I have a friend I've been writing to since 1990. It started out as a snail mail friendship, and gradually moved to e-mail. I've never met my friend, but we've shared a lot over nineteen years. I feel privileged to still have a connection that started out with the Letter Exchange (LEX) so long ago.
He disappeared for a few months (not unusual for him). I figured he was just busy with his two new puppies.
But just two weeks ago, he emailed to say that he almost died recently from complications from an illness. I was shocked, to say the least, and wanted to know more about how this happened.
Finally heard from him again, with an invitation to join FaceBook today. He has set up his site there.
It seems pretty clear that he has had a major life change, and will spend considerable time (at least for the foreseeable future) undergoing routine medical treatments. I wonder if individuals who are under the stress and strain of a new life (while wondering about their employment, etc.) simply choose a new way of communication.
I had considered joining FB before, but put it off.
So here are my questions:
1. Do people who use FaceBook still use regular email?
2. I guess you can send private messages via FaceBook?
By the way, I sent one of my hubs to my friend before, but he was probably at the first stages of his illness and had too much to deal with.
I would like to encourage my friend to join HubPages eventually. He is a fantastic, very descriptive writer, and could gain quite a following here.
I gather that you truly care about this friend, and if he has chosen Facebook as a means of communication, perhaps you could, too. I'm not too clear why you haven't joined FB, but I'd be glad to tell you what little I know of the site.
I have an account there, and have found, then kept up with many people from my past. Most have been very favorable, but occasionally someone will find you that you want no contact with. If you sign up, you have privacy settings that can be put in force that will avoid such things. I chose to be very open with my identity.
I use email more than ever, and yes, you can send private messages to individuals.
I am fairly new, though, so I hope other, more seasoned Facebookers will join in here!
Thanks lorlie,
My failure to join FaceBook is simply due to the existence of other priorities in my life. For instance, most of my energies are going into learning HubPages.
Some people are, I think, afraid of establishing an online presence on a site like FB because they fear a loss of privacy.
I'm not too worried about that. But if I join, it would be the first time I've put my "full" presence out there. I've been pretty anonymous on my blog and in other spots on the Internet. Perhaps it is best to start slowly....
And, yes, I care a lot about my friend, who has been through so many difficulties at a comparatively young age.
You can make it very private if that is your choice. Mine is quite private and my profile pic that is visible to the world is usually one of my own photos, but not of myself. I don't have it set where everyone can see who my friends are when someone is doing a search as I respect their privacy also.
Once you've set up your page, you can set privacy settings.
mine are set only to my friends that I approve. You can send messages through FB to another FB user. I like it a lot because you can keep in contact with your friends/family, post articles from here, play games which are fun and you can meet new people through the games.
I go on a few times a day depending on the day. enjoy it!
Facebook is fun! You can chat, send private messages and post pictures or links. Just like any other websites, you also have to be careful what pictures you post. Enjoy and have a great week!
It is particularly useful for those friendships where you may not cross paths too often. I have friends in different parts of the world who's lives have taken different directions, but now with facebook, I can see (and comment on) the first photos of their newborn, respond to updates about what's going on in their lives right now or simply send them a private message. There are about 6 or 8 friends who tracked me down or I tracked them down on facebook.
A friend from college invited me to join FaceBook a few months ago. Within 48 hours, I was in touch with 2 of my best friends from college and 2 from High School. About 1-2 weeks later I saw an ad for HubPages. Since then, I joined HP and have 40+ articles, and am in touch with numerous friends, and even relatives that I had not been in touch with in many years. I post links for my hubs from time to time.
So put aside your reservations about FaceBook- it's all good.
I find facebook to be a good place to stay in touch with those I might never talk to otherwise. I was able to find a guy I'd met in college, just last week. Today I got a friend invite from a guy I went to kindergarten with. It is fun to see where these people are at.
@gracenotes, for your purposes, I think facebook is the perfect place for you and your friend. You can have either or both public and private conversations. It's easy to use and, if you want you can gradually add more friends. I am on facebook and twitter. I prefer twitter for my business, but facebook is perfect for friends.
Thanks -- these are all helpful replies.
I'm glad some of you elaborated on the privacy issue.
Although I have no objections to being seen in the FB world, I do have a sister who is especially sensitive about such things.
I believe I would have to be careful about what kinds of pictures or videos I put on FB, and about any references I make to her or to her kids. It's odd, because at least two of her kids have pages on FB !! Well, I guess any family pictures could be in a private area that only a select few can access.
When you're single and childless, like me, your family is your nuclear family -- for me, it's my siblings, my surviving mom. So I have different considerations than most people do. But I do have lots of cousins scattered about who would be fun to keep up with, because we never see each other.
you can set your privacy to who can see what or who can't.
if you notice on my profile, I have a link to my facebook google search page. this is what it looks like if someone were to google my name. You can even just have your name with no location specified.
hope this helps.
I find Facebook to be a good way to get back in touch with people. I have some friends who prefer using FB to keep in touch, as opposed to regular e-mail (and yes, you can have private conversations on there). I have others who are addicted and spend all of their time doing the quizzes and surveys, but I choose not to most of the time. I'm mainly there for people to find me. It has been very useful, though.
You can create groups and choose privacy options (Which groups can see what) for every group. This means your families don't see the embarrassing photos, and the people who need to stay out of the loop, see very little.
by NiaLee 12 years ago
Do you have privacy issues on Facebook? Like your profile is not as private as you would like it to be...
by goodfriendiam 14 years ago
What do you all think of this idea. Have an option to leave a private message to each other on our profile page. Where we have the option to accept or reject the message and also to help cut down on our private email account(s). So what do you think?
by Diane Minton 11 years ago
Is it really safe to post pictures on Facebook?with all of the other personal information there too
by John Reid-Roberts 10 years ago
I think being able to send private messages to other users would be a great feature. I have followers who joined HubPages just to follow my content, and I would like to be able to contact them directly, but since they don't have hubs posted this is difficult.
by Mae Williams 11 years ago
What do you think about Facebook's freedom to change your email/privacy settings without consent?I am beginning to HATE Facebook, due to their lack of respect for users. We are just pawns for advertising. We have no control over our own information. I hardly post anything personal, yet people post...
by StrictlyQuotes 9 years ago
Being a professional is it OK to add your boss as a Facebook friend?
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |