Why does Facebook have such bad stigma?

Post Reply New Topic

I've noticed that people who don't use Facebook much or at all think that it is this place where everybody in the world knows your name, your identity and every single thing you post. Also people say it's fake and pathetic and all this. Yes there are some people out there who use Facebook stupidly to stalk, boast and lie, but people can be like that too in real life.
And people criticise others for posting trivial things like "I am going for a walk", but personally I don't see a problem with that. OK it does get annoying when people post trivial stuff on their timeline several times an hour, but I don't have those types in my friends list.

People without a Facebook account think that Facebook is totally not private at all, when in actual fact there are several options on what you want to be seen by who, and you can block people if you want and stuff.

So people are always saying "oh don't post that we're going on holiday, it will encourage burglars!" but if your timeline is hidden from public and the people you do have in your friends list are people who you know anyway, and you have a secure password, then how's that more risky than verbally telling friends and colleagues that you are going away on holiday? I mean, I might tell a work colleague that I'm going on holiday, then that person might tell someone who I don't know that well, and they might have a rough idea of my address and someone dodgy might hear about it, and then break into my house and rob - without me even touching Facebook. So it works the same way in real life too if you think about it, but everybody still attaches the stigma to Facebook.

I never understood it either. With the site having been around for more than a decade, you'd think that stereotype would be old news.

Funny how people tend to only say that about Facebook and not Twitter or other such sites, though.

Yes, I've noticed that it just seems to be Facebook and not other social media like Twitter. It's like people make Facebook out to be a sin.

I'll tell you why.

I've been using it for a year now (I'm a late adopter because I knew that, whatever my intentions, I would quickly turn it into a bully pulpit for whatever I wanted to say); I'm still struggling to learn the privacy settings. I *THINK* I have it fixed so only "Friends" can see what is posted to my timeline (and not "Friends of Friends (and then Friends of Friends of Friends... ad infinitum) if Friends comment or react to a post")...

...but I'm honestly not sure. The only things I KNOW (or anyway think I know) is that if I set something to "Only Me," then it really does mean "ONLY ME," and private messages are private. Except of course from anyone who happens to use the computer if I've forgotten to log out. And the government, the police, and anyone else with the authority to demand access to them. And in the event that someone screenshots a message string and shares it with the general public. I don't do more than make chitchat with any people who would do that. I don't think. I know I'm not the best judge of character, um... and that's why I think autistics in particular dislike Facebook.

I'm not real good with tech... but I am pretty good at following simple step-by-step instructions, and I've watched all the privacy setting tutorials, and I'm still uncertain.

It's almost like they're INTENTIONALLY complicated.

Yes, I know A LOT of people who use it entirely for "humblebragging" and "image-crafting" and other virtual extensions of stupid human social behavior. As my husband shouted one night when I'd posted something a little too political or too personal relating to personal struggles, "Facebook IS image-crafting, you stupid c**t!!" Honestly, he's right. It's a good tool for sharing things with an entire group of people very quickly, whether those things are updates on your vacation or pics of the kids' first day of school or opinions you wish to open up to a group discussion or struggles you wish more people knew that more people have or cries for a little psychological first aid...

...and it's also a tool for data mining, all manner of spying, and snap judgments by people looking to make snap judgments, be those gossipy high-school girls or potential or current employers or something both more paranoid and more nefarious.

And that's another reason why I sometimes think it's actually nefarious, and definitely another reason why I think it's inherently dangerous to autistics, and on some level we know that and instinctively dislike it.

At the end of the day, it's the tool you make it...

...but that "you" is decidedly PLURAL. Even when it's your (second person possessive, singular) personal page.

Because it's so popular people think they're "edgy" if they say they shun it.

I like Facebook too. It's an easy way to message a whole group of people.

I like that can block a post from certain people if I know I'm writing something that will annoy them.

I had one friend always moaning at me that I shouldn't write things about feeling sad on Facebook, but I've found out that I have friends who feel the same because they have responded and then we've arranged to spend time together.

I deleted the friend who was trying to police what I wrote. It obviously made her uncomfortable and I wasn't going to change the way I used the platform. I also didn't like her bossing me and telling me what I should say.

I try and post funny and entertaining things mostly. Little observations about my day. I like to make people laugh.

I wish more people would post things. It would make it more fun.

I don't even know what Facebook is, and don't consider myself 'edgy'.

Facebook is a website that North Americans are very passionate about

It has stigma because people act like idiots on it, because the security controls can be difficult to figure out, because Facebook tracks people, sells their information, and makes it difficult to delete an account.

Also it's not really like real life because, in your burglar example, someone could just look at your Facebook posts (especially if you can't figure out the security controls) which is much easier than talking to a friend of your friend to get information about you and much harder for you to track.

The security settings aren't that difficult. There's a dropdown menu on all posts that lets you select who can see it. Public, friends or a group of names you select yourself.
There are loads of howtos online.

It's improved a lot in the past 10 years.

I have several personal grudges against Facebook, the first one was from this in 2015; oh, Very Important - read the over two-thousand angry comments since then with not much of any response from FB.
Malware Checkpoint for Facebook
July 10, 2012 at 9:20am
https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-security/malware-checkpoint-for-facebook/10150902333195766/
How they say it worked in their 2012 post was NOT the way it worked in 2015.
And I found no post from FB detailing changes.

Self enrollment? NO. It was forced on me out of the blue - "Your system has malware" and you will download this program you've never heard of or we will lock your account and not let you back on.
And just like many of the commenters, other people could get on FB on my computer just fine, but when I tried to log in to my main account, all of a sudden my system had malware.
Okay, so I'll try my secondary FB account.
Well what do ya know, all of a sudden my system is miraculously free of malware.
Hmm, lets open a different browser and try my main account again, well how about that, all of a sudden my system miraculously has malware again - for that account
When I tried to log in to my main account on other people's computers, on the public library's computers, up comes "your system has malware" and I couldn't log in. Someone else tries to log in to their FB right after me on the very same computer in the very same browser window, once again, the system is suddenly miraculously free of malware.

And what was Really, Really, Really, interesting was that 5 different antimalware programs, among them Malwarebytes, Hitman Pro, and Hijack This, plus an IT professional (who was Totally Not from Geek Squad!), repeatedly found NO malware on my system.

Umm, NO, that was NOT what happened,

https://www.pcworld.com/article/259216/facebook_security_checkpoint_hits_roadblock.html
What happened was, "You will download the program we tell you to or else."

I hadn't heard of the one they were demanding, extorting?, so I went an looked it up.
Found this ---> Oh, really, FB???? You can't tell me that you people do not know this program has issues.
{note, last time I looked, last year, that web page had since been updated with more recent version of the program}
Umm, no, No, and Hell No! I will NOT download THAT program. Not going to happen.

Okay, my main account was locked because of Farce Book's hallucination that my system had malware.
Used my secondary FB account just fine for about a month after that, until...
this from 2013 happened to me in 2015 ...


I was off Fb from 2015 until June 2017, this year, when a couple friends sweet-talked me in to trying it again.
Several things happened where I was about 1/3 a nanosecond from kissing FB adios, but again, friends pushed the right buttons to get me to stay.
It was about 6 weeks from re-joining till FB pulled something else not exactly kosher and locked me out again.

Okay, that's it, I am done with Zuckerberg and his goons.

and then there is this from July 2014,

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-facebook-apology-20140702-column.html

and this from 2011, https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2011/11/facebook-settles-ftc-charges-it-deceived-consumers-failing-keep

and this from 2016, https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/4/10712 ... arch-trust

And from 2016, Facebook lies to its paying customers, the advertisers, just like it lies to its users,

https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-o ... 1474586951


https://www.mediapost.com/publications/ ... trics.html

Last edited by kitesandtrainsandcats on 16 Sep 2017, 4:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

and Facebook lies to governments too

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215855/Revealed-How-Facebook-gave-officials--inflated-estimates-number-users-just-week-disastrous-IPO.html