======= Date Modified 16 Sep 2011 22:15:03 =======
OK so I'm going to sound like a grumpy old man now I've just accepted my PhD place and I wonder do I need facebook? I am quite happy at having resisted it to date, it's always comes accorss as a bit socially parasitic. If anyone's ever seen the 'South Park' Facebook episode you'll know what I mean.

I suppose my real question is would it offer any networking benefits? Given its studious conception does it have any academic use? I'm not going to want to sign up to to a farm or post innapropriate pics. I know that your facebook profile can be of interest to future employers; it's best to be careful what you associate with and its difficult to delete your data - but is there any point???

honestly, i dont think it has much use as an academic tool. i use mine for booking gigs as a comedian and not much else other than keeping in touch with travelling friends. so unless you change your mind about running a virtual farm, i wouldnt set it up unless your field is media or it based

Thanks Twanky I kinda thought so - I want to avoid getting sucked in if I can.

I was convinced to get facebook about a year into my undergrad. I have hundreds of "friends" on there. I hardly ever use it. It is just rubbish in my opinion. Furthermore people post photos of you from a night out regardless of how crappy the photo is, and that isn't good. People often just waste their time on facebook and i think it adds to insecurity over relationships and friends, constantly needing to be validated with some stupid profile update with some random statement- and constantly checking for replies. I have long considered deleting my facebook account because it adds no value to my life, but i am keeping it because it is good for one reason, and that is it is like an address book of people. Half these people i would probably forget i knew if it wasn't for facebook and would never actually have their numbers on my phone, but, just incase one day i need to contact somebody, then i have their names there.

It is good to be aware too that if you have an addictive personality it can be dangerous. Infact, very similar to drug rehabs, they have had to make facebook rehabs (i believe mostly in America) for people addicted to it.

I recently had a discussion about the worth of facebook to my life too because it is difficult to know if you are missing out on something important. Many people use it and a few successfully use it to enhance their social lives (organising when to go out in person). Others use it in a fashion that actually damages their social lives, their relationships (watch Jeremy Kyle lol) or even decreases their contact with real life people. There has been everything from paedophile facebook rings busted in the newspapers to people fired from their jobs by posting off-hand comments on facebook. But of course those things are few and far between. It isn't at all useful in professional (academic) networking or your image in that world. There are other netwroking sites for academics and professionals like linked-in or other more specific networks to individual fields (ask your professor, or google their names to see where you find them).

I don't think most people take facebook as far as the south park episode, i mean i have never even seen this farm application that many comedians and south park refers to, but sure there are some who get stuck into it.

I knew many PhD students who checked their facebook page whilst in university, to me as an undergrad i thought this was very unprofessional, but there must be something to it, perhaps a little break and a connection to prevent the isolation from getting to you. So is facebook a valid tool for sanity and social connection over a time period of years that may keep you from seeing your friends in person regularly? Perhaps so, it is hard to tell. I don't know how i will feel about it months from now. Maybe i will become a regular facebooker, i don't know. I will just see how it goes.

Ender

At the moment though i think this forum beats facebook any day, because it actually relates to my life, with people who understand what i am going through.

======= Date Modified 17 Sep 2011 00:02:43 =======
If you haven't created a FB profile by now, then you really shouldn't bother. Social networking in the way that Facebook offers is overrated and can be quite annoying. I only joined in 2007 because some friends from university who were living in a different part of the country were raving about it. I honestly didn't use it for about a year and then got really into it - but am definitely not feeling it lately.

I check Facebook a few times a week but (and it may just be my experience) less and less people seem to be actively using it. They may be logging in and checking out other people's pages, but they're not actively posting. Then at the other end of the spectrum are the countless people who insist on sharing highly inappropriate and private information at inopportune moments - info I have zero interest in knowing!

I keep threatening to delete my profile but haven't gotten around to it. I'm actually sorry I joined up in the first place. As for the South Park episode - it summed FB up perfectly (in all of its worse and most extreme moments). As for networking, Facebook is not a good tool to expand your professional contact list, as it's so informal and unbusinesslike. You'd be better off setting up a profile on LinkedIn (Can I mention other websites? If not mod. feel free to edit!), or do what I have done and set up a blog/website that deals only with your research interests and details your academic and professional accomplishments.

Another issue with Facebook is that most people set their profiles to private, so that while companies or members of the public can search and find your profile, they can't access your full profile. Also it's doubtful that most companies would use Facebook as a networking tool when there are so many other avenues available to them. In summary, if you don't have a profile set up then don't bother with one unless for personal use/curiosity but not as a professional tool.

======= Date Modified 17 Sep 2011 01:06:07 =======
Tad drunk.

But - left it for good recently.

Join academia.edu if you wish, it'sjust getting going, but honestly as far a s facebook is concerned I left after I had 500 "friends" there and have had no reason to regret leaving. What a joke it is.

I use facebook to promote conferences etc but really I see no use of it. I hate the fact people can put photos up of you. I'd join linkedin and/or academia.edu if you want to make use of the work-networking benefits. For me facebook is a hassle, my main reason for not leaving is that I want to announce when I get the PhD lol.

I'm not fussed on Facebook. I don't really put information on it (just links to videos I like) and am not on it with my full real name. I have all the privacy settings set to maximum and only have a few friends on it. When I first started using it, it was with my real name but people from the school I went to (people I didn't actually know) requested to be friends through some friends on there and it was getting out of hand. Facebook also seem to change their privacy settings without warning which is a concern and I have concerns about how they use the data. I also noticed people tend to forget themselves on there and post stuff they wouldn't normally detail in 'real life' and by association it could reflect on me, if I had them as 'friends'.

People are essentially like sheep and will follow the crowd but I think most don't really get why they use Facebook. Sadly, some people do seem to live on it and try to make as many 'friends' as possible through it (people they don't know in 'real life') and then give these people access to their photos, personal information etc...It's madness!

I'd give it a miss or take the approach I have.

Watching the social network actually put me off facebook, not sure I want to give any time/money to mark zuckerberg lol. My mother in law announced news on her wall about me recently, which I didn't want to let people know, so that's one aspect of facebook I hate - why does everyone think your info is shareable?

She was proud of you and your achievements, Sneaks, which is great but I'm with you I wouldn't want it shared without my permission.

I joined Facebook a few months into my MSc- as someone posted in their welcome message on my wall it was indeed a "peer pressure victory"- I joined because I was missing out on a lot of social events and study group-type things which were announced to the MSc's own Facebook group. I'm also a member of a few science-related groups on there- I found it more useful than Nature Network, and I'm still not tempted to use LinkedIn.

Facebook turned out to be useful and I'm still on it now, but still pretty reluctantly. Someone else also posted "you'll be addicted to this!" on my wall but that definitely hasn't happened. I have about 100 friends on there and I know them all personally- I don't add anyone as a friend unless we've actually met. I also have my privacy settings up pretty high and seeing how much I could hide, and that I could prevent people tagging me in photos, stop strangers sending me messages etc I was somewhat reassured.

positive: I managed to recruit enough participants for my 1st paper with minimum effort through facebook.

negative: around the time I started teaching students around my age, something like 100 pictures of me in a bikini from the last holidays popped in. Nightmare.

What a lot of anti-facebook sentiment....
personally I've found it very useful for keeping in contact with friends who live in other cities, and arranging social stuff with people who live near by. MAny social events I've been to during th PhD I've been invited to or found out about via facebook. People often talk about PhDs being quite isolating so I think this aspect has helped.

I think facebook can be what you want it to be. Some people stay in contact with a small number of people, and don't post much, some people use it as a procrastination tool (I'd put myself in that category) I like to see what people have been posting, and sometimes people I don't know well are the ones who I find updates very interesting from. Fer example someone I met 10 years ago in Thailand, now lives in New Zealand and has posted lots about the recent earthquakes there that barely make our news. I'd not be in contact with her at all if not for facebook. I on;y have one 'friend' I've never met (long story why) I keep meaning to delete her but she posts really nice photographs of scenery and stuff!

As for privacy settings these are changable (though facebook do change them .... you normally find out by someone moaning about it in their status! and they're easy to change back how you want them). Peopl can tag you in pictures, but they can be un tagged if you don't want them. People worry about the fact people can put your picture on facebook without you knowing, but they can still do that even if you don't have an account. At least if you have an account you know what pics are on there.

I would say Facebook is almost essential now for networking with over half the UK's Internet users accessing it weekly according to Mintel.

Having said that, I'd recommend reading up on all their privacy settings first as Facebook tends to default towards sharing everything with the world unless you specifically tell it otherwise and you need to be careful which applications you install as some publish your details elsewhere even though you might have kept them private on Facebook itself.