Steve Harrison ([info]tochiro998) wrote,
2012-01-05 01:34:00
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To all my friends on FB

Ok, look, I know you wish I would join up, I would conform, I would 'reach' and live the so-called glory of Facebook.

I'm sorry, no. It's just evil and I KNOW it makes people just nuts.

And now, another reason why I won't. Scammers. Dig it, FB is doing something new and people change their minds, that 'Timeline' look, and guess what? YOU CAN'T GO BACK!

But people want to, and the scammers are out in full force to gank your private info as you seek to undo what can't be undone!

Read it!

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/dont-fall-victim-to-the-remove-timeline-facebook-scam/

Join me. Turn your back on Facebook, on Twitter, on Tumblr, on all those places that are made for people who need, CRAVE some kind of constant acknowledgement of their existence. You don't need that. You don't! Really you don't! It's a damn drug!

I'm just sayin'.

(Also, yes, some might kneejerk about where I'm pulling this from. Shut up, info is info. And feel free to ignore 98% of the comments there, there's a bunch of amazingly stupid and disconnected commentary going on just like at every other public access lightly modded place.)

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  • 25 comments

[info]davemerrill

January 5 2012, 13:27:46 UTC 4 months ago

Okay, now exactly how many people have begged you to join Facebook? I have this mental image of your mental image of you standing, arms folded, haughty expression, surrounded by people on their knees pleading for you to come to your senses and become one with the FB. "Not gonna do it! You can't make me!"

[info]tochiro998

January 5 2012, 15:45:51 UTC 4 months ago

It's about like that, yeah. Both overt and the subtle pressure of "Oh, everybody is leaving LJ because blah blah Russki hackers blah blah boring blah blah".

Oh, and let's not forget how business have decided that web sites are dead and have all gone to FB. "FRIEND US FRIEND US INCREASE OUR EYEBALLS!!!"

And of course those that have decided that FB doesn't ego-stroke ENOUGH they've gone to Twitter. Like the head of MediaBlasters. Maybe that's a de-facto acknowledgement that their website sucks donkey rocks.

Seriously, maybe not on bended knees but yeah.

[info]ferricide

January 5 2012, 18:03:25 UTC 4 months ago

ah, twitter is fun. you're making too much of a big deal out of this. fb can be annoying but it can also be good. as with anything it's largely based on around (a) whom you interact with and (b) how effectively you use it.

[info]tochiro998

January 5 2012, 18:33:28 UTC 4 months ago

Sez the guy who posts "boo-hoo-hoo nobody reads my stuff and leave comments"? Hmmm? :)

My posit is that FB and Twitter in a Pavlovian way build a dependency on that instant feedback, creating an 'attention addiction'. It also leads to amazingly thin skin and fragile ego states. In other words, it turns regular people into 14 year old emo girls.

I say this in a humorous way but I think it's true. Take a moment and think of people around you on the web and how they act, and how that's changed in just the past few years.

I agree at the core, hate the game, not the player. No tool is evil in and of itself, it's only the use it's put to that defines it. I get that. But it's also true that "what man creates, man corrupts" and..well, I said it all already, right? :)

[info]ferricide

January 5 2012, 19:22:52 UTC 4 months ago Edited:  January 5 2012, 19:23:00 UTC

yeah, it's not as if you don't have a point, but again, you just have to let yourself not fall into the trap. twitter is fun because when you have a few seconds you can just check it and get some nuggets, and sometimes those nuggets turn into great conversations, or meetings of new and interesting people. and it makes people whom you'd never found before but knew of much more directly accessible.

you also definitely find more clever/interesting links via it than any other online medium, in my experience. it's not all downside, in other words.

[info]davemerrill

January 5 2012, 22:31:56 UTC 4 months ago

I'm on both FB and Twitter and they each do things the other doesn't, and if I'm using either of them in some kind of ego-hatting LOOKA ME fashion, it's news to me. Hell, I have a Tumblr account and a G+. So what? They're free, and occasionally they come in handy. They are only as pathetic or as destructive or as obsessive or as distracting as you allow them to become. If you don't want to use them, it's not a big deal - people who think otherwise are fooling themselves.

By the way, that Livejournal account you had to be dragged kicking and screaming into using? You're welcome.

[info]tochiro998

January 6 2012, 00:41:22 UTC 4 months ago

Yes, I know and thank you. Wasn't *quite* kicking and screaming, ya know, I was getting around to it. I was! Really!

If'n I didn't appreciate it would I still be using it? Unlike my pathetic MySpace page which is utterly useless.

That was supposed to open up a whole new world of contacts and stuff too, remember?

[info]dmlou

January 5 2012, 14:51:52 UTC 4 months ago

Meh, I use facebook, but I don't use it all that heavily. I basically post pictures of my dog and cosplayers on my FB account and that's mostly it.

[info]dvancleve

January 5 2012, 18:00:29 UTC 4 months ago

My own take is that you're not missing very much in the way of a unique experience, Steve.
Facebook, Tumbler, Twitter, G+ . . . what'll be next?

When it comes to available methods for communicating, "old-fashioned" email works just fine, and can you believe that some folks don't even use Mobile phones, eek!

Even 'ol Russki-tastic LJ does well for what it is intended :)

Anonymous

January 5 2012, 20:11:48 UTC 4 months ago

Sigh. I know what you're missing, and you don't. FB is no different from any communication medium. If you go in looking for the best, you will find it. It's enriched my life in ways I never imagined, and given me access to experiences I could find nowhere else. But it's your choice and your loss. -Tim E

[info]tochiro998

January 5 2012, 21:13:51 UTC 4 months ago

Well, except, note that you can say this to me even though you're not signed on LJ, while I can't even LOOK at your FB page unless I sign up. I kinda see that as a great negative, as the entire point of the Web was opening communication, not walling it off.

But then, as everyone knows, I'm crazy. :)

Anonymous

January 6 2012, 20:13:50 UTC 4 months ago

Not crazy, just self-defeatingly stubborn sometimes. (Tim again)

[info]guyhatesyou

January 6 2012, 00:33:05 UTC 4 months ago

"...those places that are made for people who need, CRAVE some kind of constant acknowledgement of their existence."

Yep that totally excludes on LiveJournal

[info]tochiro998

January 6 2012, 00:44:53 UTC 4 months ago

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Yeah but funny, that seems to have died down quite a bit since the advent of Twitter, hasn't it?

What next, a service that only allows messages of under 80 characters? or, I've got it, a service that ONLY allows LINKS! Linkbombing on a MASSIVE scale would occur, and soon 90% of the links would be to pron sites and spam and scams!

Naaaa. :)

[info]dvancleve

January 6 2012, 22:31:11 UTC 4 months ago

I sometimes forget the many different social networking sites out there:

Bebo
Friendster (possibly defunct)
Hi5
LinkedIn (for professional use... mostly)
Orkut
PeekYou (seems to be pretty new)

Judging by the Wikipedia entry on "social networking", I see that's barely scratching the surface. "Ning" is tha last one I heard of (it sounded interesting to a friend, and it seemed to offer more exclusivity. Also offers paid membership services -- as doe LJ :)

[info]tochiro998

January 6 2012, 23:05:58 UTC 4 months ago

Because everyone wants to be the next MySpace...er, Facebook....er, Twitter...

As I mentioned during the Ninja Consultants podcast (and it might be cut out), it's human nature to seek out others of a like mind, then find ways to exclude people so 'your' people are more elite than the others.

Me, I've got enough going on online, I don't need to have parts of conversation with people stretched out over 20 sites.

[info]lordmappy37

January 7 2012, 09:47:31 UTC 4 months ago

I have a Facebook but I never bother using it because I find that site terribly depressing. I also stay away from it because I dislike the idea of an employer or relative or schoolmate or door-to-door salesman or whatever the fuck looking me up.

I also have both a Tumblr and a Twitter account that I use sporadically. Nobody pays attention to me wherever I am, so the Pavlovian qualities of those sites are lost on me. I think the ego-centric, short-attention span thing is less a byproduct of sites like that than a representation of how the culture in general has become. It just depends on how you use those kind of things.

I actually kind of dig twitter. I probably spend more time thinking out short but sweet bon mots there than I do in long-winded journal entries. It's like paring down all the excess to just the simple, succinct point.

[info]tochiro998

January 7 2012, 17:17:50 UTC 4 months ago

I can see that, and of course, like I said, a tool is useful if one uses it properly.

But I do tend to think that this is a case of an activity re-enforcing a pattern of behavior. I think all that 'like' and 'following' stuff, wanting more people to 'like' you or 'follow' you just becomes an addiction. Total strangers just clicking a button to enhance THEIR stats or gain some credit. Remember the days of Usenet and how some came to boast of their post counts? As if that actually MATTERED?

I agree with you if what you are saying is that the world as a whole seems to be turning thin skinned and ADD. Especially the thin skinned, triumph of emotion over reason that we see in evidence all over. It's quite annoying actually. And see, with that comment it shows how even I am affected! I shouldn't be annoyed! I shouldn't give a crap!

Anonymous

January 7 2012, 17:57:40 UTC 4 months ago

You really should just order the damn bison. (Tim again)

[info]tochiro998

January 7 2012, 22:51:51 UTC 4 months ago

But I did that you know. And didn't I send you a pic of me pigging out on pasta with Dave and his family?

I think Dave was rather startled I did that. :)

(and it was very decent spaghetti. Still a bit too much garlic for my liking in the sauce but the pasta was cooked perfectly.)

Anonymous

January 9 2012, 01:45:03 UTC 4 months ago

Exactly! You tried something new and liked it! A much more positive way to live your life. (Tim again again)

[info]tochiro998

January 9 2012, 03:07:42 UTC 4 months ago

Ah, but if you had tried to force me to eat the bison burger with all the gunk, I would have been forced to leave. And I eat pasta all the time, just I prefer it the way I make it and no place matches that. I'm just glad Ted's Montanta Grill (in Atlanta. Seriously, if you're in Atlanta go there. It's really good. Nice atmosphere and reasonable prices.) was sensible and don't do the garlic butter fries or anything foolish.

See? You only think you know me. I be complicated. :)

Anonymous

January 9 2012, 04:07:10 UTC 4 months ago

I see, so your point is that something should be thoroughly (perhaps personally) investigated in order to get a thorough understanding and judge it fairly? Couldn't agree more, my friend. Couldn't agree more. (Tim)

[info]tochiro998

January 9 2012, 06:22:12 UTC 4 months ago

Leavened with common sense, and history of course.

One does not have to jump off the bridge to know that it's not a good idea.

Anonymous

January 9 2012, 17:42:28 UTC 4 months ago

Sigh. I've never met anyone who fought against life as hard as you do.
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