[nfbwatlk] Facebook Frustrations

[Humberto Avila]

I couldn't agree more, Debbie. We are living in a generation where social
media is part of our lives, like it or not. There are so many things that we
could do with social media these days. There is the professional side of the
social media spectrum, with sites like linkedIn and others that allow you to
network with other people to find employment. There are also sites to
entertain and at the same socialize people, like Facebook, twitter, and even
a new site call Pinterest. Believe it or not, these sites, especially
Facebook and Twitter, have many users whose primary goal is to use those
sites to allow just another way of communication. The NFB has a Facebook
page, so does probably ACB, the AFB, and many other organizations targeted
at specific people. Then many artists have social media pages and accounts. 
Just like e-mail was the fashion about 5 or even 8 years ago, communicating
on social networks like Facebook is quite the norm and a wave that is
hitting everywhere. Trust me, I'm not one of those teenagers or young adults
who spend so many hours sending videos or links or messages or wall posts on
Facebook to so many friends even at 3 in the morning. While I do use
Facebook, I stay in moderation. I do read books, and use e-mail for many
tasks like school and communicating with people in a private manner. But
Facebook has opened up another tool in my toolbox for communication for
those who I care or trust. 
I do also support fundraising for the NFB and its programs and attending
events for those fundraisers is always great. But for people who are always
tech savvy and want technology everywhere like me can use Facebook or
another online tool such as the Google Calendar in gMail or Google Plus to
plan events and remind people who are interested on the events via that
network or online communication or a simple text message, which most of the
online platforms I mention offer--send texts for free to a mobile phone. 

As to the problem of Facebook thinking that there is suspicious activity on
a user's account, if I were Christine, I  wouldn't know how to respond to
the "verify your pictures" thing. Of course this is so inaccessible to us
the blind with no question. I would complain to Facebook, and push for more
accessibility when these things arise. I can understand  organizations such
as the NFB are probably going to set priorities over petition for Facebook
accessibility on all its sites versus fixing employer's attitudes about
blindness in America. They'll probably go the second rout more often that
the first one. However, blind people are also using these sites, so, if we,
including myself and Christine, want to use these sites as flawlessly as a
sighted person, we need to push for the accessibility ourselves and put all
the leg work it takes. If so many blind people are using Facebook and are
reporting the same problem Christine is having, then it might be fair to say
that a nonprofit organization such as NFB should be able to vote upon the
accessibility of the Facebook site in regards to what you can do to restore
accounts flagged as hacked or suspicious of some evil activity done on that
site.

Just my personal humble opinion, for what it's worth.

Cheers,
Humberto

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of debby phillips
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 7:08 PM
To: NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfbwatlk] Facebook Frustrations

But Mike, lots of my sighted friends don't email anymore, or very 
much.  They do Facebook.  I even got a wedding invitation via 
Facebook.  Sheesh!  Den't people send out wedding invitations 
aoymore?  Crazy!    Peace,    Debby

_______________________________________________
nfbwatlk mailing list
nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbwatlk_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
nfbwatlk:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbwatlk_nfbnet.org/avila.bert.humberto2%4
0gmail.com