Info for Facebook newbies

If you are NOT already on Facebook, read on...

In order to read anyone's Facebook messages you need to join Facebook.
Once you have signed up, you can view information from other people,
which they have agreed to share; and other people can see information
from you, which you have agreed to share. The hawksmoor77 group is 
"closed" so it can only be viewed by the Group members.

You probably think that Facebook is just part of the general social
media rubbish that pervades everything now ... and this is true; Im
really glad Im not at school now and having to participate in it as a
teenager. It must be horrible!   But Facebook is whatever you want it to
be, and if you JUST want to join to read Hawksmoor posts and make
contact with a few people from your past, that's fine. Youre not FORCED
to have any "friends"; youre not FORCED to "like" a million cute cat
videos; youre not FORCED to give a running commentary on what youve had
for breakfast each day; and youre not FORCED to receive millions of
notifications by email about what your Facebook friends (should you have
any) have just done.  You just need to follow a few simple precautions
to protect your privacy...

1. Dont provide any information that you do not wish to provide - you do
NOT have to say where you live, who you work for or where you went to
school! You do NOT need to provide a photo. Facebook will pester you to
do all of these things, but you do NOT have to.

2. When you sign up, Facebook will ask you for your date of birth, email
address and (possibly) a mobile phone number (so they can send you a
text asking you to confirm your id). But you can "hide" all this
information so that nobody else can see it.

3. Make sure you choose a really strong password and that it is NOT the
same as any of your other passwords. If youre not sure about this, try
Googling for "How to make a secure password" or go to
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Secure-Password

4. After youve signed up, Facebook will helpfully prompt you if it
thinks you might not know what youre doing - including checking your
privacy settings. If you want to be sure about your privacy, go to 
https://www.facebook.com/about/basics and scroll to the bottom of that
page where there is a link to something like "Privacy Checkup". That
will run through some key settings where you can double-check that your
email, phone and d.o.b. are hidden from everyone ... unless, of course,
you WANT them to be visible - but really: you do NOT want them to be
visible!

5. If you find you are receiving too many emails from Facebook, go into
your settings, under "notifications", and switch them off. If you
receive unwanted "friend" requests, just ignore them.

It wont be long before you succumb and view a cute cat video!  
I thought the skateboarding dog was amazing.  Aaaagh!

David Gibson. March 2017.