I have a Facebook account but I don't use it. I opened it years ago, took a look around and never went back. I still get friend requests sent to me in my email. I'm sure I can turn that off some how but they don't come often enough for me to bother.
What I really find strange is the friend suggestions. I've been around the block a few times and I've never seen anywhere else on the planet where it is suggested that you become friends with someone. Imagine someone called you on the phone and said "Hey! There's someone that lives in the same city as you who's great aunt is a friend of someone who is related to your second cousin through marriage. You should interact with this person. Don't worry, we've already contacted him."
This is how Facebook became the only place you'll find people with 13 thousand friends but haven't left the house in 4 years. And the friend requests from people you used to know when you graduated high school is a good way to remind you why you stopped talking to these people 23 years ago. "You have a friend request from Bob. You remember Bob... The fat guy in high school who smelled like onions and dried his hands after using the urinal but never actually washed them. Now's your chance to ask him why they were wet."
You also get to reminisce with the entire rest of the planet while looking at all those public photos of you that you thought you'd burned all the copies of in 1987 or some you didn't even know existed. "I'm in that photo? Which one am I? Oh, the one on his knees with the Grateful Dead t-shirt on. Are you sure, it's me? His whole head is in the toilet."
I can certainly see why this site is so popular but I don't need a computer for any of this. If I want to meet people I can just go sit on a park bench. I'll just wake the guy up with one shoe and one boot on and show him photos of my brother's wedding.
For me it is what I want it to be and nothing else.
It's a lot of both good and bad things about facebook, but for me it has in many ways also been a lifesavier.
When I was sick it was almost the only connection I had with friends since I could hardly breath or talk.
I could read and follow their lives even if I didn't share mine with everyone.
For many lonely and sick people it's a great way of communication so please don't make fun of us who actually use it.
You might not mean to do that but sometimes it feels like that
But this was about facebook as an affiliate so as usual this was a little derail
My mother uses Facebook. Maybe you're one of the unfreaky ones like her.
But then she's the only person I know who can spend 122 minutes telling you about her 15 minute trip to the store. I would actually have been faster if she'd video taped it but there would be far less detail.
Twitter (to me) is like walking out into my front yard and yelling at the top of my lungs, "Tried a new creamer in my coffee. Wonderful!" and going back inside.
I still find the Facebook concept rather creepy even after all these years. My disabled Auntie loves it and wonders why I don't have an account.
Twitter (to me) is like walking out into my front yard and yelling at the top of my lungs, "Tried a new creamer in my coffee. Wonderful!" and going back inside.
As to the affiliate thing and Facebook. I have to admit, I still don't understand the 'affiliate' concept at all -- even in online casinos as they currently exist.
However, I am extremely concerned about kids/young people exposed to 'free gambling' on Facebook. From what I've read, points or something can be purchased to play with on Facebook? So what's free? And isn't that gambling?
Mousey am I missing something? You are on a gambling related forum but questioning gambling related fb?
The daughter of a co-worker was hanging around the office one day, waiting for her Mom to come pick her up. The girl was 15. She asked if she could check her facebook. I told her yes, use the boss's computer. I looked over her shoulder while she was poking around in there, and there were flashing ads for slots and poker among other things - probably as she was checking friends' pages. She said there were lots of games (besides Farmville) to play at Facebook.
I don't like the idea of kids being 'encouraged' or being 'groomed' to gamble.
In a way you are absolutely right Mousey. Then I start thinking about what kind of games I played as a child. It was a lot of cardgames, sometimes with money. It was Monopoly and a lot of other games about money.
The kids learns how to play those games now too. Even in kindergarden they learn how to play bingo as a way of learning numbers
There are games in school and you can fake start your own business, buying stocks and options. We live in that kind of world, and facebook is just following it.
As with everything else some will get stuck and some will not. I can just pass on to my child what I think of it, but she has to make her own decisions. Hopefully she will not become a gambler.
I don't think kids need to go to Facebook to find those kind of games. They are probably all over the web wherever they travels.
Then I'm more concerned or worried about those other games that are social and addictive to all ages, but were especially young kids get stuck hard.
Games like many of you are playing, like WoW for example.
But luckily this was about Facebook and affiliates
Perhaps inevitably, some academics are studying why people like social networking....
WHY SOCIAL NETWORKING IS SO APPEALING
We get a similar kick out of disclosing stuff as we do from a good meal or making money, say Harvard researchers.
With industry interest in social gaming intensifying, a new research study from Harvard makes for interesting reading this week. The study looked at why tens of millions of people across the world so enjoy publicly sharing their innermost thoughts and activities on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram and Pinterest.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the researchers concluded after a series of scientific experiments that the act of disclosing information about oneself activates the same sensation of pleasure in the brain that we get from eating food, getting money or having sex.
Perhaps not with the same intensity, but the science makes it clear that our brain considers self-disclosure to be a rewarding experience.
The newspaper explains that recent surveys of Internet use show that roughly 80 percent of posts to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook consist simply of announcements about one's own immediate experience.
Lead Harvard researcher Diana Tamir and her co-author Jason P. Mitchell devised a series of experiments to measure the reward response that people get when they talk about themselves, using advanced technology like MRI scanning of brain activity.
They found that areas of the brain associated with reward - the nucleus accumbens and the ventral tegmental area - were strongly engaged when people were talking about themselves, and less engaged when they were talking about someone else.
The study also looked at how important having an audience is to listen to one's self-disclosure. The researchers found greater reward activity in the brain when people share their thoughts with a friend or family member, and less of a reward sensation when they were told their thoughts would be kept private.
"I think the study helps to explain why people utilize social media websites so often," Tamir said.