Facebook

[CRAZY-HORSE]

i know we've discused this previously...

i had previously deactivated my Facebook account a couple of years ago i guess...
a few months later i was drawn back in much to my displeasure.

have managed to avoid it for a week or two at a time over the last year or so but always return...

so i just deactivated it again.
have made up my mind that if and when i reactivate it i will delete it permanantly next time.

reasons being:

too much crap is posted
too many irrelevant ads and too many ads in general.
too many people take comments out of context and assume they know what is being said without asking.
too much fake news from everywhere.
too much information gathering and telling me what i should like by A.I (algorithms)

at this stage ive kept "messenger" up and running.

[Jerome]

FB is just a data gathering site to target you with ads. Still have an account somewhere but I don't bother with it. Music Discussion is far better!

Even YouTube is becoming tiresome. You listen to a stunning piece of music and just when you are getting into it you are bombarded with 'Do you write emails? You need Grammarly' 

Really, a new program to assist with grammar is called 'grammarly'??!?? Idiots!

[CRAZY-HORSE]

LOL
ive seen the "grammarly" thing too, thought the same as you, Idiots!

(the crazy thing is that "grammarly" will probably be admitted into the Oxford Dictionary in a year or two as a legitimate word hahaha!)

yes, YouTube is just as bad
ads before the clip
if im watching an interview then theres ads every few minutes etc.

Spotify:
ads three times during listening to an album, more if its a prominant artist.

used to have Foxtel back in the day (nothing to do with Fox BTW)
its a subscription network similar to Netflix.
they used to have ads on prior to or after the program and even then, they were to advertise their own product.
now its no better than regular TV, ads every ten minutes, and regular ads.

Modern Society/Tech sux and its the whole Covid thing thats really made it sink in for me.

[Jerome]

Here in sleepy old Ireland, it's insurance ads every 15 or 30 minutes. Insurance in Ireland is an absolute scam. These companies are continually bitching about how much they pay out and that's why they have to charge such large premiums, but the fact is there is very little competition in the industry here. There are a couple of old stalwarts who are bleeding the population dry. And if they aren't making enough profit as they constantly remind us, then how is it possible that they can advertise 24 hours a day on numerous TV channels every 15 or 30 minutes? Bazinga!!! Complete BS.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

youve opened up a whole whoop-ass can of worms mentioning insurance Jerome....

many years ago my car i used for work (and it was insured/registered and licenced as a commercial vehicle as opposed to a private/home use vehicle was broken into on my property overnight. around $10,000 worth of power tools and accessories were stolen.
so i claimed through the vehicle insurance, and the insurance company were well aware of what the vehicle was and what it was used for so i paid a higher premium for that.
as it turned out, tools of the trade were not covered under the vehicle insurance against damage/theft in my 'commercial' car.
if i wanted them covered i should have taken out a seperate policy for 'tools'...WTF!
no one explained that when i took out the policy, i argued for months with them that why else would i require business cover for a vehicle as i cant work without tools and they needed to be stored and locked away in the car, i even sought legal advice over it, the company had the cover sewn up so tight the lawyers couldnt find loopholes.
end of story,
i had to fork out all that money to basically get back to work,
also cost me over a weeks income sourcing the tools again and being a contractor, no work=no income.

[Jerome]

Don't get me started. Insurance companies make my blood boil. It's just legalized theft - nothing more.
They don't tell you about this or that clause because they know you won't take out the policy. Then when you really need it - THAT'S when they tell you. Oldest trick in the book.
I used to have 2 cars but got rid of one because of the damn premiums. Waste of money. Screw the insurance industry, forever and ever, amen.

Insurance salesmen are taught to instill fear in a prospective new client - I got this first hand from someone who works in the industry - 'what's going to happen to your children if you fall ill, have you got funeral insurance so that your dependents / children / spouse will not have the additional burden, your life insurance policy is not big enough to cope with future costs' - all this BS to extract more and more money from you. As Alistair MacLean once said - fear is the key that unlocks the wallets of the wealthy. 

Then there is the complete farce of travel insurance. An industry-designed 'essential' requirement dreamt up by the industry that benefits the most from it.

And what industry ALWAYS survives a downturn/slowdown in the economy - you guessed it!

When I turn my toes up my body is going to science or maybe ecolation - it's going to be a real challenge for them when they pick my brain apart (!) I am pretty sure they are going to find plenty of missing links.

Oh yes, there will not be any funeral of any kind - don't get me started on the cost of dying - and there won't be any grave taking up much-needed real estate just to push up daisies. 

(BTW - tell people what you think of them while they're alive - they will appreciate it. They sure as hell won't hear you once they're gone).    

Best kind of burial I have ever heard of is sky burials - performed in the Himalayas - after you die, your body is chopped up into bits and left on a rocky outcrop or hill or mountain top or something. The birds come down and carry your bits away into the wind. They have been fed and you have been removed - that's efficient. No expensive weeping circus and undertakers rubbing their hands in glee. You end up as bird shit and that feeds the plants and the whole cycle starts again. 

Oh yes - and no music please - I won't be able to hear it.

The sermon is concluded.

[Jerome]

I don't know how I managed to steer this thread towards insurance companies & burials but it's one of my bad habits. Like Ruby said - mercurial to a fault.

SO... returning to Facebook and all that that entails. Love to know how much they make out of advertising revenue. We'll never know the true figure but I am curious. Any ideas anyone?

[CRAZY-HORSE]

to answer your question Jerome.

this article says USD-$102 Billion last year: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-29/f...n/12402062.

[Ruby]

^^FB is heavily laden with click bait and utter rubbish that you can’t stop from appearing. However, their VoiP is infinitely superior I find. Messenger is a useful app - I can chat to a friend in New Zealand, for example, with no annoying delays whereas other apps are nowhere near as stable or as fast. I take what I want from it and leave the rest – don't buy into it heavily and don’t spend much time at all on the platform. It’s definitely passé with the younger crowd, none of which seems to be negatively affecting Mr Z’s revenue stream!

As to insurance – my clients who had a landslide at their property are now heading into a lawsuit with the insurers who’ve repudiated the claim based on spurious facts and nitpicking over policy wording, all of which one might be forgiven for imagining is where the broker should step up and justify the fee he’s been claiming as a reward for advising them as to their requirements for the past fifteen years. Nope. The broker has gone to ground, they’ve had to hire a public loss adjuster at a phenomenal hourly rate, and a very pricey attorney to fight their cause, and there is still a massive boulder lodged in what was once the back door - good thing the house is vacant. I have learned a thing or two! On the flip side of the coin though, had I not had any insurance when my house caught alight some time back, I’d have been in serious trouble. I might have been the reason everyone’s premiums went up that year – a blaze, several burglaries, and a vehicle incident! The insurance company wanted to fire me I was such a bad risk - 2020 pales in comparison, lol!

[CRAZY-HORSE]

spoke to one of my stepdaughters yesterday,
they use Tik-Tok, Twitter and SnapChat to get social messaging across
rarely going on FB now