i would say FB is a requirement for feeling inadequate and for developing mental health problems early in life.
LE: going full stallman on this one: https://stallman.org/facebook.html
read it and tell me i’m crazy
FB was not a requirement for attending uni, but it was a requirement for being fully involved on my campus.
In my university (in Europe) not only several student organizations used exclusiveley Facebook, but professors (well students really) as well.
For example, we would be teams of maybe ~10 -20 people at a given hospital department and because situations were fluid and changes constant we needed to coordinate. Times of impromtu lectures obviously weren't set, patients that may be of interest for all to see & know the case etc were always changing. The doctors would inform one student and then depend on the students informing each other for all these things and guess what they used. Facebook & messenger.
In this situation the only out was depending on a person who had a fb account to inform me which did add extra difficulties. That is what I did mostly but it wasn't easy.
My university in Canada did well in this respect. I would have thought that European universities would be “enlightened” to the fact that using a private company to relay university communications is a mistake.
We also have self-hosted equivalent for almost everything and a quick email to the data protection officer will get problems rectified swiftly.
Most student organizations are also very mindful about not using third party services for their events. However, we often get the feedback that many students would rather we just use Discord rather than Mattermost/Jitsu/...
i’m gonna bet you real money that 1) either they had multiple channels (ie you didn’t really need FB) or 2) they will pay legal fees through their noses once the shit hits the proverbial fan.
But for the way the student leaning group organizes or the restaurant down the road takes reservation or what medium is used by the parents of my child's school class to discuss things is not a legal concern.
I'm interested in this bet. How much and what are the terms?
Not tied to uni but virtually mandatory to participate in social events. Sure you can just say to simply opt out but then it might be more difficult to socialize.
It's not like the school itself requires you to use FB, but students desire to use it as a way of _our_ communication
Because of that I've been studying with people that were e.g 25 or 30 at 1st semester, so probably FB was the handiest solution for everybody.
I guess if I started now with 19/20yos, then Discord would be way to go.
I think the school moved to a self hosted Moodle[0] by now, but when I was there having a Facebook account was definitely required.
A friend of mine is also struggling with his kids' soccer practice as they only organize and do announcements over Facebook.
like being aware of what's going on - (projects,tasks,exams,blabla), communication with all other students
then you're basically forced.
yea, water is required to live, facebook is required to get degree times easier in my example, those aren't mutually excluisive
what do you want to argue here about, except just arguing for the sake of arguing?
I don't like fb, I don't use it when I don't have to and after graduation I'm probably not going to use it more often than once a X months,
but I had to have & sometimes use it unless I wanted to make my life harder - I don't like it, but that's the reality.
Anything that uses FB as a way of keeping people informed should use at least another channel to disseminate that information, preferably not tied to big corporations.
how are you going to convince $whole_group_of_students_of_given_year to move communication off the facebook?
By taking part you just make this more normal/ok than it really is
That's like protesting a party by leaving the room.
So the alternative was to either bite the bullet and create a Facebook account or be left out of a ton of activities. And no, making them go somewhere else wasn't an option. I didn't have any leverage in that negotiation.
I can appreciate that by giving in I am at worst part of the problem and maybe today I'd do it differently, but I really didn't fancy crippling my social life and I wouldn't blame anyone for making that choice.
In these days, where in presence school in many places doesn't happen students know each other only virtually, if you don't hang out where the crowd is, there is no chance of getting information.
I’ve been off FB for close to 10 years now and I can say with confidence that it has not had any measurable detrimental effect on my social life. My friends know I’m not there and know how to contact me, and they do. An event that is exclusively organized on FB is not an event I want to participate in, so I don’t. Dumping FB probably improved my social life and mental health since I’m not wasting so much life “scrolling the feed” anymore.
then I'm at the disadvantage, sad but that's the reality.
What quibble of semantics.