How do you win at Facebook?

Facebook is just like The Game The only way to win is not to play.

Sorry, but Facebook isn’t a game. Niether is high school. You can treat it like a game—you can treat anything like a game—but you don’t have to. Turn on, tune in, drop out. Or make your own game where winning means using it the way you want to use it.

The majority of people seem to want it to be light hearted and fun and very little disagreement to whatever they post. If you don’t agree with a status, usually best to not comment.

How do you win at Facebook? A few little things called “privacy settings” and “hide” will have you yelling Uno! in no time.

Seriously, Facebook is what you make of it. You control what you want to see. It’s pretty easy to get what you want out of it.

To “win” implies that there was some sort of objective or goal to accomplish. There must be a way to measure success, such as “I am 3% more popular,” which is obviously meaningless.

A speak as a qualified person, since I am a Facebook-using teen. There is no way to win at Facebook. There is absolutely nothing a person could post on Facebook that would somehow make him or her more popular. Your real-life popularity affects your Facebook popularity, not vice-versa.

Besides, the topic of high school popularly is often nothing like what people think. If you want a person to be friends with you, you must engage in personal conversation with that person on a regular basis. There is no other way to be popular in school than to interact with people.

I don’t and will never have a facebook or any other social media profile. I win.

Fluther is the closest I get to social media but I really dont think this counts as none of you know who I am IRL

It’s Tron rules.

Not joking answer: don’t post or comment on anything political or religious if you don’t want to alienate someone on your friends list, obviously don’t post any compromising photos, be aware of privacy settings, don’t friend coworkers until you no longer work at the same place, when you ask others for their name in order to Facebook them ask them for their Facebook name because not everyone uses their real name, don’t send your friends endless FarmVille requests, don’t post grief messages on the page of newly deceased friends because this can be massively upsetting to family and other friends; make a memorial page instead and provide a link…that’s all I can think of at the moment.

People seem to respect a large range of things depending on their tastes, from cat pictures to posts of themselves on HuffPost video yelling about Cardinal Mahony. Humor of some sort and/or meaningful dialogue are the common factors of good posts, I suppose. Important real-life events seem to attract the most attention on my feed, like engagements and graduations and such. People also give each other a surprising amount of encouragement when they post about smaller achievements, like going for a run or getting a good grade. It’s heartening to see, even though I don’t tend to participate in the self-affirmative facet myself. Sometimes a good rant will get a lot of comments, or a news article will generate debates like we have here.

Posting pictures of cats sure seems the way to victory.

Facebook makes you think there are a lot of people out there who can truly change the world, but probably won’t bother.

I guess besides the dude who created it

He changed nothing, people used to gossip on street corners, now they do it on the interwebz, over a coffee…ground breaking stuff.

well, can’t argue that; it’s not like kids and teachers getting arrested and dads shooting their child’s laptops with handguns didn’t happen back before FB was invented Seriously though, I’m agreeing. :)

I only understood the last four words :¬D

Well I’m a pirate, don’t expect me to explain anything I just said. I’m drunk. :D

I can’t use beer as an excuse for the shite wot I write, i’m just naturally daft…cheaper option at least.

I ain’t got no excuse for fuckall, bro. Drunk or not, I still say, fuck FB lol.

What a charming, delightful conversation we’re having :¬)

@SavoirFaire You missed the point. “Game” is a metaphor here. So is “win.” You’re taking it literally which is not how the question was meant. There are rules to life. No one wrote them, but they are there. People don’t agree on what they are, but they are there, and sociologists spend long careers figuring them out. The same is true for Facebook. Those are the rules I am talking about. If you don’t know anything about them, then please remain quiet. But if you can help me understand how Facebook works, I’d love to hear what you have to say. Perhaps this should have been in General.

@jonsblond It may be easy for you, but it isn’t for me. What do you do to get what you want out of Facebook? How do you handle your privacy settings? What kinds of things do you post on Facebook and what don’t you post there? How is it different from the way you interact with friends and family and acquaintances in real life? What is the mental calculus you go through when you post a picture? How do you decide who to let see it? How do you decide what not to say, knowing it will cause some kind of ruckus? How do you decide who to friend? Who not to friend?

@PhiNotPi Why do your friends use Facebook? What do they get out of it?

@Symbeline Tell me what your comment about cats means. I’ve noticed a lot of pictures of cats. They are very annoying to me. But I hate cats. I don’t understand what people get from cats. So, looking at cat pictures is even more confuzzling to me. Can you explain what cat pictures do on Facebook?

@ucme Interesting. Are you saying that people talk big on Facebook, but they don’t do anything? I’ve never seen this. What kinds of things are you talking about? Why does Facebook make you think there are a lot of people out there who can truly change the world? And why do you think they probably won’t bother? And if they won’t bother, why do they try to create the impression they might change the world? Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?

Wow, I just faced a question firing squad…ratatatattat!
I plead the fifth, or is it fourth…or maybe an insanity plea.

@wundayatta Lots of questions there for me. I’m sorry if I don’t address all of them right now. We have a snow day and I hope to go outside soon and play in the snow with my daughter. I’ll also take plenty of pictures because I enjoy photography. I’m sure I’ll share some of my pictures because I have friends and family on Facebook who are interested in seeing my photography.

What do you do to get what you want out of Facebook? I block or hide the things I don’t like. I follow many pages that I’m interested in, such as The National Park Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, The Science Channel, The National Audubon Society, Universe Today, StarDate, PBS, National Geographic and a few local news organizations. These are just a few of the pages I follow. These pages post interesting facts and photos that interest me.

What kinds of things do you post on Facebook and what don’t you post there? I share photos, I share links I think others might find interesting like this link I found yesterday, I posted a list of Girl Scout cookies my daughter was selling for those who were interested in buying cookies and I share the achievements of my children. I don’t post that often. I can go days without posting a thing. I rarely, if ever, post complaints and I never share dirty laundry. I don’t post political crap. I’m drama free and I’m not friends with anyone who creates drama.

How do you decide what not to say, knowing it will cause some kind of ruckus? I don’t debate on Facebook, but I did kindly let my friend know that her Bill Cosby ‘I’m 83 and I’m Tired’ rant was false. Bill Cosby was born in 1936. He didn’t say the things she posted. My friend removed the post and I’m hoping she’ll check her facts now before posting these things. Like I said, I don’t debate, but I couldn’t let that one go. I didn’t want my friend to look stupid.

How do you decide who to friend? Who not to friend? I friend family, friends I went to school with and a few Fluther friends I think I can trust. The people I friend from Fluther are people I would meet irl. I don’t friend every person I like at Fluther, just those I have gotten to know the 4+ years I’ve been here.

I hope that answers some of your questions. :)

Social networking is not a game to be played, it’s a tool to be managed. I mange my online socializing the way I do offline socializing in my life:
• I do not provide any information that I don’t want to share (this means leaving most profile fields blank, and periodically reviewing privacy settings and options);
• I prioritize what amount of time I spend on others based on what they mean to me.
• I don’t place expectations on others, nor do I allow myself to be manipulated into others’ drama.

Thank you, @jonsblond. That’s helpful.

@ucme Sorry for the barrage of questions (ok, not really, that’s just who I am). But I would really like to hear your thoughts on the issue you raised. It’s new and different to me. Interesting.

@wundayatta Then I shall keep you in suspenders, wait..never mind & i’ll tell you next Thursday, around supper time, but only if you promise to be good.

@wundayatta In response to your question, it’s another form of communication. If you have something that you want to tell your friends, instead of waiting to tell them tomorrow at school, you can post it on Facebook today. It also offers some benefits, since it allows you to tell your friends about things without feeling like you are wasting their time talking about yourself.

@wundayatta Frankly, I can’t really explain it. I guess most people just like cats, and think they’re cute. Which I certainly do not disagree with, but I did do a test on FB once…most of every time I post anything there, there’s always my loyal homies who take notice, but no one else. I decided to post this, and got much more attention than usual.
Or you can just post a picture of a cute kitten, post a picture of YOUR cat…it works with dogs a lot too, however, for dogs, I notice people will often post pictures of their own dog, instead of random dogs, like happens with cats.

I like exploring weird, nonsensical internet phenomena, but my specialty is memes. lolcat being one of the biggest and breathrough memes, as it has stood the test of time and is used by people who don’t even know it was a meme So, as far as FB goes, on which I spend very little time, I don’t know WHY…cats are just awesome. :p

But I did see this funny thing one… FaceBook is like Egypt; people write on walls and worship cats. XD

I’m not into graffiti and I can’t stand cats. No wonder Facebook is not for me.

But my son is now on. I must watch him. At least for a while. I gave him a rant yesterday, but that was mostly to make me and my wife feel better. I’m sure it won’t help things. He already has more friends than I do. Strange girls are friending him. Yikes! Honestly, I don’t even want to know. It scares me.

I made him change his privacy settings, but he could change them right back. I don’t know what to tell him that will make sense to him.

@wundayatta He is friends with you on facebook right? Did you insist on knowing his password so you can check his page from time to time? That’s what I would do.

Hmm! Let me see. You post loads of photos of happiness. Good ones are jumping into rivers while you laugh. A few eating out like a (what do you call them there barbeque?).

Add billions of friends even those that will probably tell you “To piss the hell off do I know you”. It’s OK, no one can see.

Make sure though at least one person can tag you. Being tagged means you are pretty cool. So when visiting FB Freak friends, hereon referred to as the FBFF make sure your hair is blow dried and you are pulling in your belly. (Side way photo’s are a no no). Rip them from the FBFF camera.

If you are a guys guy, post lots of “I love beer” “I love pussy” and subscribe to the ass of the day. Dam they have some hot ass photo’s. Those will make your page look instantly hot.

Make your page appears action packed, rock climbing, boating skiing all good. Think of great statuses (steal some from the FB Status suggestions) Like:

I am so positive it will all turn out well, because I am, I am positive, I am vibrating to a higher level

Post random things on peoples photographs like “awesome you look fantastic”.

exhausting I know Rather take @JLeslie advice its easier.

@wundayatta No, I didn’t miss the point. I understand the metaphor, and I recognize that some people play life as if it were a game. The only people I know who use Facebook and enjoy it, however, are those who use it the way they want to use it. Nobody respects anything on Facebook. You get attention in all the same ways you get attention in real life. But if playing by those rules is what you consider “winning,” then you’ve got much deeper problems than figuring out whether to post grammatically challenged cats or articles from the New York Times. Thus my suggestion that you rewrite the game. The only way I can see that as being unhelpful is if you’re purposefully looking for a bad time.

@SavoirFaire It seems to me that you have missed the point. It’s not people playing life or Facebook as if it was a game. It’s quite the other way around. It’s that life has rules and Facebook has rules, like a game. So if we are trying to understand the rules, which grow, organically, from how people behave, then we can call that process of understanding a game.

Winning is the metaphor for using Facebook in the way that people predominantly use it. My problem is not using Facebook, because I don’t use it. My problem is understanding Facebook, and you seem to be misunderstanding that. Of course, the fault is no doubt mine, for attempting to ask this in a metaphorical way.