I should join Facebook
I just wanted just to ramble a bit and open a discussion.
So, not having a Facebook is causing me real problems. What's going on on Facebook is even more important that what's going on offline, apparently. Want to find someone to hang out with, start a movement or sell your old stuff? You're going to need an account there. Without Facebook, you might as well be a ghost.
By now, I would've just surrendered to the Borg and sign up. Or, I would've if Meta didn't think signing up this late in the game was inherently suspicious.
Yes, fedi exists and I have an account, but people there don't interact with each other much. It's hard to find people who are into the same things as you there, too. I care about more than computers and free software.
I don't know. Anyway, anyone want to talk 2000s girl pop or come take some old skis off my hands?
Yeah, it's not just Facebook - X, Instagram and Youtube seem to be in everyone's life nowadays.
I created a Facebook account under an alias and got away with it for a while but it kicked me off (suspended my account) several times so I just gave up. I really don't want corporate America or anyone else online knowing every little detail about my personal life. A couple of years ago I started going to a church, taking classes and volunteering there and have been able to acquire some new friendships that way. Funny thing though, the church itself wants to totally embrace every avenue of tech to spread its message. So even there it's a bit of an awkward fit.
You could join a book club, maybe wine tasting or just pick up the phone and call someone, or ...
Somehow I think for me the less time I spend sitting at a computer the better off I am.
My skiing days are behind me I'm afraid. 2000s girl pop? I like to watch The Voice.
I know my social situation is lame, but I think Facebook wouldn't solve my problems.
There is mastodon for connecting with people I think. Some people do it better than others.
I have profiles on some proprietary job posting sites and I do not think they enable me to what they are supposed to do. Find jobs. I am considering breaking free of these too and deleting my profiles. I had some agencies help find jobs and they set me up. I was hopeful, but I don't think the agency or the job sites help at all. I have a job, I just don't like mine.
A nature hike might be more productive than joining Facebook.
Selling on Craigslist or a similar site might be an option.
There are a lot of uncouth and untrustworthy people on social media so you may not be missing much.
If you want to meet people online, smaller, niche forums like this might give you better options.
From an FSF perspective I don't know that there are any particular free software objections against joining Facebook. You'll have to use non-free, non-trustworthy javascript in your browser to access the site, that would be the one objection I would see. But you don't have to install any non-free program on your system to access it, so other than the non-free js and the privacy objections it should be fine.
From a privacy perspective it's probably a nightmare, but then again, Facebook probably already has tons of data on you anyway whether you like it or not. I wouldn't hold it against anyone who joins Facebook, because I know that in the state I live in there are wide stretches of countryside where the main form of communication and of trade and barter is with nearby farming families on Facebook. If I ever buy the small country farm that I want, I'll probably have to think seriously about whether or not to join Facebook in order to be part of the farming community.