Why do internet geeks hate social networking sites?

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: krylon

Originally posted by: skim milk

Originally posted by: nerp

Originally posted by: skim milk
because it's superficial and fake

trying to make oneself look cool

That's what people with no friends and no luck with the ladies say.

dude I can make myself look so popular on facebook, I just don't

I prefer to use text/phone call
I don't need to prove shit to anyone.

Except ATOT.

What skim milk? You don't get any phone calls because no one calls you back? No one returns interest to your interest showing? Okay. Nothing wrong with Facebook. Just don't use it like the 16 year olds do with Myspace. I get invites for events from time to time. Apparently my calendar shows my gf's roommate's bday on Sat and a Dave & Busters event this Wed with some old college friends. It's a good way to keep in touch and that's too bad if you can't handle it.

 

[nerp]

Originally posted by: DLeRium

Originally posted by: krylon

Originally posted by: skim milk

Originally posted by: nerp

Originally posted by: skim milk
because it's superficial and fake

trying to make oneself look cool

That's what people with no friends and no luck with the ladies say.

dude I can make myself look so popular on facebook, I just don't

I prefer to use text/phone call
I don't need to prove shit to anyone.

Except ATOT.

What skim milk? You don't get any phone calls because no one calls you back? No one returns interest to your interest showing? Okay. Nothing wrong with Facebook. Just don't use it like the 16 year olds do with Myspace. I get invites for events from time to time. Apparently my calendar shows my gf's roommate's bday on Sat and a Dave & Busters event this Wed with some old college friends. It's a good way to keep in touch and that's too bad if you can't handle it.

Totally.

I think the people bashing facebook as a haven for "attention whores" are either in high school, early college or scorned by an ex-girlfriend who rubs in how her life is more fun and engaging on facebook.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: BassBomb
Because its cool to hate what is popular

This. Nerds are probably stereotypically adverse to popularity contests which is what many of these sites turn out to be, but not always. Many folks have accounts on these sites for purposes other than showing off their myspace angles trying to feel better about themselves.

Oh well. I'm a nerd. I have facebook and myspace. I use them pretty much to keep in contact with old friends from school and relatives. Hate it or not, doesn't bother me one bit.

:thumbsup:

 

[SSSnail]

Because social networking sites are full of "angles" and "emos", where as here, we just flame each others to oblivion without regards to how many friends you've gathered along the way. Post count is irrelevant, because I've been here longer than half of you, and have posted more than the other half while lurking less than the lurking half.

 

[Jeff7]

It's because my avatar is just so goddamned handsome.

 

[Liberator21]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent

Originally posted by: zCypher
I'm not an internet geek and I'm not particularly fond of social networking sites. I keep in touch with the people that matter to me, I won't keep in touch with someone that doesn't matter to me just in case I need something from them in the future. When I use the internet, it's either to check my email for news or personal messages from people I know in real life. I might do some research, or for leisure listen to streaming music or video. Occasionally there's an IM chat in there with someone I know in real life.

When I was 12-13 years old, I would go online to chat with strangers. The novelty of that wore off pretty quickly. I saw that having a long list of people that I really had no connection with was ultimately pointless.

While it's true to a certain extent that anti-social people might have a tendency to hate social networking sites, that's not 100% true. Someone who is anti-social in person might actually be more inclined to use social networking as a way to compensate for their lack of social skills in person.

asl?

KT

I unexpectedly LOL'd


Seriously though, I wish someone would make a social networking site where people would leave me the hell alone.

I used to use facebook, but it was like being mind-raped every time I logged in after I had been away for a few days. Annoying invites to stupid games, friend requests from people I could care less about, and that stuff would stay there until I specifically addressed it. It's not about whether I could "handle" it or not, it just wasn't worth the hassle after the novelty wore off.

----

On a side note, its interesting to me how absolutely entrenched and obsessed people become with it. Even my wife for a time. Girls in particular that I know, so concerned with who posted what on their pictures. And all the while, judging (unfairly) other peoples' pictures with negative comments..

Final note- I just heard on a radio talkshow that actually, young girls who regularly (daily) use a social networking site have a much higher risk of depression. Probably because the very appeal to these sites is the trivial, judgmental blather that teaches young kids that you are to be valued based on how many "friends" you have, how much pointless stuff you can think up to make your uneventful life sound more important, and to have somebody falsely ranting and raving over these things...

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: SSSnail
Because social networking sites are full of "angles" and "emos", where as here, we just flame each others to oblivion without regards to how many friends you've gathered along the way. Post count is irrelevant, because I've been here longer than half of you, and have posted more than the other half while lurking less than the lurking half.

my head just assploded

 

[Bill Brasky]

Originally posted by: CountZero
For anyone no longer in school those sites are pretty much used to keep in touch with acquaintances.

This is exactly why I use facebook. When I'm visiting a city I love having people to contact to meet up for a beer and hang out. I think it makes it so much more fun to travel.

edit: plus I'm not a very good planner, and FB severs as a great social calendar that I don't have to carry in my pocket.

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent

Originally posted by: BudAshes
people come here for discussion/flame wars with relatively anonymity. People go to myspace, facebook etc to pretend they care about each other so that other people will pretend to care about them.

Yeah, pretty much this. Facebook made me realize how annoying most of my friends really are. I also do not particularly like having all of my info up there for all to see. I barely ever go on to the damn thing anyway, I just have it because certain people use it exclusively for getting in touch or setting up get-togethers and whatnot.

KT

Bingo.

 

[0roo0roo]

posts are conversations. sometimes...sometimes you learn something.

social networks are mostly about narcissism. some don't even require friends..twitter... and i guess second life counts.

 

[mjrpes3]

Forums are perfect for geeks because the conversation is usually about "things and events" rather than the geek himself. The more I forget myself the happier I am.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: mjrpes3
Forums are perfect for geeks because the conversation is usually about "things and events" rather than the geek himself. The more I forget myself the happier I am.

Agreed. Also, MySpace and such are work. I don't need another job authoring drivel for others to read. I can write this post, and not come back for months. Nobody cares, and I have to feeling of obligation.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

I like the core idea behind social networking sites but I hate the crappy custom profile templates and the unique 'peg your CPU at 100% for a full minute' ability some Myspace profiles have.

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: K1052
It's not that I hate them, I just don't care.

Usually I get people who rag on me because I don't use those sites.

This. Don't have a problem with social networking, just not my thing. If I want to get in touch with somebody, I'll call them, email, text, or whatever. And I don't care to know what somebody else is doing every hour of the day.

The only thing I hate with a fiery passion are the page designs. "Hey, I wonder how many flash applets and animated GIFs I can cram into my MySpace page!" Not to mention fixed backgrounds, text that is nearly impossible to read because of bad contrast.. the list goes on.

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: Crono
And does anyone else here get pressured by their friends to join Facebook?
I feel like all my friends are part of some cult that I'm not in.
They're all like "join Facebook, Steve", "how come you aren't on Facebook? Everyone is on Facebook!", "Be one with the Facebook", etc (ok, I made up that last one).
I explain my reasons for not joining and they say "ok, I get it", but then next time I see them they're saying the same stuff about Facebook.

It's not a cult, it's just another connection to your peer group. There are privacy settings for everything. Literally, so it's not like you can't customize it to your liking. It also streamlines communication. If I want to get a group of friends together to go to a concert, I just create an event and I can literally invite everyone I know (if I want it to be that large), within a minute. Complete with details and an organized manner of communication that doesn't clump up my Inbox.

Plus, I seem to be one of the rare social nerds who's actually interested in keeping up with people and re-establishing connections with my best friend who moved away during Kindergarten (actually did this). It's nice. Likewise if one of my friends posts a humorous status message I can grill him over it or start up a "conversation" (of sorts) over it, other people who can see his profile can join in, etc. It's being social for the sake of being social. Some people enjoy this, others don't. To each their own.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: Nik
How do you search IRC for questions and answers that may have already been addressed? How do you get such a vast wealth of information at the simple click of a mouse without having to change servers and reconnect to different rooms?

How do you search AT? I rest my case.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: Ns1
Except I expect to meet 0% of the forum peeps I talk to, whereas I expect to see again at least 50% of my facebook friends?

I gain ALOT more news-wise via forums...but I expect to gain alot more professionally via FB

I'd agree with that and still say Facebook/Myspace are awful communication methods.

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: skace

Originally posted by: Nik
How do you search IRC for questions and answers that may have already been addressed? How do you get such a vast wealth of information at the simple click of a mouse without having to change servers and reconnect to different rooms?

How do you search AT? I rest my case.

lol so true - i was going to post this

 

[StinkyPinky]

I'll be honest. I'm a socially awkward computer geek. I'm the type of person that everyone likes because I'm polite and helpful, but I'm by nature a shy and introverted person so I hate large groups. When I was a teenager I would try and force myself not to be that person, but in the end I learned to just do what I am comfortable with. And thats be with my wife/son and a very small group of friends. I'm happy with that.

I have a facebook page but needless to say my friends list is small and I really don't understand how some people in my list can have 700 "friends".

 

[Illusio]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Because social networking sites are MMORPGs where the point is to gather more "friends" than anyone else.

:thumbsup: That is my new favorite quote!

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
facebook is all about the games. fantasy hockey, baseball, texas hold'em poker that ranks you vs. your friends, top-5 favourite <x> polls, trivia, etc etc.

wait people actually do that shit?

fuck i log into facebook like once every 2 weeks just to delete all the spam for shit like that