Every once in a while here I see someone post something from Facebook.

[gibraltar72]

It is usually followed by posts saying FB is a sewer etc. I usually answer them with FB is what you make of it. I am not a joiner and have kept my FB "friends" list pretty tight. Let me share something with my DU friends. As some of you know I live hard by Christian Nationalist Hillsdale College Almost all of the FB groups here are sewers with Trump lovers and and conspiracy theories. But that is not the whole story. A few years ago a group was started it had the word caring in the group title. It was a counter balance to one called Nosey Asses of Hillsdale County. That was a site that basically spread gossip about other residents, always with a hard right edge. The new groups name was Nosey Caring Asses of Hillsdale county. My wife noticed them and said I should take a look. I found people talking about progressive ideas right here in my county.

Membership has steadily grown I believe we are somewhere around 800 now. Recently a group decided to have a face to face meeting the goal was to discuss ways to do good for the community. A meeting was scheduled to be held in Mrs. Stocks Park In Hillsdale. I was unable to attend, but part of what came out of the meeting was a way to help our homeless population. Yeah little Hillsdale Mi. a place with around 8 thousand people has a homeless problem. Seems incongruous considering the wealth at north end of town. Our group has started bringing hot meals and sustaining supplies to an increasing number of homeless citizens at Mrs. Stocks Park every Saturday. Members have stepped up with time, money and donations of clothing. Hillsdale has a warming center for the homeless. But it doesn't open until Nov 1.

In the grand scope of things it is a small gesture but hopefully we can do bigger things. I knew there was a homeless situation in Hillsdale but had no idea the scope. One of the homeless told me the other day there are 150 homeless in the area. She said for her it is not a choice she works but can't find housing. Something always comes up and she just can't get ahead. I am proud of my FB group for trying to make some unfortunates lives a little better. As I say FB is what you make of it. By the way not long ago group name was changed to Caring People Of Hillsdale county.

[secondwind]

1. Facebook is a wonderful tool to help folks stay in touch.

That being said, I have kept my friends list pretty tight also. Less than 120 over a 10-yr period.

Facebook is what you make of it.

[elleng]

22. Yes Facebook is what you make of it.

[vlyons]

2. I like FB

I'm 75 and can keep up with high school and college friends. Tune into various Dem happenings in Dallas and TX generally, read various Buddhist posts from those whom I follow. I have unfriended and hidden posts from RW assholes. I frequently share stuff from DU to my FB page.

[Elessar Zappa]

3. I agree with you about FB.

[Solomon]

4. Never use it. I don't like being associated with people who says crazy stuff.

Don't want to be tainted by association.

[secondwind]

5. So you are saying that I am crazy?

Can you please elaborate. Thanks!

[Solomon]

8. No I didn't say you were crazy. Where are you getting that from. I briefly allowed some

connections on Facebook only to be quickly horrified by things some of them were posting.

Not for me. Don't want to be associated with that. Plus, as a lawyer, I have always had an adversion to social media because I've seen so many people lose their jobs or otherwise get in trouble for something they or somebody connected to them, posted.

Not to mention, I don't care about pictures of someone's dog on the beach, etc.

Never called you crazy for using it. To each his/her own. I just explained why I don't use it. Hope this is explanation for you.

[gibraltar72]

14. You do realize you can choose not to see that stuff right?

[redstatebluegirl]

7. Do you use Twitter?

Just as big or bigger a cesspool.

[Solomon]

9. I refuse to use Twitter as well, and that's why it annoys me when people post Twitter stuff here

that I can't open because I'm not logged into Twitter. Some of those posts I can open (don't know why) but I will not log in to it if you have to just to see a tweet or video.

[live love laugh]

6. FB wants the people it's lost back imho

When I was on FB RW pages like Turning Point posted the most vile and racist comments. I would post gifs of a tree or house being TP’d to depict what Turning Point really is.

Meanwhile MAGAts posted photos of sexual vulgarities insinuating pedophelia by Obama and transgenderism by his wife. Guess who FB put in jail? Guess who FB let continue posting vulgarities?

Then they requested I send my license or a passport which I will do NEVER.

BUT they continue to email me and if I click on the email I can back door in. I backdoored a few times for non political stuff then the back door was blocked. However recently I got email and the back door is open again.

Seems to me they’re in want of more traffic.

Fuck FB. 🖕🏾

[cyclonefence]

10. I have not and will not join FB

because of all the evil it's responsible for. I know it's an incomparable resource for getting in touch with old friends, keeping up with family, etc., but think of all the untrue crap it's spread, of all the Russian bots, of all the covid disinformation. No thanks.

My extended family pays (not very much) to maintain a password-protected family website. While it won't reunite friends from long ago, it's an excellent way to keep in touch, and without worries about who's reading our stuff or seeing pictures of our kids.

[Magoo48]

16. Just curious.

Do you drive a car or fly on planes? Big Oil is destroying our planet, hid the fact that they knew it for 50 years, and still is actively polluting our atmosphere and killing biodiversity. That’s pretty “evil”. We all turn our eyes on behalf of our on convenience.

[cyclonefence]

30. you are saying that

necessary tools of everyday life, things that have no political axe to grind (and I don't fly; my car is a hybrid) are equivalent to evil-doers who very likely helped elect Donald Trump by spreading lies, many of them originating from Russia? That my car's minimal use of gasoline is equivalent to crazy Cousin Clare's FB spreading about how to cure covid (and cancer, btw) by drinking increasingly high doses of an industrial bleach mixed into tangerine juice?

As much as we deplore the duplicity of Big Oil and other corporations which got richer by helping to destroy our plant--at least Cousin Clare hasn't begun dabbling in that; she refuses to pay income tax because it's unconstitutional, so maybe she'll get arrested and be denied access to her internet "research"--we are, for now, at the mercy of the necessities of life, like driving cars. FB is not by any means a necessity, and I urge all my relatives to stay off it.

My petty reason is that Mark Zuckerberg is patently the spawn of satan, and I don't want to help line his coffers.

[Magoo48]

34. I'm saying Mark Z and Big Oil CEOs work against our common welfare,

and we continue to use their products anyway.

[cyclonefence]

35. One of them is a necessity, the other a choice

[Magoo48]

36. Both are a choice.

[NJCher]

37. wrong

you have to go to work
you don't have to post on facebook.

[Pinback]

31. Facebook is the only way to communicate with humans.

Never been a user, never will be. Yet, still I am able to be in touch with friends, family, and community. All while not allowing some corporation to monetize my private data in the process. Amazing, isn’t it?

[multigraincracker]

11. Here is where I go, along with all of the cool folks....

myspace.com

Click on it and be surprised...

[EYESORE 9001]

13. I tried it

Looks like it’s all music and videos now.

[multigraincracker]

15. Pretty cool now.

Much better than FB.

[Tetrachloride]

12. I am one who needs Facebook. I am

glad for those who have resisted. Keep it up.

[CaptainTruth]

17. You're absolutely right. FB is what you make of it, who you Friend & Follow.

For example, there's a FB group for the area where I live in Florida that's just wonderful, better than I expected when I joined. The group has a strict "no politics" policy & the admins enforce it, bless them.

It's truly a "neighbors helping neighbors" group, people are constantly asking for recommendations (need a good plumber, dentist, car repair shop, air conditioning repair, etc) & folks are helping out, giving advice. After Ian went through & parts of the area lost power there were people in the group who still had power & had bought bags of ice to fill their freezers volunteering to give their ice to anyone who needed it. There were people who had power volunteering to lend their generators to people without power. People with chainsaws were volunteering to help others clear downed trees & brush. Etc etc etc

I also use it to stay in touch with hundreds of friends around the world. It is what you make of it.

[TNNurse]

18. I belong to a FB group "Living Liberal in Blount County".

There are currently 1681 members. It is a very tightly controlled group. We feel pretty comfortable speaking our mind there.
The admins have no trouble keeping us polite and secure at the same time.

I suspect there are other groups like it.

I see no awful crap on my page. Those people are blocked if they appear. I did notice as I "unfollowed" people, they had probably already unfollowed me, so it worked out.

[Joinfortmill]

19. Agree. I keep my assoc specific and hope to help folks

For me it's folks with shared health challenges.

[Hekate]

20. Good on you!

[Warpy]

21. Unforunately, the country is full of FB users who thought they were controlling

the experience, only to find out after a year or two that the FB algorithm had slowly been controlling them.

FB tracked everything they clicked on and supplied them with more and more of the same, narrowing down everything they were fed on their screens until they barely knew anything outside that narrow focus still existed.

I never joined FB, I hated their business plan of data mining subscribers to target first advertising and then politics. Even with a more benign plan, I was loath to be contacted by people from the past, there's usually a good reason they're in the past.

So if you're trying to make such a predatory platform a force for good, more power to you, I do hope you succeed. Just realize that most of the crazy people on FB also joined for benign reasons. FB fed them clickbait and made them crazier

[llmart]

23. "Nosey Asses of Hillsdale County"

Why am I not surprised at the nasty name they gave themselves as a group? I'm glad your group changed its name.

So many of our citizens think they're being funny or cute when they use language like that, but I'm an advocate for people trying to choose their words more considerately. Do we really have to lower ourselves to their level? I despise the trend toward anti-intellectualism.

With regard to the gist of your post, it's nice to hear about some of the good people we come upon in our daily lives and the lessons we learn along the way, if we bother to learn the lessons.

[infullview]

24. I suppose it's possible to find one clean spot in a dirty sink...

[Kaleva]

28. Discussion boards can be considered a dirty sink

DU and some other boards are the few clean spots

[infullview]

29. I was referring specifically to FB

[Kaleva]

32. You are ignoring the big picture

Look at radio. Dominated by RW hate stations. Where are the clean spots in that medium? Or cable news?

[infullview]

33. You are right, big money controls most of what we hear as "news".

Unfortunately, that includes a lot of venues that shouldn't be such as NPR which is rife with big corporate sponsors. I even seen them edit content to remove material because they were pressured by the sponsor. It was an episode of Frontline that was sponsored by GE Power systems. I saw the first run then watched the show again and noticed that some of the material had been excised.

This is why I don't trust the polls at all right now. I think this is Psyops used to influence turnout.

[IronLionZion]

25. Plenty of liberals use it for good

like event organizing, sharing news and information, charity work, petitions, communicating with elected officials, etc. My local politicians post plenty of useful community information and respond to feedback and questions from constituents.

It is whatever you make of it and reflects the people in your friend circle.

[progressoid]

26. +1

[Kaleva]

27. +2

[NJCher]

38. apparently a lot of people have problems with Facebook

I'm currently taking an online course and the instructor has a discussion forum that she put on Facebook to answer questions about the course material.

She is constantly having to issue additional emails to all the people who won't use Facebook. I hear her make references to the people who, she politely puts it, "aren't on Facebook."

I don't think it's a matter of Facebook being what you make of it. There is absolutely nothing, not one thing I can do about its greedy founder having made decisions that every step of way benefited him and his bottom line over facilitating moderatation that didn't aid in splitting this nation.

AFAIC, gibralter and his fellow citizens did a good thing in spite of FB, having to post on a forum to accomplish their objectives because there is no other nationwide forum.

There should be an alternative forum but there just isn't right now.

[milestogo]

39. I am so done with Facebook.

Its like a virus that takes over everything you do online. There are lots of other ways to stay in touch.

I know some people get all their political information on social media. I think this is one of the reasons our democracy is so totally fucked.