Is it just me being a Scrooge?

System

Do I detect a lot of bitterness in this thread?

DavidF

geoffky wrote: »

I was today the worlds worst parent...
My 15yrs old has wrecked three laptops after continually picking them up by the screen and breaking the hinges.
So she got a reconditioned hp laptop this xmas...And she told me it was crap and was not using it...

Well i just went and password protected mine and the wifes laptops and guess who is online on a hp laptop as we speak?

Personally im horrified that a 15yo can't easily get round any password protection that you set up......showing a lack of tech understanding there....i would get down the school after the holidays and demand more attention to it matters...at 15 she really should have a usb stick with all sorts of password crackers and the like on there lol.:D

Goldiegirl

Saturnalia wrote: »

My parents took photos of my sister and me opening things, but I don't think the photos were shown to other people (since we were in bedwear at the time). Course those days were different, you had to live life in the moment not through the lens.

I think that's a very good point.


Up until the advent of digital photography and the internet, photos were something very special. Due to the cost of film and developing, you generally only took photos on important occasions and you valued the images, as you literally only had 'one shot' at them.


Nowdays, due to the ease of digital photography, everything some people do is recorded through the lens, and immediately 'shared'.


I enjoy using my camera and iPad myself. On Christmas Eve, I used my iPad to take pictures of the Christmas tree and other decorations, but I didn't feel the need to 'share' with all and sundry. I took the photos because I might like to look back, 20 years from now, to remember what Christmas was like in 2013.


I'm not saying the case for everyone, but I can't help thinking that a lot of this Facebook 'sharing' is to reassure the person posting the pictures that they have, in their opinion at least, an interesting life, that they think other people want to know about

DavidF

Oh also just wanted to say I understand both sides of the post pics on facebook thing. Basically 1 side wants to show friends and family that they have "finished" their xmas prep. Some may want to show family friends "their" gifts to them around the tree ect. Others are just keeping up obviously this does happen.
My thoughts are family and friends all ok - openly showing bundle of gifts on facebook for me is a no-no. Anyone looking in may think oh he/she lives at number 20 blaH street and they are out at 8 am every morning.....think I will put their place on the to do list.....sad I know but in these times with desperate people around we need to take privacy and security seriously. Also the reverse effect for putting kids expensive stuff up for view - it could make them a target for the have nots if they take expensive stuff to school....there is always a flipside.

brunettifan

I can't help but wonder why, if their pics/posts irritate people have them as friends?

I have just spent a lovely hour looking at FB's pics of friends and family; tots unwrapping a big cage containing a puppy, the wonder on their faces was fabulous, A three old in Australia on the beach yesterday, and pics from SA of a friend with her four sons who have been spread around the world this year and who are all back home for Christmas.

And, yes, pics of food and piles of presents, I was boring/sad and only posted a pic before Christmas of my newly foliaged and Christmas candled Mantelpiece, it took me ages to do and I was so pleased with the results I posted for my friends to see it.

I simply wouldn't have as friends on FB anyone whose pics I wouldn't want to see.

FatVonD

paulineb wrote: »

I quite like useful presents. In the past my mum has bought me five litres of shampoo or she's bought it and we've halved it. I asked for a onesie this year. I also got stuff I hadnt asked for obviously but when you are skint which I am a lot of the time presents you can use are good. Nothing wrong with some fancy things either but I tend to know what my family will like or won't and vice versa.

I too like useful presents, I'd far rather a big box of tea bags (not that anyone has ever bought me any) than a bottle of body lotion that will end up in the charity shop.

When I worked somewhere that did secret Santa I would tell everyone that whoever got me was to buy me a pair of opaque black tights from M&S rather than a box of chocolates or a novelty toilet roll that I don't want

brunettifan

I have bought a lot of useful or needed gifts this year. I have found that if you try to be too creative you often get it wrong.

paulineb_2

I came home with all my presents, but loads of stuff my mum gave me, she gets presents throughout the year and shes grateful for them, but she had 4 bottles of perfume and shes not a perfume person, but I am so thankfully received.

My brother bought me a sports water bottle and other stuff as well, I actually usually get him some fitness stuff as hes a PT, but it was my turn this year. Plus some chocs, he got me a bottle of wine as well and one I knew exactly what it would be before I opened it,was a T shirt from the local football club shop.

My mum, I bought her some art stuff as shes quite arty, some wine, a teach yourself arabic set as she speaks a few languages (didnt realise she actually had it, but shes mislaid the book so was happy to get it again, that was bargain of the century at 2 quid down from 40).

I dont really use facebook a lot during the year and the thing is, if peoples pics do irritate others, you can always hide the newsfeed. I buy what I can afford for people, buy what I think they will like and I dont have the cash to really splash out, its a quiet time for me and mine, but other peoples experiences will be different.

geminilady

Saturnalia wrote: »

Don't make assumptions.

I grew up in a family with not much money. There were no luxuries throughout the year and any request was met with no. But Christmas was a blast, because my parents lived on next to nothing and saved hard all year, then Christmas and the summer holiday were always a big deal. My sister and I each had a Santa Sack the size of a mailbag which we placed on the armchairs before bed, and come morning the presents would fill the bag and the chair! In fact it's only been in the last couple of years they have scaled it down.

My parents took photos of my sister and me opening things, but I don't think the photos were shown to other people (since we were in bedwear at the time). Course those days were different, you had to live life in the moment not through the lens.

My family was the same we had very little during the year and birthdays were just one present but they went to town at Christmas

paulineb_2

My brother got a framed pic that the new Dr Who, peter capaldi drew for him when he was about 8, my mum used to teach beside his dad in law, he got other presents but that was the one he was most pleased with, being a bit of a sci fi geek and a cat lover, the pic was of Peter Capaldis cat.

My mum paid to have it framed, cost her about 20 quid or so. Funny the things that make someone happy.