Facebook

GrannyGear it costs nothing to join and you don't have to do anything on Facebook if you don't want to I don't know why you can't just 'look' I always thought you could. Usually if a page says 'like us on facebook' you will see a small Facebook Icon you can just click on that and it will take you there.. you may have to join to like someone/site but you can do that without giving them any personal info and then just never go there again if you don't want to.
I love FB just for the fact I keep up with the daily goings on of distant family and friends and search for groups that are relevant to me, I found some of the groups invaluable in looking for information when OH was seriously ill this year I was able to get answers to lots of questions about his illness answered by people who had gone through it.

I hope that helps

Yes I agree Tanith, and it's not just family and friends - if you 'like' businesses, their news appears on your FB newsfeed and you get to hear about events that might otherwise pass you by.
For example couple of years ago we saw a blues band perform at the Edinburgh Fringe and after that I 'followed' them on FB.
They actually came to a pub in Newcastle last week and we were able to go and see them again - we would never have known about the gig except through FB.

I use Facebook a lot to see what my family are up to and they post photos there as well. Its a quick and easy way to keep up with old friends. I also play a scrabble game with a distant friend and she enjoys beating me all the time. More seriously I started a Facebook page when I was co-ordinating a local campaign and that worked very well. I am in one other group - the Agatha Raisen Fan Club which is sometimes about books and often about other things- chatting with like minded people from the USA in that group is very enjoyable. You can give it a go and stop it as soon as you feel like it.

grannygear One piece of advice is to put as little information about yourself as you wish.

Not birth dates where you live or where you work etc and you can make a lot of things private. It might help to get someone to show you how to set up I don't find it easy and I have been on here for a while.

My older sister was persuaded to try it by me and her daughter, she is slowly getting the idea and seems to be enjoying it.

I did join FB but got completely cheesed off by hundreds of 'Friends' requests from people I'd never heard of before.
I rarely go on it now.

loopylou you just ignore requests if you wish to no one says you have to respond.

I occasionally get friend requests from people I don't know - I always decline them.

I realise that I can ignore them, I guess it just isn't for me.
I don't do Twitter or LinkedIn either!

I've just had to delete my FB account because it was hacked into The hacker put a profole picture (I didn't have one before) and added personal information, which wasn't about me at all. I had entered minimal info on my account after hearing horror stories! Quite scary ehat hackers can do

Thank you Julie GN!
proves how little I know about using FB!

Julie Gransnet
Many thanks. This is the info I needed. Facebook wouldn't tell me this. Maybe it was somewhere on the "Queries" page but I couldn't find it.
By the way, when I followed your link to facebook.com/gransnet/ it just sent me back to the Gransnet home page.
At least I now know that I can see pages for various organisations without having to join facebook.
I really can't see why facebook is so user-unfriendly.

Am I alone in thinking it can be quite dangerous? People seem to over invest in it and I get the impression that "they" know who I email. My brother died years ago but I never deleted his emails to me- they were often funny- and suddenly I had a request from FB about some heavy metal type with the same name suggesting I follow them. Spooked me.