How much a role do you think Facebook has played in causing people to be a little too open about their lives?

Yes, it’s a medium, and without it, they would have less opportunity. These people would still air their laundry in person, though. There’s always that person at a party or something.

A lot. There’s stuff people post maybe assuming only a select group will read it, watch it… start the video. They could post it to specific people but fb gives them a sense of instant celebrity, almost hinging on “I dare ya”. For example, more than one excerpt of a live birth has been posted in my fb accts., something I most definitely don’t ever want to see again.

One of my facebook “friends” went on a cruise with her “hubby”. Announced the date several times, did a count down: Only three more days to go, etc. Then on the day of the cruise, states that she is taking the dogs to her mom’s for her week long vacation. What an idiot. I wanted to tell her she was announcing her home would be there for the taking to thieves, but I figured she was an adult, she should know better.

It’s not Facebook. It’s people’s hubris that they are entitled to say anything that their whims can justify, without any consequence.

@josie No, I get that. I was just thinking that without Facebook and other sites like it, that people wouldn’t have that outlet for their 150 daily updates anymore.

Without sites like Facebook, people would have less chances to rattle off all of the unimportant things in their life. Would you call someone just to tell them that you were having lunch?

@WillWorkForChocolate Nothing really new here dear. Same old information we have always got just wrapped in electronic wrapping paper. I remember my mom sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee with her sisters or the neighbors for HOURS talking about the very same stuff. Or on the phone! I would say count your blessings as you now have the choice to skip the whole shebang with a click of the delete/ignore/like button.

Okay, I’ll admit when I first joined Facebook, I updated my status too often. But I was 15 and stupid; I had an excuse. And even I wasn’t near as bad as this person you cite. (Seriously, how can people stand this? No, we don’t care that you just took a shit or you’re eating salad right now. That’s why we follow actual celebrities with interesting lives on Twitter :P

But seriously, I do believe that without Facebook, these people would not be that open about that kind of thing. My experience is that the extreme openness is often characteristic of new users of Facebook or middle-aged users who are not all that familiar with the internet, but are too excited by the notion of social networking and sharing their “interesting lives” ;)

It probably does have to be a part of their personality, but I think Facebook does sort of create this beast in people, or at least amplify a pre-existing tendency it a little.

No way to quantify that, but it does seem to have provided a medium which is too accessible for those who have delusions of grandeur.

I do think Facebook provides people who would have in the past been limited to boring us to death at the supermarket checkout with a mechanism to now update us continuously on the daily detail of their lives. I don’t think it caused the problem. It has just provided an outlet for people with no self-edit button to have greater access to victims.

I will admit that I do post about when I’m having Chinese food… but that’s sort of a running joke. I also post quite a few funny lolcats and other pictures; I just can’t seem to help myself.

It’s just the constant, “I’m eating for the tenth time today, I’m pooping, I wonder if I have worms, I’m on my period” garbage that irritates the crap out of me!

I have one girlfriend whose posts never change from week to week. Every single week, she posts about men being dickheads, she loves men, she really needs to get laid, she’s tired of men who just want to get in her pants, her cat won’t shutup, her mother is annoying, she loves her mother, and she hates her uterus. UGH

Whether it was Facebook or another one, it could be the sheeple-ness of people that is responsible for so much of the exposing of personal business.

You would be surprised to know the number of people that will give you their information, if you just ask.

My Facebook information is very limited. My name and photo is there, but that is it.

Keep personal information….....personal.

@john65pennington Admit it, you’re in the bathroom right now, aren’t you? :D

Well FaceBook is one of the first sites to mingle people who know each other, or knew each other together. I mean there have been others, but none went as sky high as FB did. Prior to this, we had places like MySpace, but such places mostly revolved around total strangers meeting one another. I’m guessing that FaceBook’s approach made people feel more open and safe, since it’s with people you know, for the most part, and despite having like a million friends. The role it played is familiarity and safety, and/or the feeling thereof. even if teachers and employers might spy on you on there This probably makes people feel more open, and want to be more open, since it’s family and friends. Granted though, I really don’t need to know when my best friends are pooping.

How about when I’m on my period. Would you like to know that? :D

yes

I’ll remember you said that, next month, LOL!

don’t forget

A big role.

I don’t have a Facebook page. My husband does and I look at his page. His friends and family don’t post those kinds of things——with the exception of one couple.

We’ve only met them a couple of times. It’s his stepmother’s daugher and son-in-law. Grown people older than me who sit in the living room of their house and text each other and post it on thier separate FB pages. They post lovey-dovey good night things to each other and good morning sleepyhead type shit. I think, WTF. You are sleeping in the same bed people. Say it in person.

They built up this whole drama about their anniversary coming up and what they were buying each other. Their FB friends even went furniture shopping with them!! The topper for me was when they FBed and tweeted about what a fabulous sexy, romantic, private dinner they were having alone together.

The couple doth protest too much, methinks.

People like this have always been around. My mother was one to call me every day and recite every single action she’d made that day (possibly minus the bathroom trips. Possibly.) It drove me batty! I guess, in the past, that type of person unloaded all of that on those closest to them, whereas now, we are all the lucky recipients. I tend to hide those people from my feed.

Yes, I’ve had to start “hiding posts” from some people.

@augustlan Did she write those Christmas letters also? That is a bazaar tradition I only learned about 20 years ago. A close friend of mine’s MIL wrote how my friend and her husband were having fertility problems! Sent it to all her friends and family. WTF?! I would bet she tells everything on facebook, every little thing.

I still see them @WillWorkForChocolate. Especially those last ones.

@JLeslie No, she didn’t but my dad does! He mentions all the plays/musicals he and his wife attended, the big football games they went to, job news, deaths in the family, updates about kids and grandkids and health issues. Interestingly, he’s not a frequent FB updater, though.

Aww, bless @augustlan. You know… one day you will wish you could get one of those letters.

I was thinking the same thing, @Bellatrix.

Oh, I don’t mind the letters. I think they’re kind of cute. :)

Those who are gabby and egocentric with others IRL are going to be the same on the internet. Just as the reverse is probably true.

I enjoy the every day posters. I like to see the pictures and here about their lives. I love the shares. However, I am not that type of Facebooker (Yeah, I said/wrote it.—I post sporadically and it’s usually pictures of my garden or me working out my depression. Just like IRL.

These are the same random titheads who speak to you in queues as if they’ve known you for years.
Shut up & go away, rather quickly.

I have someone in my FB who always writes about blessings, new mornings, always very emotive, thankful stuff but it tends to be really corny. It’s always interesting to read it, though, just to see how corny it can be.