Why have open profile online? (Nightmare to me)

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alpacka
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20 Nov 2017, 11:08 am

Why some people choose to have open personal profiles online? (Like on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIN). Have they never heard about stalkers, catfishing or just meaningless ghost followers who know e v e r y t h i n g what you are doing, eating, sitting, with who, where, when and why should they?

I don't even have Facebook but if I had it would not be personal with pictures inside my home and no tagging where I work (if I had a job), no pictures inside workspaces, never in my parents or siblings home....and so on, especially not with a open profile.

How do you see it:?:


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elbowgrease
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20 Nov 2017, 11:59 am

Mine is about half and half. Some of it is public, but the parts that aren't are pretty restricted. The parts of it that are public don't really provide much information, on Facebook or anywhere else. Partly because I have a difficult time writing about myself, sometimes because I don't have the information to fill in the blanks, and sometimes because it's just nobody's business. There are a few pictures of me, the house I used to live in while I still lived there, even some videos I made while I was traveling and some of me playing my guitar. But there aren't all that many pictures of me anywhere, anyway. It was a few years before I was ok with having pictures of me on there, and I think it was only when my girlfriend (at the time) put some pictures of us up that I started to be alright with that. I still don't use my full name on there, rarely anywhere on the internet.
Part of why mine is relatively accessable is so people can find me, if they want to. And there aren't that many people who've tried to find me. And there is so little real information on my Facebook page, I don't think anyone would find anything all that useful, really. I rarely say anything, there or anywhere else.
I think I've posted more here I. A few months than I have there in the last ten years.



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20 Nov 2017, 12:08 pm

I certainly get that and think it's ridiculous to have such an open profile but in my experience, if you are too private people start making assumptions. In the past few years I have been much more open to show people I am a "normal" person. I do not discuss any divisive things mostly because I don't tend to have extremist views. I do tag where I work because it is a very well known and well respected employer in my city and any perspective employers could see I am a 'safe' hire.

As a group that is normally seen as "weird" it's about the only way we Aspies have to combat people's ignorance.



BeaArthur
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20 Nov 2017, 12:52 pm

The people who post a lot of stuff about themselves are sometimes seen to be exhibitionists or narcissists. Who cares what you had for breakfast? Oh and yeah, I've seen several dozen selfies of you, I don't need to see more. I don't need to see your workout or you at a party having fun. These people cultivate a little coterie of enthusiasts who all "like" and "comment" on each other's Facebook posts regularly. I see these people as pretty weak emotionally, but I'm sure they don't, they just think they have healthy egos.

I was found by someone I worked with and dated 40 years ago who wanted to friend me. I had not looked him up in at least 30 years. He posted a lot of "cute animal" shares which mostly just bored me. I was looking around and commenting on autism groups on FB and he messaged me, "Why were you looking at an autism page?" I replied "none of your business" and changed his status to "acquaintance," which means he sees nothing any more.

I would unfriend him but people seem to really get hurt when you do that - even if you never message each other. Some of my friends have given up Facebook altogether, but I use the groups feature extensively to follow hobby sites, and don't want to lose that contact.


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20 Nov 2017, 6:03 pm

Although I have a Facebook account (that I seldom use) I have never posted any pics of myself or my home, nor do I make personal posts. It's all about interest related stuff. Same for my Twitter.


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The_Walrus
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21 Nov 2017, 7:39 am

(Moved to Random Discussion)



TheSilentOne
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21 Nov 2017, 2:17 pm

I have Facebook and Tumblr but I pretty much only share things related to my favorite shows or random funny posts. I don't post much about myself unless I'm really excited about something. I don't give away my last name ever and my main picture/profile photo is never of me.


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nick007
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21 Nov 2017, 7:56 pm

I only used My Space & that was around the time it started dying. I mostly posted about my interests & used it as kind of a dating site which didn't work at all. I mostly had it cuz a couple of my friends did.


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21 Nov 2017, 8:27 pm

I don't use Facebook much due to the insane amout of cookies they use to track you around the internet, whether you're logged in or not.


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alpacka
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13 Dec 2017, 10:26 am

You all sound normal to me.
The ones I refer to are the ones who are weirdly open with pics on their home, family, children, interior decorations, hospital visits, where they are "logging into the hotel ****" like they never thinking about someone out there can be knowing too much.

I don´t know if you can recall people who are like this but I do and know several. I know where they live, where they work, who they are in a relationship with, what their haircolor is, where they have worked before, what they have eaten todat, how they feel about something special and more without even talked to me in person.

Does this people never think (or care) about who will see this? I don´t if I admire this "don´t care" attititude or just feeling they are simply stupid.


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BTDT
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13 Dec 2017, 11:17 am

I got on Facebook because my wife wanted to show I was in a relationship with her, just like on BBT Amy wanted to show that Sheldon was her significant other and not something she made up.



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14 Dec 2017, 8:23 pm

Mine is open.

I don't post things like photos of possessions inside our home with a status about when no one will be here etc. Obvious basic security stuff.

But I also don't care if someone wants to go have a look at what's on my Facebook. I'm not a celebrity that's of interest to someone to stalk, so whatever. It's one big "meh, who cares," from me.


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C2V
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15 Dec 2017, 4:58 am

I refuse to have any of that stuff. No facebook, twitter, nothing. No online profiles at all. The only place I post anything is here, and I have never written anything about my name, what country I am in, where I live or work, what education I have had or any other specifically identifying marker. I have never posted a picture of myself or anything identifying in my environment.
But I get told I'm "secretive" just because I want privacy around my personal life.
I also got told by someone recently that they almost didn't take me on for a job because they couldn't "background check" me through facebook. So yes, this happens all the time. Everything you post is being used to spy on and judge you.
I even got freaked out a few years ago when someone from a group I had expressed an interest in joining "background checked" me by somehow searching my email address and finding every other site that email had been registered on. I'd still like to know how they did that. That stuck with me and whenever I'm doing anything that requires a registration that I don't want connected with me, I use a burner no one can use to spy on and track me. It's not paranoia - it happened.
More to the OP's point - I don't understand why everyone wants everything "linked."
I was doing something online just recently and it came up with "sign in with Google or Facebook."
What, so everyone connected with, for instance, your facebook account can see you signed up for this other thing? So it points a huge digital arrow at everything you do? I don't like it that my email somehow identified me within the email recipients with my (blank, but still) Google account. WTF?
I'd be using Tor right now if it wasn't made almost useless these days anyway and the risk of viruses from it hadn't dramatically increased ...


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alpacka
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15 Dec 2017, 3:46 pm

C2V wrote:
I refuse to have any of that stuff. No facebook, twitter, nothing. No online profiles at all. The only place I post anything is here, and I have never written anything about my name, what country I am in, where I live or work, what education I have had or any other specifically identifying marker. I have never posted a picture of myself or anything identifying in my environment.
But I get told I'm "secretive" just because I want privacy around my personal life.
I also got told by someone recently that they almost didn't take me on for a job because they couldn't "background check" me through facebook. So yes, this happens all the time. Everything you post is being used to spy on and judge you.
I even got freaked out a few years ago when someone from a group I had expressed an interest in joining "background checked" me by somehow searching my email address and finding every other site that email had been registered on. I'd still like to know how they did that. That stuck with me and whenever I'm doing anything that requires a registration that I don't want connected with me, I use a burner no one can use to spy on and track me. It's not paranoia - it happened.
More to the OP's point - I don't understand why everyone wants everything "linked."
I was doing something online just recently and it came up with "sign in with Google or Facebook."
What, so everyone connected with, for instance, your facebook account can see you signed up for this other thing? So it points a huge digital arrow at everything you do? I don't like it that my email somehow identified me within the email recipients with my (blank, but still) Google account. WTF?
I'd be using Tor right now if it wasn't made almost useless these days anyway and the risk of viruses from it hadn't dramatically increased ...


Everything you had been saying is things I totally agree with. I also hate all links to this and that, everytime I want to write a article about something in a webpaper or a simple comment I have to "log into Facebook" or "Google account" to do so, I refuse Facebook so I miss out to comment things. I also feel it's discrimination to older generations and getting really irritated when you want to be just anonymous but can't.

The thing you said about job is something I have thought alot of too. If the one who hires you doesn't find you on social media they will for sure wonder why you choose to be off, if there is a reason for it and why so. If they dont care they probably are the same kind of people as we are.


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