I deactivated my main account and I am much happier.

I sent you pm. Why aren't they managing your pain? I'm concerned. That little pain icon is painful to look at.
Needs to be replaced with

Good for you! I mainly go on to see what my son is up to. He does martial arts and gymnastics and today he had a video of himself doing...hand stands with leg splits??? His dog is always in there watching him. Maybe your Mom would be interested to see your new account? It sounds really very interesting. I applaud your creativity. PS I always interact with my son and he likes my likes. Moms are the biggest fans...

My mom and brother are the only two "facebook friends" on my new account.

I keep them on to get a hold of them.

I am really liking your story. I love how you found a way to intelligently manage Facebook to suit your needs. I do find Facebook is a good way to keep in touch with my son when neither of us have time for a longer communication. If I had just stayed with that I would have been fine. You are truly an inspiration, LiteraryLark!

I'm not a big fan of Facebook. I think it causes more trouble than it's worth.

Paedophiles are using secret groups on Facebook to post and swap obscene images of children, the BBC has found.

The above just popped up online today! Terrible! People need to be careful about photos they are posting of kids, and grandkids. Teens' social networking has to be monitored. Internet use was just starting to get heavy as my kid passed through adolescence. People were not heavily using Facebook yet. I would be concerned if I had a teen today who was heavily using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. Please warn friends and family. They should make use of the privacy settings on Facebook.

I wouldn't want to think some creep is going in and looking at pictures of innocent children and teens, posted innocently.

I cannot really understand why people post photos of their families for public consumption. There is a privacy button!