Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Living Without Social Media In 2015?
An anonymous reader writes On Slashdot, we frequently write derogatory comments regarding social networking sites. We bash Facebook and the privacy implications associated with having a great deal of your life put out there for corporations to monetize. Others advocate for deleting your Facebook profile. Six months ago, I did exactly that. However, as time went on, I have fully realized social media's tacit importance to function in today's world, especially if you are busy advancing your career and making the proper connections to do so. Employers expect a LinkedIn profile that they can check and people you are meeting expect a Facebook account. I have heard that not having an account on the almighty Facebook could label you as a suspicious person. I have had employers express hesitation in hiring me (they used the term "uncomfortable") and graduate school interviewers have asked prying questions regarding some things that would normally be on a person's social media page. Others have literally recoiled in horror at the idea of someone not being on Facebook. I have found it quite difficult to even maintain a proper social life without a social media account to keep up to date with any sort of social activities (even though most of them are admittedly quite mundane). Is living without social media possible in 2015? Does social media have so much momentum that the only course of action is simply to sign up for such services to maintain normality despite the vast privacy issues associated with such sites? Have we forgotten how to function without Facebook?
I don't use Facebook. I am on LinkedIn but I never update anything. And I don't care. If an employer wants my years of experience they will take me as I am. If they are going to reject me because I don't waste time on Facebook, then I probably wouldn't last long there. Their loss.
Nonconformism is always viewed with suspicion by the masses. Either you have the courage of your convictions or you don't. Any company that's going to judge me based on the lack of a Facebook account isn't someplace I'd want to work.
The reason employers want everyone to be on social media: They can use it to gather information about you that would be illegal or inappropriate to ask in a job interview.
Seconded. it's illegal to ask about family and religion at a job interview in the US because it permits discrimination based on whether you think someone will ask for extra days off. Employers skirt this and other equal opportunity laws by asking for your Facebook info instead. If they're playing that kind of game I don't want to work for them.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
I swear I'm the only person in my subdivision who isn't talking on the phone while walking my dog.
That's a friendly neighborhood to all be willing to walk your dog...even if they do talk on the phone while they're at it.
I wonder if it would work to get around that to say that you use your Facebook for private religious purposes...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Not really. Facebook has embedded themselves deeply with so many third-party websites that they can infer a lot on you simply as you use your browser after having used Facebook in the past.
The only winning move is not to play.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
LOL 5 digits :)
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
Whenever someone asks why you don't have a social media account, all you need to tell them is:
I'm not a narcissist.
You don't believe your life is anyone else's business, no need to show them pictures of your latest adventure, no need for gratification from the unwashed masses. You are who you are.
ah yes. It's a classic page right out of "how to win friends and influence people". Impress them with your smug sense of superiority!
Four digit codger here, I rm'd my facebook profile over a couple of years ago and haven't looked back. It's refreshing. As an uber tek nerd, mmo fiend, etc. now "old codger", take it from me... rm facebook, rm your mmo, limit Steam to a few hours a week, and go outside. Hike, Fish, buy a cheap sailboat and goto the Bahamas or the Keys. Stop searching online for that cool landscape wallpaper for the latest greatest distro you installed, and go outside and see that beautiful landscape in person.
Awesome!
What a terrible book.
Better title: 'How to be a weasel and manipulate people'. Those that follow it, have not a single true friend in the world.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I really can't take this seriously. It seems like someone who works for Facebook wrote this.
Millions of people have perfectly normal social lives without facebook or with really minimal facebook use. I know a lot of people who log-in once a week. I know a lot of people who go long periods of time without ever using facebook.
I think the fact that the author thinks its almost impossible to live a normal life without it says more about him/her than it does about facebook.
Facebook, et al. can only "put out" as much as you put in.
No, Facebook can only "put out" as much as everybody else puts in. For example my classmates from primary school are a tightly connected clique and since some of them have told Facebook they went to the same school, Facebook has correctly deduced that everybody in that clique probably went there too and is asking me to confirm it, but they basically know anyway. Another relative of mine did some genealogy thing and basically drew up the whole family tree for Facebook. Same with people tagging you in photos and checking you in and whatnot, even though you can hide it from your own timeline or even untag yourself Facebook knows that when a friend tagged you it was almost certainly correct. I doubt they really forget anything.
And most annoyingly, Facebook often knows when I send email because the one I send to has shared their address book/inbox with Facebook. There's no other way some of those "friend suggestions" could turn up on social media, so even when you try to keep a life separate from Facebook it's no good when the other end is being a tattle-tale. And I don't know if it's just my friends, but my impression is that you don't reach out and actually tell friends about the things that friends normally get told about. They post it to Facebook and expect people to have read it there, that's more or less the expected way to socialize. Not reading Facebook gets you the "Oh sorry, I didn't know you were stationed on a nuclear submarine under radio silence" looks.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
lol 3000s
I don't do Social Media/Networking at all (and I rarely, if ever, miss it).
A couple of years ago, my boss sent me a LinkedIn invite. I said "Well, it's my boss; so..." and started to fill-out the application.
I got to some point, and said "Screw this. I'm not giving up (whatever info it was it wanted)." , and CANCELLED the rest of the application. Mind you, I had NOT completed the Application, so theoretically, no LinkedIn "Account" was created...
Too late! My work email, which had been blissfully SPAM-FREE for two years, INSTANTLY started receiving about a dozen pieces of SPAM per day!
It eventually (almost) stopped; but I learned a valuable lesson: Despite the language regarding "We won't sell your email addy into cyber-slavery", it's all a big lie (go figure!)
So that, was that. I stuck my toe into Social Media, and promptly got it bitten-off. So, no more for me!
Agreed - I have no facebook account, no twitter account and I don't do the iggy either... (Simpsons ref) (Don't have a 5 digit UID But I'm old enough that I have to start qualifying my pop culture references coz you young whipper snappers probably weren't even born when the reference was made!) I've got old friends that decry that they can't keep me informed with their lives because I don't have a facebook account. (Hullo, I HAVE a smart phone and you can call or text me... Is that too much of an effort for our relationship?)
I've got a LinkedIn account that's strictly professional and that's as far as it goes I don't even really communicate on it other than to answer the recruiters or to hook up with some ex-coworkers (which I then take off line). I am amazed at how many people keep sending me personal or political information (all flavors) on it as if employers wouldn't care about that when hiring - The adage is still true - Don't discuss politics, religion or the Great Pumpkin in polite company.
Dab nag whippersnappers! Get off my lawn!
The alternative to limited government is unlimited government.
> my boss sent me a LinkedIn invite
I've seen this before. I think their system does it unprompted.
That is, your boss has no idea s/he invited you to jack shit.
Oh, you numbered people... I'm like a ghost!
Living without a Facebook account? I live without a Slashdot account!