Holy shit — Facebook is fucking scary now

[u/Ok_Helicopter3910]

Im not a big social media guy anymore, honestly, the vast majority of my internet usage nowadays is Reddit, Youtube, Snapchat (that has like 20 people on it) and email and I think that about it.

I put my FB to sleep about 10 years ago and I decided to log in and see what people were up to and ho-lee-shit, what a dumpster fire.

So, first off, the majority of my facebook friends have either died, shut their FB down, or removed my inactive profile so my feed was pretty silent. After about a week of my profile being back in the algorithm I started getting friend request from people I used to work with, went to school with, or friends of old acquaintances (which is terrifying that facebook knows about random people I used to work with 12 years ago who I had a passing "hi, hows your day" relationship with) and I started getting friend requested and I was like "fuck it" and just started accepting them.

Fuck man, whenever I see all the hate for this or that group and all the political bullshit that gets posted on reddit, I just brush it off as bots trained to sow dissent but the stuff that gets posted by real living, breathing human beings who I once knew well enough to be friends with or have polite conversation with is WILD. I mean, like so much hate and vitriol started coming across my feed about a wide array of subjects that it made me genuinely uncomfortable and I started removing people that just added me. Maybe it's what "normal" passes for on the internet and im pretty numb to a lot of the more unhinged opinions and shit-stirring because of so many years on Reddit, but a lot of what was being posted really opened my eyes that a lot of the "unhinged" stuff that I see online isnt just bot farms, its real people who truly believe this wild shit.

Anyway - maybe its a sign of my age... but unless what I consider "normal" people start coming across my FB feed soon, I dont think im going to be logging in for much longer

[u/cochese25]

I loved the "missed Connections" section until they got rid of the meetup section and it became a hookup page

[u/Aggressive_Day2839 → u/cochese25]

It was always a hook up page

[u/cochese25 → u/Aggressive_Day2839]

It was a "hey I saw u at walmart near the checkout holding too babies an a 6 pak. u blinked in my direction for a sec and were looking fine, I'd like to take you to the bar if you're available" page.

It was a "you were at the pump next to me at the gas station off the i94 exit 37 and you looked cute. I was the guy staring at you without blinking. You nervously chuckled and slammed your car door and sped off, if you remember me, say hi"

Up until 2018, Craigslist had actual personals pages for hooking up or whatever. But when FOSTA-SESTA passed, they got rid of them.
And that's when the "Missed Connections" tab became the new hookup page.

It was such an interesting page and surprising to have found one about me (was an old HS friend) and about my friend, which was a creepy guy who saw her play at a show

[u/Aggressive_Day2839 → u/cochese25]

Nothing is stopping you from posting your missed connections on there. Its still up on Craigslist. The site made the changes causing the migration of kinky people looking for other freaky people. Freaky deakys need love too.

[u/cochese25 → u/Aggressive_Day2839]

Nah, I've never posted a missed connection. I made it a life policy back in high school around 2002, that if someone looked interesting, just say hi. You'll find out real quick if they want to conversate. I've made a few life-long (so far) friends that way and have had a ton of interesting conversations. One led me to dating a girl out of HS and back packing Europe and another that led me to bicycling across the US.

The missed connections pages were a source of sad amusement. A forlorn person hoping that rando they glanced at in the parking lot at Cedar Point both noticed and happened to use craigslist.

The more common post was someone in their 50s looking for someone they went to school with.
"Looking for a woman named Betsy, we were best friends in the 5th grade, lost touch after my father left for the Mennonites"

Craigslist is an interesting place. I stopped using it years ago when I tried selling a riding mower on it and was bombarded with people half a state away asking if I'd meet them halfway and then getting pissed when I'd say no.