Are Poles suspicious of Facebook?

This is hilarious. I've lived in Poland (4 years ago) but never realized exactly how private polish people are until a Facebook marketing experiment.

Basically I've made two facebook profiles of hot girls of different political persuasions (one conservative and one liberal) and I've had no problem adding people through them. Guys accept my friend requests because they think they are adding a hot woman, and women accept them because they are flattered by a request from what they think is a hot woman. when I make a political post as either, both get fairly good engagement (likes, comments, shares, etc..) This is part of a proactive blogging experiment where instead of blogging and hoping people get to your page, you build a fan base virally on facebook with political status updates, and only then do you set up a blog for the people who already follow you to read and generate traffic.

I recently tried to make a fake polish profile for another experiment, and the results were disastrous.

I got a very attractive friend to let me use pictures of her to be the "hot polish girl" and tried to add polish women that commented on the facebook pages of polish brands relating to the experiment.

Firstly, whreas women from america, and other parts of the world often had public profiles, or semi-public, most polish profiles are locked up solid. You get their profile picture and facebook name and that's it.

Whereas under my other aliases I had no problem building up a friend's list of over 500 within a week, after three weeks, my polish profile has only had THREE friend requests accepted out of HUNDREDS!!

My friend requests to these people have gotten me reported to facebook and blocked numerous times, I've received messages telling me to f*ck off (even from men!) or just checking if they know me first.

Is there some kind of cultural explanation? Are poles really that private in general, or are they suspicious of facebook in particular? I know from years ago that poles used nasza klasa [sic] instead of facebook but is this really still going on (are poles generally not that into facebook?)

Cheers.

Obviously one can't generalise since not all Poles are the same, but generally people are quite suspicious and also guard their privacy. But not everyone.

On facebook it's worth having the maximum privacy settings for a shed load of reasons.

maybe they are not as desperate for "friends" as the yanks

Some of them have the full 500.

Indeed generalizations can be misleading, but the attitude is so different compared not only to americans, but other western europeans, south americans, etc, that I feel like I've come up against a cultural trait.

What a interesting life you must live.

Have a great day brother :)

Well...yes it actually is a very interesting job, this Facebook experiment being just one small part of it.

As for my life outside of work - brother you have no idea :)

It's a nice try to convince us that you get paid for trolling on Facebook lol, only wonder how many fake accounts you have on this forums, get a life

Seriously, you have made up 3 (that you've told us about) profiles on Facebook. That is against the terms and conditions for a start. But really, if you are going to accept friend requests from random strangers you are either a)a fake profile yourself looking for "friends" b)someone who is wanting to boost their list or c)not caring at all about your privacy. I have a relatively open profile but I only accept people I know and I am careful about what I post!

Maybe your little experiment (OP) says that Polish people are using facebook properly, unlike you who is playing the system.

I joined this forum back in 08 when I moved to Poland and contributed productively to this forum since (though I don't come around much these days.). I understand the reaction from some of you that think it's scandalous and sleezy to have fake profiles to do 'marketing' but it's just a fact of internet life, I never thought it was very effective but this latest venture has been great, it's all just advertising.

As for me getting a life...please don't allow your lack of information about what I actually do, make a troll of you.

I'll be honest that I could care less about the terms and conditions when it comes to doing something that hurts no one. The terms and conditions are violated every day by almost every active Facebook user.

People accepting friend requests from strangers is strange to me too, I don't do it myself, but I've come to learn that MANY people do this, especially when it's from a pretty girl (male and female).

Through one profile I've made I've been able to facebook friend influential local politicians, conservative radio pundits with huge social media reach, and have them respond to blog posts on social issues via the fake profile. That's pretty amazing, it wouldn't have happened had I friend requested them from a male account.


You're absolutely right, I wasn't complaining about it, but I was surely surprised by the completely different mentality of polish users. You are also right that I am playing the system, but this is simply one of many 'marketing' tactics used on all of us on a daily basis.

I (as a Polish person) signed up for a Facebook account. Posted 10 messages, 4 of them were flagged and eventually removed because they didn't meet the "community standards." All they did was to present a different (factual) viewpoint. I don't know who and why would spend time on FB. If you want to self-censor yourself, FB is your friend. Anything else.. there are fewer and fewer places free.

Apparently the suspicious Poles were right:

Facebook on trial for 'censorship' in Poland

"Warsaw (AFP) - A Polish court held a first hearing Wednesday in a case brought against Facebook by a historian who claims the tech giant engaged in "censorship" by suspending accounts that had posted about a nationalist rally in Warsaw.

The case comes as major tech firms like Facebook and Twitter have been introducing new measures for stamping out extremist content and closing down misinformation on the internet, under growing pressure from governments pushing for action."

news.yahoo.com/facebook-trial-censorship-poland-173914861.html

Poles are suspicious of everything...

Having been geo-politically located between Russia and Germany, who is to blame them ;)

It's not just of other nations poles are suspicious of each other and many western inventions too like microwaves for example. We also tend to be quite superstitious. There's also a sort of attitude especially amongst the prl generation where they feel like everyone is going to screw them over and they always have their guard up. Poles are cwaniaki so its understandable.

Facebook is just another faction of the fake news MSM and they will ban you for thought crimes.

Through supposed 'news items' on Facebook I have had my computer infected with threats of viruses and scams with 'please ring this number as your computer is infected.' The number is to some individual who wanted access to my i/d and passwords. Do not click on any items of news or adverts on Facebook.

I'm not suspicious of Facebook at all.

As a coder I'm fully aware that is a tool for extracting information and big data analysis :-)

The choice is all yours: you can sacrifice your privacy and sell (or rather give away for free) your sensitive data in sake of convenience or not.

Why would anybody have a Facebook account? To get richer? To get laid? What?
Or to feed that "look at me" mental disorder?

Shameless people don't need Facebook to do that as a forum seems to be sufficient in accomplishing that goal.

...the implication being that I am the only one in that category and everybody else posts here as a public service and an act of altruism?

@Rich Mazur, altruism is just a higher, and more sublime form, of egoism ;-)

If you take a look at the list of a famous hmm altruists, you're see that for most of them their ekhem altruism has paid off handsomely in a form of a substantial material gain.

The brightest example in Poland is Owsiak and his charity scheme.

I totally agree. We give mostly to feel good and do it overtly. Very few do it anonymously. That is why I never gave anybody or any institution a dime. Food - yes, money - no way.

As with much ("anti-")social media nowadays, I consider Facebook, along with Twitter, to be a consummate waste of valuable time, both intellectual as well as social! Plain verbal flatulence, I call it.

Zuckerberg's a fraud and Assange can't be that far behind:-) When prodigy types start behaving like adults rather than children, I'll start to sit up and take notice.

Not really. He openly admits that Facebook is a personal data mining operation. To be more successful, he made it addictive.

If you consider that successful.

Ill-gotten gains benefit only the one who has the goods, and not those upon whom such gains are lavished.
Long ago, the super young and successful considered their youth as mere coincidence, their success as more of a burden to be nourished, above all, taken ultra-seriously.

The name Orson Welles comes to mind here; so young in his professional prime, and still, in comportment and demeanor, more like twenty-four going on almost fifty-four!

Zuckerberg, if you listen to him, any upcoming upstart nowadays sounds more like twenty-four going on fourteen....or lower.

I stopped using Facebook about 2 years ago. I had gotten the feeling of being spied on and it was very frustrating. Besides, my students constantly wanted me to like their silly sweet photos and it was even more frustrating. I gave up that nonsense.

Facebook is for two kinds of idiots. Those want everyone to know what they had for lunch and those who present they care.

Facebook is what you make it.
I use it to keep in touch with family and friends.
If you are sensible and know what you are doing it can be an enjoyable tool.
Pawian obviously "friended" his students.
Big mistake.
You should never mix your personal life with work or the outside world.

Don`t be silly again, you know nothing about teaching. Facebook is the best method of communication when you need to inform students about sth. All my colleagues use it. I also used it extensively when I was a form tutor for 4 classes in a row. Now I took a break so I don`t need it anymore.