Like many males I find, I regrettably signed up on FB because my girlfriend desperately wanted me on it. I have no problem with others using it for the most part, even though I'd never log in again myself. Although I do get bummed out when I see those who have grown extremely addicted to it -- to the point they're technological zombies who can't put down their smart phone at any point during the day, and sleep with it under their pillow at night.
I believe there should be far more awareness (as well as treatment) for those addicted to FB. Like many habits in gross excess, it certainly has the potential to ruin lives. I've seen two marriages end from problems that started on Facebook (while FB may not be completely to blame there), and I can't tell you how many people I know personally who have lost their jobs strictly over their excessive Facebook habits.
Although within my own short-lived time using Facebook, my biggest problem with it is the incredibly CREEPY ways it goes about advertising to you (of course the true purpose of FB is for advertising and providing an incredible wealth of data for various collection purposes). I'll never forget the time I was in a private chat with a someone on FB, and I discussed possibly taking a trip to Iceland in the future. Now, I've never once discussed this before on Facebook or even on that computer, nor have I merely looked up the country or taking a vacation on this PC before. Suddenly within about 2 minutes after mentioning this, I began getting several ads on Facebook repeatedly, all more or less saying "Get cheap plane tickets to Iceland!", sponsored by various companies and websites, and these ads continued into the following time I logged in.
After just one mention in a private conversation of possibly going to a country, this told me loud and clear that absolutely nothing is "private" on Facebook, and lord knows who's reading what. Now I'm fairly aware of how often we're all being tracked and used for advertising purposes on the internet, but I've never seen such blatant, hideous disregard for privacy. Haven't looked back since. I removed most of my friends, and saw to it that I can't get tagged anymore. No reason to delete the account, as many of us have known for years, Facebook accounts aren't ever deleted from their servers anyway. The terms you agreed to upon signing up explain how *any* data on your account is theirs (or any 3rd party's unbeknownst to you) to do whatever they see fit, for as long as they see fit. I challenge anyone to find a website with a weaker privacy policy. So at this point, I consider myself better off simply never signing back in.
@Timmaigh
Wow, I don't know how else to put this but get a life dude. If a service that you hardly even use causes this much anger and jealously then you have much more important things to do then dicking around in these forums.
Uhm, well that was kind of unnecessary, dude... and I'm not seeing how the OP is "jealous" of anything -- maybe you misunderstood the post? It was a rant, but a quite harmless one. Heed your own words: If a post on a message board is starting to make you feel angry and defensive over something that has literally nothing to do with you personally, perhaps it's best to stop, breathe, and realize it's not worth getting nasty over in the first place.
