Regarding Facebook, Twitter, and other passing fads

[Cyrano]

My guess is that no one will admit to their future grandchildren that they ever had a Facebook or Twitter account. That's assuming that their future grandchildren are even aware that such things as Facebook or Twitter ever existed.

Perhaps I'm missing some crucial gene, but I fail to understand how anyone could or would want to have anything to do with either of these entities.

Ego is one thing, but Facebook takes ego into the realm of the surreal.

And as for Twitter, I'm sure that if the world were going to end tonight, I'd hear about it without the need of a tweet.

Okay, that's my opinion regarding Facebook and Twitter. I've donned my flame-proof suit and am ready for the attacks. But be sure to print out and save your attacks on me for those unborn grandchildren. And don't be surprised when they laugh at you.

[benddem]

1. mine too

I cannot understand why people post the things they do on facebook....and I'm simply not interested in someone having a tuna fish salad.

[snot]

76. I'm afraid people are missing the BIG problem:

I think social media would all be fabulous, except for one thing: users are basically creating for their gov'l & corp. masters the greatest top-down surveillance system ever.

It's already being used against us.

For this reason alone, I am NOT on myspace or facebook, and I am EXTREMELY cautious about what info I put about myself online.

[Cyrano]

84. Yep, you've got it. Why do they have to spy on us when we're giving it away?

[Telly Savalas]

108. Oh no! The CIA may know that I had a bad morning because I ran out of coffee?

Maybe I should buy some guns move to rural Idaho.

[anigbrowl]

109. Oh yeah, I'm sure they're really interested in the results of my 'which movie are you' quiz

Thank god I can post my REAL beliefs at DU where nobody will eavesdrop on them.

[villager]

2. As a writer, I've found both useful...

(and Facebook handy for finding old friends), but I understand the critique about the solipsism, too...

[Tangerine LaBamba]

20. I'm a writer, too,

and I would like to know how you find them useful in your work.

[NeedleCast]

21. I'm Not a Writer, but

in regard to FaceBook, I know many writers have "fan" pages that seem to be useful. As an avid reader, with friends who read as well, we often share books we've enjoyed via FaceBook (and a particular FaceBook application called WeRead). I've been introduced to quite a few new writers via my friends FaceBook pages and literary suggestions.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

26. I do that, too..............

Always have, all my life. In what we call "conversations," either on the phone, or in letters or email. Or, oddly enough, in person.

Been doing it for decades now. It's worked out nicely.

What's the advantage of Facebook, besides the fact that anyone who wants to can call him/herself a "writer" and start (oh, dear!) "fan pages"? That sounds more like an exercise in ego enhancement than anything else, and not very interesting.

So, it's just another way of swapping stories about good books? That's good, then, but it's not a new thing.

I'm curious about what these entities add to the human experience. So far, besides the obvious one of locating old friends, relatives, and the like, I don't see anything new.

[NeedleCast]

43. Well, it is a new thing

Its a new thing in the way that Cable internet is different from 14.4k Dial up. They'll both get you to the internet, but with one you don't have to wait a half hour for a one meg file to download.

Of course you're right, telephone conversations, E-mail, letters, in person, they're all possible forms of communication but so are socail networking sites. The onus of a lot of these anti-social networking posts seem to be that they're not a legitimiate way because they're a new way.

I know one of the "get out the vote" organizations I voluonteered for during the primaries and election used FaceBook and Twitter to help coordinate our efforts. It was cheaper and faster than cell phone calls in many cases and - while you may not consider that it adds to the human experience - it was fun...and sometimes it's okay for something to just be fun.

The advantage to FaceBook is that it allows me to share something with a lot of people in a short period of time and for me to gain their insight as well. For my particular little reading circle - informal as it may be - it's just a quick way to share thoughts on books, authors, etc. Also a way to find people with a shared interest...and I find that enjoyable as well.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

55. I think it's great -

It has no place in my life, since I move at a different pace than the rest of the world, but I like finding out how it's being utilized in ways other than the idiotic swill I've seen in a lot of places - as with anything, there's a lot of nonsense but also a lot of substance.

I wonder, though, if the illusion of intimacy, that feeling of being connected simply on the basis of sharing hard data, is not in some ways going to have effects on how we handle ourselves in the real world.

For instance, there is a whole generation - maybe two - that doesn't know that sweet anticipation of waiting for a letter from a friend or a lover. Things are so fast, so instantaneous, and, I think, so much is lost.

Thanks for the explanation. Much appreciated ..............

[NeedleCast]

70. Think About the Phone

Or, phone communication as a whole. It's really sort of the same thing. You, I, anyone else would probably not be interested in the HUGE majority of everything that passes over copper or air connections. I kind of look at FaceBook and social networking the same way.

I do understand your point about more traditional methods of communication but at the same time, new methods don't negate the old ones. My mom still writes letters and I still enjoy getting them. However, if my mom needed to get ahold of me right now, I'm glad there are other methods avaliable now.

I'm a big music fan, and I love to go to my local, independantly owned music store and rummage through used CDs (and you can't beat 4 CDs for 20 dollars...). The owner is a cool guy who is a virtual database of music and you never know who you'll run into there. At the same time, I also like to use I-Tunes to find new music because it's a quick, easy way for me to link things I know and like to things I don't know but might like...

[Goblinmonger]

89. You know you sound really old in that post.

Like the kind of person that would bitch about the telegraph. You like conversations on the phone. Great. Others like to get twitter feeds from their friends. Why is your technology inherently better than theirs?

[Name removed]

96. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

98. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

41. Goodreads.com is like facebook for books

[villager]

24. keeping in touch with other writers, news from the field, research queries. etc..

Now -- would my writing be the same if I wasn't on either FB or Twitter?

Perhaps.

But I find them handy for keeping in touch/news-gathering reasons... (I'm also a journalist, and have been given interesting links on Twitter...)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

28. Different from the phone,

email, lunches, dinners, social occasions, meetings?

As a novelist, I find my solitude most valuable, but all the things you mention can be accomplished by other media. So, what's new with FB and Twitter?

[villager]

30. Yes, different, since a lot of these writer friends (for example)

...are scattered all over the country, so no lunches or dinners, except for certain occasions...

Different than emails -- quicker, usually. Also, you can broadcast queries, for example, and get them re-"broadcast" (or "re-Tweeted") if you need to find something out, find someone...

By no means am I insisting people *should* do these things, but they have their virtual role to play. At least, until the whole paradigm implodes, the grid falls, and we're all out in the garden!

For me -- also a novelist (for young folks) -- I am aware of allowing certain intrusions on that necessary solitude. But as a journalist, when on deadline, I conversely like the connectivity...

[Tangerine LaBamba]

52. Thank you ...............

That's a whole different universe from the one I inhabit, so it's always enlightening to see how other vistas function.

Thanks for the explanation, and good luck ..........................

[villager]

58. you too... fellow scribe!

:hi:

[wickerwoman]

40. I've moved every 3-4 years of my adult life

so face-to-face is impractical for most of my friends. And Facebook includes e-mail. It also includes a lot of stuff you wouldn't want to bother your friends about in an e-mail but they can check out if they're interested.

The best thing about Facebook for me is cannibalizing other people's pages for interesting groups to join, games to play (some of them donate to charities if you give all your friends flowers, etc.), tidbits you can talk to them about.

I'm pretty socially retarded and can never think of anything to say. If I'm going to meet up with my friend who I haven't seen in four or five years, I can take a look at her Facebook page, see that she's had two kids, went to Hawaii last fall, saw x,y,z movies, likes such and such band. Bang... plenty of material and conversation starters. Before facebook it was much harder to get beyond "how are you? good, how are you? good."

And in my last company we spent almost fourteen months trying to hire someone for a particular position and had no promising candidates. I went on Facebook, saw that someone had posted on one of my friend's walls that they were looking for a job in the city I worked in. I emailed them and asked for their resume and we ended up finally hiring her. That never would have happened with e-mail.

[JerseygirlCT]

46. I hate the phone, myself

Do not enjoy phone conversations at all.

And email can be pretty limited.

I've had some terrific impromptu conversations on FB - wouldn't happen with a one on one email exchange.

And if your friends are not in your immediate area, the chances of spending much time in person get slim.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

56. Is a conversation on FB

like an IM conversation?

[JerseygirlCT]

66. A little maybe

(not a big IMer, either. I think I like to freedom to communicate when I want to, not on someone else's schedule, you know?)

Back and forth - but it might have to wait until the other person is logged on. But you actually can do that live chat via FB, too. I've used that for more private and immediate conversations when both parties are online.

But as I've said, I think I'm biased toward written communications. I like being able to think a bit about what's said, and I like being able to revisit what I'm reading. It's a bit like saving letters from people you care about, you know?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

82. Yeah, I do know,

and it's a terrible loss that so many youngsters today are going to grow up and live their lives without that sweet packet of letters tucked away on a shelf in a closet.

So to speak.

Thank you for enlightening me ...................

[JuniperLea]

3. Me! Me! Me! Me! Me!

[NeedleCast]

4. Lots of Luddites Out Today

That damn internet, providing new and inventive ways to complain...about the internet.

[JuniperLea]

6. How does not liking Twitter...

Yet posting about it elsewhere in the 'Tubes make one a luddite? That doesn't make sense at all. I don't like FreeRepublic either, does that make me a luddite?

[NeedleCast]

12. It's a general failure to understand the technology

Like I said in the other "OMG TWITTER SUCKS" thread today, it's how you use that technlogy that's important. There's a ton of shit no one would care about on Twitter, Facebook, all the social networking sites. I don't give a shit that Joe from Portland had a Coke because I don't know Joe from Portland. But I might care if he was my buddy.

Same thing goes with just about any peice of technology. I don't give a shit about 99.9% of the web sites on the internet. I don't give a shit about 99.9% of the stuff on Twitter and FaceBook. Just like anything else, I ignore the stuff I don't care about and focus on the stuff I do care about.

You are comparing apples to oranges. OP is not talking about the difference between DU and FR, but intead attacking the technologies as a whole. It's like saying the jet engine is a useless bit of technology which only contributes to the polution of the Earth becasue you never fly anywhere.


And there's also the fact that history provides us with plenty of examples of people ranting on about how this or that was a useless fad and that no one would care about it in short order.

Like Rock and Roll
Like the personal computer
Like the internet...

[JuniperLea]

22. then you need to look up luddite

because you used it incorrectly.

i think twitter sucks, and it's not because i don't understand it.

i compared twitter to fr, not du. a luddite wouldn't use either... that was my point. you compared apples to oranges because you referred to anyone who didn't like twitter to a luddite. anyone reading this, by definition, is not a luddite.

[NeedleCast]

25. I disagree that there aren't plenty of Luddites on the internet

Swing by a few fundy religious web pages where you can listen to them denounce the internet as evil and trash other modern science and technology as the devil's work...over the internet.

All the rants I see directed at social networking sites are of the same type and go to show that the ranter, in most cases, doesn't understand the use of the application.

[JuniperLea]

27. All of them? Really?

Because I'm seeing a lot of people just like me, who dove into it, got bored or disgusted, and moved on. I don't see anyone confused over the use or functionality. I'm not advocating their elimination at all, I just feel it feeds addictions. I've seen people fired after a lot of warnings, and they just couldn't pull themselves away because by God that killer new taco truck is going to hit my neighborhood and I'll be damned if I'm going to loose the opportunity to review it for the rest of them!

[NeedleCast]

47. Why Did you get bored or digested?

Okay I probably should have said most instead of all.

I follow maybe three dozen Twitter feeds. All of them are either political or musical in nature. So I don't get bored or disgusted because I follow the stuff I like, ignore the stuff I don't.

I too have seen people fired from doing things on the internet that they shouldn't have been but that's not a failing of the technology or application, its a failing of the individual. I know a guy who essentially threw away his life over the computer game Everquest and abandoned his family, work and responsibilities to kill orcs. That's not a condemnation of the game and the millions who play it without succumbing to such things.

[anigbrowl]

110. Twitter is a technology. FR is an interest group. Apples and oranges.

That's like saying you don't like motorcycles for the same reason you don't paint your car with the confederate flag.

[pnwmom]

37. But the difference is that Twitter postings get pushed to you,

making them another form of junk or spam mail that you need to wade through.

As opposed to web sites that you deliberately visit.

[Lex]

54. Wrong.

You choose who receive tweets from. You *never* receive tweets from anyone you have not given permission to.

[pnwmom]

64. No, I'm not wrong. I understand that you only get tweets from people

you give permission to.

But I don't want to have more mass mailings pushed at me, whether I know the person or not.

[Goblinmonger]

90. Then don't

Problem solved. That isn't a problem with the technology but with your settings and whom you choose to follow.

[northzax]

94. it's remarkable, isn't it?

seems so easy that the answer is just "don't do it" the problem is that people are feeling like they are missing out on something. if they turn it off, they're afraid that others are doing something interesting they don't understand.

but yes, if you don't want to tweet, by all means don't. if you don't want to facebook, don't. if you don't want to post on a message board don't.

and I fully expect that my grandchildren will be as amused by my technology as I am by the fact that my grandfather had a servant in college who typed his papers for him.

[anigbrowl]

111. Well then don't use it.

I don't most of the time, although I occasionally find it useful for work. You might as well argue that DU posts get pushed to you...if you point your browser at DU and log in.

[lies and propaganda]

23. bwhahaha.

oh the irony..

[JackRiddler]

79. When will people lay aside historical ignorance about the Luddites?

The Luddites were a small part of the working class movement during the early industrial revolution. They sabotaged machines to slow down the inhumane pace of industrial production in the Manchester period. Similar agitators in France picked up the name of saboteurs (after the shoes or sabots they used to block machine gears), which at least clearly refers to the literal action they took, and not to the mindset that their critics presumed.

The Luddites struck for humane working conditions. Their reputation as anti-technological per se is inaccurate and a product of capitalist propaganda.

For the latest phase in this 200-year campaign to defame the working class as backward, watch for the coming attack on the UAW by the media and the politicians. The car workers will also be accused of being unwilling to modernize, or afraid of the future.

[SheilaT]

5. Those things will no doubt

morph into other things. But I get the impression that the young people see nothing wrong about putting the things that they do on Facebook. Or Twitter. It will be interesting to see what happens as those kids get older.

I understand that some companies now routinely look for Facebook accounts before they higher anyone,and that putting dumb stuff out there really hurts.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. This whole interweb thing will never last.

[JuniperLea]

8. When Elvis was told to keep his day job...

He ignored what may have saved his life.

[dysfunctional press]

9. i use facebook mainly for finding/connecting with old/lost friends/aquaintances...

i don't do much else with it, and have never posted a "what's on your mind" thought or anything else like that. it's actually very useful.

[Lilith Velkor]

71. I don't because I don't want those fucking assholes to find me

That said, I certainly don't begrudge others using it.

[Drunken Irishman]

10. I don't think FB is a passing fad.

No more than message boards are a passing fad.

Twitter might be, however.

[islandgirl808]

11. maybe facebook and twitter are passing fads

like myspace...but overall i think social networks like those three will be around for a long time.

[nonconformist]

13. No more than message boards and blogs are. nt

[dolo amber]

29. I gather the irony of the OP was not lost on you either

:D

[DesertFlower]

14. i'm 67. my granddaughter is 29. we're both

on facebook along with my sisters, nieces, nephews, etc. i think it's a nice way to say a quick hello without sending an e-mail. i do agree that some of the things posted are ridiculous. one of my nieces posts about 5 times a day. i'm waiting for her to tell us when she's in the bathroom. lol

[Posteritatis]

15. Let me guess, the news mentioned a Republican using either again? (nt)

[Terry in Austin]

16. Others like, um, "discussion boards?"

Like, so totally last February!

;-)

On edit: what Irishman said...

[parasim]

17. I beg to differ.

Not much of a fan of twitter, but facebook has allowed me to get reaquainted with friends from long ago, as well as relatives I've not seen for years, see photos and videos of my grandson and both of my sons (who live thousands of miles away) on a regular basis, promote my band's music, organize political events, etc...

Nah, I think Fb will be around for awhile.

[CoffeeCat]

18. I love Facebook, Twitter...

...and the Internet in general.

FB is experiencing a growth explosion right now.

Furthermore, corporations are using FB, LinkedIn and Twitter more--and some larger corporations are targeting
press releases and other corporate news to these and other Internet sites. Corporations, as a whole,
are hiring people to monitor and contribute to social media.

In the past, companies disseminated news/info via PR Newswire or BusinessWire. Recognizing the power
of the Internet--information is being sent to pertinent blogs, social-media sites and posted on Digg and Reddit.

All of this is powerful in my opinion--because it signals that companies acknowledge that there are important
voices outside of traditional media.

[Javaman]

19. LOL

All I had to do is start a faux fire...

:rofl:

[The_Commonist]

31. Actually, I used to think as you do...

Until I actually tried Facebook.

I'm a second generation technology kind of person.
I like to watch the bleeding edgers, and then wait for the kinks to get worked out before getting involved in new technologies. I first signed up for Facebook maybe two years ago, and found it completely useless. I tried again a couple of months ago and discovered that it had hit a critical mass and became quite charmed by it all.

Yes... you'll find out what someone you don't really care about just had for lunch. However, I find out much more annoying things about people that I don't know here on DU. The difference with Facebook is that it's NOT anonymous, so people are better behaved.

What I find charming about it all is the fact that I am now in contact with people who I haven't seen or heard from in decades. People I have completely forgotten about are again a part of my daily life. Maybe it's just what the girl from the 5th grade had for lunch. Maybe it's people who I really did spend a lot of time with back in the day, and now after several decades, we're back together in a virtual sort of way. I think it's really sweet and I'm learning a lot about myself in the process. It's blurring the lines between past and present. I don't have a problem with that. You might.

As far as your grandkids are concerned... The technologies that they will be using aren't even born yet either. Those technologies will make Facebook look pretty lame, but not in the way you imagine. As a mid-40's guy, I like to keep up on the technologies so that when my kids and grandkids are grown, we will be able to relate to each other. You think you lived through a generation gap? The differences between the haves and have nots in the future will be largely technological in nature, and you can expect your grandkids to laugh at you if you don't at least make an effort to keep up. ALL pictures of grandkids will be online soon, if they are not already. Facebook etc, at it's best is just a tool for sharing that kind of stuff.

At it's worst, it's annoying. Don't let that get to you...

[marlakay]

35. I read your reply after my post

I agree we need to keep up on things so we know what our grandkids are doing. I am up on most tech things, like you I give them awhile. And while I said I don't use Facebook, I belong to it, joined to be part of the one mil for Obama. Just don't go there often. I belong to Spark People which for me is my community of folks to gather with daily.

Text's I know how to do but just choose not to, twitter I have no time or interest in it and no one in my family does either or I would make the attempt to learn about it for the reason you have said.

I am buying a new computer this summer and will start to keep my photos how my daughter does, on a external hard drive. Now I saved them on cd's. The reason I haven't used an online service is I think what if it goes out of business will I lose all my photos?

[marlakay]

32. I don't twitter, facebook or text

I have enough communication in my life and plenty of blogs to read for news. My daughter just told me she got cell phones for my grandkids who are in 4th and 6th grade so they can text their friends.

The only positive thing I could think of for it was reading and writing and hopefully learning to type.

She said everyone has them at their school and the teacher collects them first thing in the morning and they all spend the day in the principles office in bins. Modern life!

I hope there is a rule to turn them off first or I would hate to be the principal!

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. They all interfere with my time on DU

:evilgrin:

[Warren DeMontague]

34. As I've said elsewhere- if GOD had wanted you to stay in touch with your friends from 5th grade

he wouldn't have invented the horse-drawn carriage, the steam engine, the automobile and the airplane.

Right?

[Stargazer09]

36. To be honest...

I don't use Twitter, but I use Facebook daily. It enables me to keep up with my older kids (three in college, one living with his dad, all in another state), as well as my brothers and my friends from high school.

We're a military family, and we are geographically separated from both of our families right now. Facebook gives us a way to communicate with everyone at once. I don't have to e-mail everyone in my family in order to share pictures of the kids, or to let everyone know that Steve's deploying, or whatever. I can see what my friends and family are up to without visiting dozens of blogs and MySpace pages.

My older sons (now 22 and 20) are the ones who convinced me to join Facebook in the first place. I don't think that they are embarrassed about it, either. :D

[seabeyond]

38. had three of sons 14 yr old friends over friday. we were talking facebook, myspace, twitter and

none of the kids use any of them. my sons do not either. not allowed in this house. but i was surprised that those three boys had no interest in it either. they turned up their nose in scorn. lol. liked that

they are all kids excelling in school academically too. and very respectful kids on top of that.

[lucretia54]

39. The more innovative communication gets, the less we communicate with each other.

I no longer hear from friends on the phone, it's all e-mail. I miss the sound of their laughter.

I asked my mom to get on a site with me one night and she never showed. When I asked her the next day what happened and she said "I forgot how to get there," my suggestion that she could have picked up the phone so that I could have walked her through it was a foreign concept, I guess.

Texting changed the spelling of our words...

Now our communications must be 140 digits long!

And to think they used to use a quill, black ink, calligraphy on handmade paper, letters sealed in wax, and sent by courier!

Yes, we've come a long way.

[JerseygirlCT]

49. I don't much like the Twitter idea for the reason you gave

(and because I truly cannot think of a single person from whom I need constant updates).

I really dislike phone conversations. Just not a phone person. I much prefer written communications.

And FB makes all that easy. I'm communicating a great deal more with the people I interact with on FB. Including my siblings! With FB, there doesn't have to be a reason to communicate, and it doesn't have to be involved. (Or it can be, and private, with the messaging component).

And texting "spelling"? HATE IT. I'm afraid we'll have an entire generation now who cannot spell to save their lives and who don't much care. As far as that goes, I'm in total agreement with you.

[Spike89]

60. Studies suggest otherwise

I was a bit surprised that studies showed the most avid texters with the heaviest reliance on L33tspeak also scored among the highest on language arts tests. When an educator explained the results this way, it totally made sense: it is simply another idiom to these young people. No one gets freaked out that a kid polishes his or her verbal skills, even though the best speakers verbatim text would be mediocre writing at best. We also don't expect that knowing French or Spanish would make a kid struggle in English.

In short, communicating in almost any fashion improves communications skill in most if not all areas.

As to social media, it will have a place until it too is replaced or subsumed in the next iteration of communication technology. It certainly isn't as if the e-mail police went out and confiscated every ballpoint pen, or the message board moderators are being held prisoner by the twitter revolutionaries.

[JerseygirlCT]

69. Oh definitely to the last

I've just run into emails from younger people - written in that awful text stuff. Perhaps it's just a matter of learning when it's proper to do that and when it's not. (Professionally, it's just plain not, for instance!)

I don't mind it for shorthand on the phone, or even online, as it does make things easier. But I dislike getting a personal email or even letter from someone filled with that stuff!

And I love that my 75 year old father has picked right up on FB, and we communicate more that way now than anything else - trading videos and pictures... some people just stay young, I guess!

[JonLP24]

100. I'm sure many people that use shortened words now how to spell them fully

On most modern phones it takes repeated taps of the same button to get to a specific letter so using words like luv, u, omg, etc is so much faster and easier on your fingers then spelling them out fully. A generation that can't spell as you say wouldn't be because of cell phones or other technologies but because of falling thru the cracks of our education system.

[NeedleCast]

50. For me, the opposite has been true

FaceBook has increased my face to face time with friends because it provides an easy way to facilitate getting several people together at once, without having to call everyone.

You can still send a letter written with a quill and black ink, on hand made paper, sealed with wax, via courier, if you prefer. Takes a hell of a lot longer though.

[Lex]

57. I found that to be true too.

nt

[Tangerine LaBamba]

59. One correction -

What you are experiencing in your exchanges on FaceBook is not "face-to-face time." There are no faces at all, no warm human beings face-to-face.

There are pixels and images, but it's all technology. No human stuff there. Please don't confuse the two....................

[NeedleCast]

75. I think you misunderstood

I am not refering to exchanges on FaceBook as face to face time. I'm saying that using FaceBook, text messages, etc. facilitates getting people together. If I want to go see a show or a concert or a ballgame...whatever, I can put it out there on my FaceBook and let others know I'm going and tell them to call me if they're interested (or just show up). Save me having to make a boatload of phone calls and trying to do a bunch of coordination.

FaceBook especially put me in touch with many people I had lost track of. In many cases, it's true that geographical distance now seperates us from being able to have that face time. At the same time, for those friends who are local, it's a tool that allows us to plan things out without making a ton of phone calls.

So it's helped me increase that real face time. I can toss up "NeedleCast is heading for the bar, anyone want to grab a drink?" up on my FaceBook and chances are good I wont be drinking alone.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

83. It's a public address system,

but only your chosen few can hear it. Does that sound right?

I get it. Thanks.

[NeedleCast]

86. Well, I don't look at it like my chosen few

Haha, I don't pretend to have that sort of impact on anyone's life. There's no Cult of NeedleCast on Facebook (yet...bwhahahaha!)

Otherwise yes, that aspect of it is much like a public address system. It's not that I have some need to let everyone know what I'm doing all the time (as some have suggested about social networking tools) but that I take an interest in what my friends are doing and I (think at least) they do the same with me.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

87. I never meant to imply you were some kind of

deity. I seriously meant "your chosen few," literally. The few you chose.

Language sometimes gets away from us if we take it to extremes. Your misapprehension about that simple phrase is a perfect example of what nothing will ever beat human, in person, communication.

Thanks ..............

[NeedleCast]

91. True, I still prefer face to face communication

But it's a small world now, after all. I've been lucky enough to travel to quite a few places in the States and internationally and with Facebook I can say hello to a friend in Korea or Afghanistan or wherever just about any time.

I've never been much of a phone person either...I like to get together with people...but when I can't have that, FaceBook is a decent substitute until the next face to face meeting.

Sometimes a virtual hug is almost as good as the real thing.

[JerseygirlCT]

104. Absolutely

And slightly related, I have to say that I've become really connected with a few different message boards - or I should say the people there.

In a similar way, these aren't people I've ever met face to face. But I've still known them for years and years now. They're absolutely friends, without that in-person communications. Lots of virtual hugs over the years, and I've been blessed for that.

But it's not an either/or - you can have both!

[NeedleCast]

92. Dupe

Darn technology...lol.

[JerseygirlCT]

103. The day to day -ness of it all

means you can freely add small comments here and there - have the sort of interactions you might normally have while working in the same office, for instance - but with people whose lives had been far from yours, either geographically or chronologically.

These aren't people I'd necessarily feel compelled to email. And certainly not about the small things we now talk about a bit. But it's easy and casual on FB, and it's been enjoyable to have a small window into their lives.

[JerseygirlCT]

102. And for me, I'd add

that it allows me to keep up with what my college kid is doing, without being obtrusive. (He gave me permission to friend him before I started on FB). I don't have to respond to things he says or does, but it's nice to know what's doing, day to day. And we use the messages there quite often. Unlike his email acct, I know he checks FB at least once a day!

He's used it to advertise his album, I shared that with my list, he made some sales. I love that!

[Cyrano]

53. Hi lucretia. You're post is poignant.

I've worked in high tech industries longer than I would like to admit.

But your post highlights so much of what we've lost.

I've met so many people in recent years who cannot express a written thought without a keyboard. There was a time when many of us could write by scratching out a message on a rock, or using a pen. My guess is that within the next few decades, the "written" word will be a forgotten thing of the past. And then, what will we do if the power goes out?

And I too, all too often miss the sound of laughter.

Welcome to DU.

Cyrano

[lucretia54]

99. Thank you, and I must admit I prefer e-mail to

rounding up paper, envelope, pen and stamps...

But because of e-mail I have become out of practice and almost shy about picking up the phone and calling a casual friend 5 miles away!

It's sad, because as I said, you don't get to hear the laughter, or the inflection in their voice- but even more important, you don't get the immediate response so that you can interact in the moment. With e-mail, they may not read what you have to say for days, or even not at all.

Unfortunately, e-mail etiquette isn't always so great, so you never know....That is a pet peeve of mine!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

62. Just today,

I picked up my favorite fountain pen and wrote a note to a friend, just to tell him about something that had happened, something I knew he'd enjoy, something that may, in the future, affect him, and it was a total joy to select the paper - I have a great collection - to sit down, to watch my thoughts take form on the page, and finally, to use - oh, yes, I'm a purist - the blotter after it was completed.

And, before I folded the paper, I put a drop of my Chanel No. 5 onto it, because my friend loves that scent.

When I put the stamp on the envelope and strolled out to the mailbox, my friendly mailperson, Edna, was just arriving, and we chatted about all sorts of things. She gave me the change from the package she'd mailed for me last week, and it was a perfectly loved exchange.

Try that in 140 misspelled words.

You are so right, Lucretia, so right.

And, welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Cyrano]

65. It's been many years since I heard the word blotter. Thanks, Tangerine.

[Lorien]

105. That's how I often feel. I use facebook, but I miss talking to friends on

the phone. Just about everyone I know emails me instead. I have two friends who I talk with regularly on the phone, and that's it! It can get tough with working alone at home as I do. Thank goodness for pets.

[tigereye]

42. Facebook is kinda fun - it's simply talking to old and new friends...

It doesn't seem that different from blogging, to some extent.

[sallylou666]

44. Middle-agers on FB & twitter

I'm a middle-aged person on FB. Lot of moms and dads on FB who post photos of their children. I like to see photos of friends' children. People post links, and some of them are interesting or amusing.

On twitter, I get news alerts, alerts about new posts on blogs that I read (like financial ones) and traffic alerts (very helpful in my traffic impaired city). My kid's cub scout pack is on twitter, too.

I don't post what I had for lunch! LOL!

[JerseygirlCT]

45. I'm loving Facebook

Allows me to be in touch with people I'd lost track of years ago. It's a wonderful took in that way - and easy to use for that.

I don't much like the new format, and I don't need to know which quizzes everyone I know has taken, but all in all, I've found it quite enjoyable.

[bdamomma]

48. Facebook is pretty good, but I am not in Twitter thing.

[smalll]

51. I don't like them, but this kind of stuff is not going to go away, just get worse!

Facebook and Twitter are just examples -- cell-phones and texting are others -- of a terrible addiction, seen increasingly especially amongst young people. They feel they need to keep constantly "in touch" to be able to maintain a sense of self -- if they're not interacting with others, they subconsciously fear falling into non-existence.

They live lives, increasingly, on a minute-to-minute basis, as a group mind -- as some kind of Borg, in a way. And when people spend less and less time on their own -- NOT interacting (and not passively receiving media, over their iPods or cable TV) they spend less time THINKING on their own. People become less insightful, dumber, and when brains become mush like that, it becomes a vicious cycle, and they really do NEED to be plugged in to the Borg mind to exist!

[ASUliberal]

61. I think you sound like an old tool...

I'm in college and I spend a lot of time on Facebook. And that isn't simply to gaze in awe at my own photos or information. It's to network and have fun.

There are many more reasons to be on facebook then you apparently know. I get a lot of info about protests from groups on facebook. I contact old friends who have moved away for college. It allows me to be apart of important communities that wouldn't be possible without the internet.

Is it a fad? I don't really see it as one. It's one step in the progress of social technology. It will eventually become outdated and something better will come along. But that doesn't marginalize it's importance right now.

I really don't give a shit if my grandchildren laugh at me. Their just kids what the hell do they know? Are you really that uptight about your life that you are trying to live it so your grandchildren won't make fun of you? Man dude take a Xanax or something.

Yours Truly

Hipster vain college student.

[GoneOffShore]

67. As a 60 something Facebook user - I'm with you.

The OP is a sort of "you kids, get off my lawn"!

[Cyrano]

72. Get off my astroturf!

[Seeking Serenity]

63. This newfangled "telephone" thingy Mr. Bell gave us is just a passing fad

And I fear what it will do to the fine art of penmanship and written discourse when we can all of a sudden actually talk to people instantaneously instead of writing them nice letters that would take weeks to reach them.

[Cyrano]

73. Hey, smoke signals will never go out of style.

[JCMach1]

68. I remember when people said that about the NET in general...

before that, it was the personal computer...

Social networking is here to stay, just face the music and open your account!

[Cyrano]

74. Listen to this and try to hear me. The greatest protection in the world is anonymity.

[JCMach1]

107. The greatest protection in the world is knowledge...

Just don't go into it with your eyes wide shut.

[BuelahWitch]

77. I found Facebook too intrusive

I personally didn't *care* if Jane Blow sent Jenny Blow a singing Easter Egg, or if Mary Jane took The Brady Bunch Quiz. Nor did I want people to know when someone sent them to me. Yeah, I could turn off their "feeds," but then I got no news about them whatsoever, which I thought defeated the purpose of "social networking." I also found out many of the people I went to school with were raving Fundies, including my best friend from 8th grade on. After a shit storm that developed when I asked everyone to stop sending me Singing Easter Eggs I got the hell out of Dodge. I like MySpace better because it allows me some creativity and also to meet people *I don't know* who are more compatible with my interests than those I do know.

[TBF]

78. I use Facebook to keep up with family & friends who live far away.

It has helped me reconnect with some wonderful friends from college & high school. I use myspace to listen to independent music. I signed up for Twitter and never use it - can't really see the point to it. I think we'll be seeing these for many years to come - they are very popular amongst youth.

[iris27]

80. Tried and left Facebook...pretty much always thought Twitter was stupid.

I kinda doubt that they're going away, but I'm not a fan of either. And I'm a mid-twenties, Gen. Y, reading a dozen+ blogs a day sort who's very into other tech. My partner does computer repair/instruction/networking stuff for a living, and shares my opinion.

I hate Facebook for the same reason a lot of people like it - no anonymity. It's your real name, and within a week of signing up, you've got both your boss and the girl who sat next to you in third grade on your friends list. I do not work in an environment where I can "be myself", and if I had to keep my Facebook work-friendly, it felt kinda pointless. Same goes for the alums of my parochial elementary and high schools...do I really need to explain to yet another former classmate who's now a fundie con with 4 kids at age 26 that I'm a childfree-by-choice queer atheist liberal? If it weren't for their damned "people you may know" function, I might have stayed part of FB much longer. Their privacy considerations in general are extremely lacking. I wasn't even allowed to actually delete my account! All they will let you do is "deactivate" an account, so you no longer show up on people's friends lists, but your account is still there...all you have to do is login again and it pops right back up. I went through my account piece by piece and deleted all my apps and all the info on my profile, but a FB account with my name, e-mail address, and alma mater still exists in their database limbo. That bothers me.


As for Twitter, I'm sorry, but the entire vocabulary surrounding that site is just dumb. Twitter, tweets, tweeting...ugh. And if it's not already abundantly clear by this post, I'm a rather long-winded person. Condensing my thoughts into 140 characters - no, thanks!

[salguine]

81. You say "Facebook takes ego into the realm of the surreal", but your last paragraph

suggests that you're completely convinced that your opinions about Facebook and Twitter are of great importance to many, many people.

[Cyrano]

95. I've found that all too often,

many, many people are wrong most of the time.

[alcibiades_mystery]

85. Nobody will admit to watching this so-called "television machine" in twenty years!

It's an idiot box, an idiot box, I say!

Harrumph!

:rofl:

[Bigmack]

88. I joined FB for all the wrong reasons....

My kid told me to get a FB account so former students could find me.... people kept asking him. So I did. My fundie in-laws - actually my neice-in law, asked to be my gaddam "friend". She's got pages dedicated to Repubs, a lot of fundie quotes and bullshit, and a whole lot of Faux Snews crap. So I worked a little on my account and spiced it up a taste. Quotes, TV shows, political cartoons, etc. The religious preference I entered was "Born-again Atheist".

When I was done, I realized I had just installed a filter on my life. If former students, or indeed anybody else, wants to contact me, they'll know what they're getting into.

The government? Shiiiit, they've got about 800 sets of prints and lots of other shit on me. (No crimes .. just military and weapons permits and the like.)

[walldude]

93. You kids and your fads need to GET OFF MY LAWN!

LOL... you know when I grew up I lived in a lower middle class neighborhood. My friends were the kids who lived close. Not that I liked them, they were all I had. A couple weeks ago after dinner my son asked if he could get on my computer, he wanted to game online with a friend. Turns out his friend lives in Japan. They had been gaming together for awhile. My kid and his buddy from Japan. It's a different world, and it's going to be you who are laughed at as the "get off my lawn" old fogey.

While I'm not a Twitter, Myspace or Facebook user, I can certainly see the advantages of such a thing.


Oh and BTW those things will pass just like the internet fad and the you tube fad. Those kids and their crazy stuff... :rofl:

[Carni]

106. No kidding lol

I don't like facebook or myspace(I am on both but never sign in) and I am on twitter and I find it pretty interesting.

I post links to articles about politics to my tiny group of *followers* when I see something interesting and I read links to info from the people that I follow.

A lot of it is about politics, some is about graphics, web design, art etc--
I enjoy it and have found info that I would never have found on my own in some cases.

Not everyone *tweets* about going to the store, or whatever the hell I keep seeing people bitching about. I don't understand all this holier than thou griping about social networking sites--I mean what the hell is DU anyway? lol

[Spike89]

97. no attack, but these aren't fads

Not to say that they won't be replaced real soon by something with slightly more options (or slicker interface). The next wave is likely to be even more social--basically your site will become "active". The first wave was basically a pull Internet, where you could consume (download) information, we're in the middle of the pull-push Internet where you can post as easily as pull from many sites. The third wave is likely to the authomatic Web where software agents do both the pushing and pulling for you (under guidelines you set).

Here's an example of the user experience for all three. You're interested in Edsels. On the "old" Internet, you could find sites that may have had pictures, articles, and other Edsel information. The current Internet allows you to participate in the Edsel group by posting your pictures, stories, and other information to the site. The next Internet will automatically find any updated Edsel postings, maybe respond, and update your previous messages/postings when things change (like if you decide to become a Packard fan). To sell your Edsels and search for a new Packard, all you'd have to do is tell the agent.

The conceptual Web (as some call it) would allow you to post the pictures and birth announcement for your 4th grandchild (welcome Chloe!) And have all your relatives and close friends be notified whether they were on e-mail, Facebook, mobile phone, etc. It might also query local businesses, find out Chloe's parents registered for a car seat, and send you an e-mail letting you know you have funds available, Store X is having a sale, and it is available in two colors--one of which is the favorite color of the mother (according to her agent). At the same time, it sends a message to the other grandparents letting them know that they were too slow and there is no way they will ever be able to maintain the child-spoiling pace you and your agent will be setting.

Of course, people on DU will claim that a gift bought this way just doesn't have the soul of one that takes an entire weekend to find and buy.

[RedCappedBandit]

101. Networking isn't a fad. nt