Getting Onto Facebook

I don't, have never felt the need really, perhaps I should - maybe I don't know what I'm missing

I don't. Am I missing out?

A member asked me about setting up a closed FB friends group which is a really good way to connect and chat with others privately. But you need to open an FB account first.
Some people are worried but I've only ever found it to have lots of positives.
If you don't want the world to know your most inner secrets, the only real rule is not to post your life story online. Otherwise, FB is really good for connecting people.
Obviously you have to be careful but it's a good way to talk to your friends.

I don't have Facebook. No interest in it at all.

I don't do FB nina1959 but I am forever being nagged by DD and my sister to join. I admit to missing out on information from my WI and Bookgroup as they seem to assume everyone is on and share all information on the site.

I worry that some of the young ones seem to share far too much on FB.

I do use Facebook, but only as a way to keep in touch with friends/family scattered around the world.
I don't understand people who want thousands of 'Facebook friends', I'd far rather have a 'real life friend'!

Why do you want to know, nina1959?

I think many of the older generation have been left behind with social media. Or they're scared to use it.
But it's a good way to feel less lonely if you don't have many friends. There are friends groups you can join and other interests groups such as slimming, recipes, travel, hobbies, etc.

You can also start your own local FB group so my thoughts were it might be a way to help people connect and meet each other with similar interests.Again, it was to help others not feel quite so disconnected and lonely.

Ana, because someone asked me about starting their own group but they have no idea how to use FB. When I asked several others, they don't know either but they'd like to be less lonely.

FB has privacy settings so it is private. Some people can't help themselves and need to share everything with the entire world but you can control what you put out there.

You're making quite a lot of assumptions there, nina1959!

x posts

I use FB to keep in touch with far flung friends and family. I'm part of to the local history group on there and I follow a couple pf celebs. I alsoI use freebay to get rid of stuff. My only 'friends' on there are those I know in RL or people I share a mutual friend with. I don't accept friends requests from random strangers.
If your careful how you use it, it's great in my opinion.

.....of celebs. I also....

So much for previewing

In what way Ana?

The very fact that we're all on GN must mean we're tech-savvy to some degree, and just because some don't want to join FB doesn't necessarily mean they don't have many friends or feel disconnected and/or lonely.

You're taking my words out of context Ana. There is a section of seniors who are not familiar with how FB works only because they might be nervous about posting personal info, or because they just don't know how to use it. Some of them are on their own so I thought I'd just ask the question, that's all.

Like this one. It's not a group, it's a page.

www.facebook.com/SilverSurfers50/

They have one for grumpy old gits too just so none of you feel left out.

Ha, ha.

I use facebook to catch up with family members and old colleagues and friends. Some of my family are abroad or live far away so we keep up with some of them via FB I feel much more connected to my extended family now then I did before FB and reconnect with people that I'd lost contact with . I belong to a great knitting site and a local site with lots of local titbits, I have a couple of health concerns and there are numerous great sites with plenty of info about my various problems.
All in all I think its great if you keep your settings in order.

I use Facebook to keep in touch with family, and friends i wouldn't otherwise see because of distance. There are indeed interest groups, I'm in two relating to places I've lived and where my family lived and in groups concerned with issues like animal welfare, politics of course but also things like smart meters or art exhibitions. I've become the friend of other friends through it and we all share humour, photos and news. It enhances life.

The instructions about privacy are clear. You don't have to be friends with anyone you don't know and you can control who sees your page. I think it's very socially useful. It's a shame that so many older people are still lacking in confidence about using the internet.

nina1959 SilverSurfers is a group, there is a button to join the group on the page you've linked to..

I use Facebook extensively. I set my settings to the highest privacy and nothing is made public only to a limited audience.

We tested it this our recently with a video we took on a family holiday. Grampy posted it to certain individuals. They all 'liked' it but no-one could save it and none of their friends could see that they had liked it.

Perfect solution for those of us with far flung family and friends who want to see life's little daily ups and downs ( and what they had for dinner !!)

I also belong to a number of hobby pages which has resulted in some real life friendships. Bit like here really.

So there is Tanith, I missed it. Thanks for pointing it out. It is a fun group. I like their memes and funny posts. Good for starting your day off. I think FB is great.
It is relatively easy to open an account and very visually bright and cheerful mostly.

FB is as safe as anything else as long as you take sensible precautions and use the higher security settings. I do not accept friend invitations from anyone that I do not know in real life and would not post anything on there that I wouldn't say in real life. I think it is marvellous, and we have for example, a cousin's group on Messenger so that we can all keep in touch with family events and goings on, post photos of holidays etc, even though we are scattered all over the UK and beyond. There are lots of interest groups too that can be good to dip in and out of and we have a good one in the village to alert other people of road works or flooding or news about fund raising for local events etc, as well as selling stuff and posting help messages for missing pets and such.