There are a lot of myths surrounding Facebook, which make people suspicious about subscribing to it.  You might think your identity will be stolen, you will be bombarded with unwanted spam, retailers will target you with adverts, random people will be able to see your private information, etc., etc.  Our Publicity Secretary, Ferne Langdon, has been using Facebook for 10 years plus and none of this has happened. 

Ferne says:

"We currently have around 160 members in our Facebook group.  That’s a small percentage of our total membership.  We would like to encourage more members to join as we want to use the platform more and more to get information out to members.  It's very handy for making members aware of last minute changes to trips, reminders about upcoming events, for example. The group is open to members of Worcester u3a only.

I use Facebook to keep up to date with what is happening in Worcester. I decided to join various Worcester-based community groups, most of which are closed groups that require a request to join. These groups, like our own Worcester u3a Facebook group, are carefully monitored and anyone posting anything that contravenes the group’s rules will be removed from the group.  I also use these groups’ Facebook pages to promote Worcester u3a and our upcoming events.

To use Facebook, you do have to create an account with an email address.  My username is my first and middle names.  My surname is not displayed.  You will also be asked for your date of birth because you have to be at least 13 years old to join – and your choice of gender.  After that, everything is optional.

Facebook will want you to complete your new profile by uploading a photo for your profile (mine is a picture of a cat) and a cover photo, entering the names of schools or colleges you attended, where you live and so on. You are not obliged to do any of this. Your profile photo could be a cartoon character.

You do not have to acquire 'friends'.  You will get suggestions for people to add as 'friends' but I just ignore them.

You do not have to post anything.  You could, for example, just join the Worcester u3a Facebook group to see the latest posts.  You will see that members sometimes post 'Happy Birthday' messages to fellow members but this is entirely voluntary!

Facebook's Privacy menu can limit who can see your posts if you do make any, your profile, and more. Setting every option to 'Only Me' will make your Facebook profile completely private. You can also set up reminders to update your privacy settings using the Privacy Checkup tool."

Please consider joining the group, following Ferne's advice above if you are joining Facebook specifically for this purpose only. Click on the button below to go to our Facebook page. If you do not yet have a Facebook account you will be able to set one up.