Is not joining Facebook a sign of of psychopathy?

You read right. The latest mainstream media panic to people of a certain social minority. No longer is not having Facebook a social abnormality, but instead it could be a sign of psychopathy. Avoiding social media could be classified as 'suspicious behavior'.

Here's the News Article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2184658/Is-joining-Facebook-sign-youre-psychopath-Some-employers-psychologists-say-suspicious.html

Of course we're going with the standard definition of psychopathy being; a particular set of personality traits that includes emotional shallowness, superficial charm, impulsivity with poor judgment, deceitfulness, unreliability, manipulation, and disregard for the feelings of others.

But really, is this the sort of thing people worry about? If they didn't before, they will now.

I stay off of facebook due to the issues it causes with relationships (not just romantically but personal too) plus I don't like just anyone being able to view my info (before anyone mentions privacy settings, if someone went on a friends account who disliked me but was friends with my friend, they can view all my info, including pictures etc) plus I don't really care what "Ben" had for breakfast or that "Linda" is having such a hard time choosing between the red dress or the black one cause of first world problems.

I dislike facebook due to the fact I have a phone & If I wanted to arrange anything, I could just text someone and ask them or call them & not broadcast it PLUS if you put "I'm going away for the weekend" on facebook & your home gets burgled, you'll get no support from your insurance company.

My 2c on why Facebook isn't "great"

Well that should be simple to rectify, DV.. xP Don't post you're going out! But oh no! DX now you're not posting on the fabulous Facebook network like normal people! And do you still have(had) a MySpace of Friendster? Better watch out if you didn't upgrade! /Obvious sarcasm should be obvious.

It's more social propaganda (IMO) that when someone does something evil there has to be a 'reason' or finding connections between a certain subcategory of people. If you think about it; How many murderers/thieves/etc actually DO have a Facebook and keep up with it telling everyone where they go and what they do? My guess? Anyone who can own a computer and wants to keep up with people. And yet due to the recent killings/sudden-disasters (I'm not trying to down-play them, btw. They really are tragic however the way everyone is looking towards an excuse/something to blame [This way in particular] is quite ridiculous to me.) with none of them having Facebook or using it actively mean that something must be wrong those individuals who don't use it.

But then you have to think; Only.. What are the numbers of people whom actually have FB? And how many people there actually ARE in the world and you'll see that the statistics don't exactly have any impact in the matter. Some people (Like DV and others) simply don't want to use it because they do not find a use for it.

As for your definition of psychopathy, William.. Well.. "Shallowness, superficial charm, impulsivity, deceitfulness, manipulation, disregard of the feelings of others" actually does sort out my friends list (Both with family and those whom regularly post) quite nicely. So.. Correlation between Facebook and psychopaths within, maybe?

I can think of 3 people whom have been CAUGHT posting on facebook whilst at a crime scene (burglar posting on his facebook whilst at a house he was stealing from, FROM the victims computer)

Indeed. Or people actually bragging about what they've done and what they got away with. It's amazing what people will post online just because they think it's 'petty' or that people can't trace it back and find evidence of their crime at a later date. But that's true with any social media site throughout the years (Again, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc...) and will continue until people will get the clue that there is no such thing as privacy.. Especially when they're now going through conversation logs and posts to see what people are posting and looking for trigger words. (I forget where I heard it from and what the exact details were but I know it was during this past month or two about Facebook starting to monitor real time chats and possible posts... Might have been Skype as well now that I think about it.)

The first question when I read the first post was: "Why are you reading the Daily Mail?" lol

I tend not to read it, mainly because it is filled with rubbish. Of course some people *cough* V-Tog *cough* read it daily

This article was quite interesting though but to be honest I also think that the idea that you don't have a facebook account makes you somehow 'suspicious' rather absurd

I can see the train of logic: Most people have facebook, so facebook is considered a 'normal' thing to do, so if you don't have it you're abnormal in some way, so abnormal people we should naturally be suspicious of

That is the basic premise but I still don't buy it and I don't think people in general are better or worse, more trusting or more dangerous, now than before facebook existed

(Gisteron if you're reading this then your lack of a facebook account better not be because you're secretly a mass murderer lol)

An interesting read

I have a FaceBook page, so I won't be hypocritical. It is also something that I never let anyone post to (deleting all 'mentions' from other friends from time to time) and use to keep a certain vague contact with friends in other parts of the world. But that's just me ... now for the overarching topic :

Not being subscribed to facebook is not psychopathic, nor (I didn't read the Daily Mail article, nor shall I) do I see how it could be. One could stretch things and possibly infer some mild form of sociopathy if one avoids social networks out of paranoia, but if one is simply not interested in taking part in that, it could be considered neither psychopathy nor sociopathy any more than one who would choose to not have a mobile phone, or electricity for that matter, just because he/she gets on fine without it.

Doc, I would be careful of avoiding things out of fear of what 'could' happen. I neither want nor need Facebook (I may look at it about once every two or three weeks -- which sort of defeats the purpose of having it, really ... ) but find it 'convenient' now & again. The referenced burglaries are anedotal. There was an article recently on a woman whose ex-boyfriend bludgeoned her to death for having changed her statute from 'married' (they weren't) to 'single' some four hours after she broke up with him. And that one is not the only case where FaceBook has turned fatal. Still anecdotal ...

The problem here is that the tool, the service, if one would, that is FaceBook (as well as the other social media less frequented) has become a movement. It is like the mobile phone, or any other effect that subscribes to a social 'norm'. Being on FaceBook has become hegemonic -- and this may be a better reason to be critical of it, whether one abstains totally or not.

I know a LOT of crazy people that have one... what does that say?

Myself included!

hahhahahahhahahahha

:laugh: Some articles are just funny as h***.

"The tech news site Slashdot summed up Der Taggspiegel's story about social networking as 'not having a Facebook account could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer."

I'm thinking if someone is a mass murderer there will be other signs a lot more worrisome than not having a facebook account. And I really hope that employers don't hire/fire based on facebook accounts. How sad of a society would that be? Oh gosh! Am I already living in it? Better go check my FB page.

Akkarin wrote: The first question when I read the first post was: "Why are you reading the Daily Mail?" lol

I tend not to read it, mainly because it is filled with rubbish. Of course some people *cough* V-Tog *cough* read it daily

How dare you! :laugh: :blush:

At one point everyone seemed to be either on facebook or in the process of joining it. Now it seems to have calmed down a little...I still check it every day but don't post very often any more...I guess I'm almost bored of it.

In general there are two reasons to be on facebook:

1) Wanting to keep up with the lives of others

2) Wanting to show everyone else what you are up to

I'm on facebook for the first reason, and I find it quite strange when people seem to be on facebook primarily for the second, unless it's for the benefit of far-away family members or something. You know who I mean...the people who post 10 status updates a day about inane things, and every photo that they've ever taken.

So if you're someone who happily keeps in touch with others in other ways (phone, text, email), and you don't need the validation of having everyone 'like' all your statuses and photos, then not being on facebook seems perfectly 'normal' and un-suspicious to me.