... which would be the inanity of Facebook. Here's John Dvorak on the subject:
People are always baffled by the fact that I don't use Facebook. I don't care much about Facebook any more than I cared about MySpace and LiveJournal before it. In almost every way, these subsystems are too retro for my taste.
Let me explain.
The world began with online services like the Source and Compuserve. They then evolved into a myriad of BBS systems and then AOL was created. AOL became the kingpin and along came the Internet. The Internet had the versatility that no other system had—you could do whatever you wanted with it. You could start a website about your cat. You could do a storefront. You could do anything that came into your head.
[...]
Which begs the question as to why anyone would use Facebook when it is essentially AOL done right? The fastest growing group on Facebook are people in their 70's. Oldsters are flocking to Facebook the way they once did with AOL. Facebook is a simple system for the masses that do not really care about technology and do not want to learn anything new except something easy like Facebook.Heh. I've been sayin' as much in these pages for quite a while but not linking Facebook with AOL, which is how I began my on-line life. But I grew up and abandoned AOL quite a few years ago in favor of a more pure internet experience. There's another reason to eschew Facebook as well, and I'll quote Groucho: "I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member." Or sumthin' like that. All you 70-something wanna-bees might disagree and that's your prerogative. Now go buy a goat and a couple o' cows, OK? And watch out for Guido.
Whenever someone tells me to check out something on Facebook, I recall the heyday of AOL with its keywords. "Go to the Internet at www.blah.com or AOL keyword: blah." This was a common comment on the nightly news or in magazines. The AOL keyword is replaced by the Facebook page name.
There is no reason for anyone with any chops online to be remotely involved with Facebook, except to peruse it for lost relatives. So, next time you log on, remember it's really AOL with a different layout.
Welcome to the past.
"...anyone with any chops online..."
ReplyDeleteI am listening to exactly zero words from a person who expresses personal bravado with a God-awful expression like that. There's a fella who has probably rarely succeeded at anything requiring getting out of a chair, saying essentially that the internet is incredibly easy and accessible, and then saying that he's better at using it than other people. Okay, Johnny.
Having said that - Facebook is really lame. I always thought so, then I got an account. Now I know so.
Oh, boy. I don't mean to sound grumpy, but that "internet chops" thing friggin' nauseated me when I read it. How snooty! How elitist! What a turd.
WV: illings
Ya gotta tale Dvorak's statement in context, Andy. He's a geek, writing in a geek publication, speaking to other geeks. I'll cut him a lot o' slack, based on the premise that not a lot o' folks... other than geeks... read PC magazine. Agreed?
ReplyDeleteApropos of not much... you need to do sumthin' about that 'tude of yours concerning "elitists." They're EVERYWHERE in your world, no? (I speak as a beer snob, of course) ;-)
Well, in my neck of the woods, elitism comes in the form of "I'm dirtier than you, I am poorer than you, and I eat more bean sprouts than you."
ReplyDeleteThey can have it and they can keep it.
John who?
ReplyDeleteI like FB from the standpoint that I've been able to reconnect with old friends from my first submarine, and a handful of people from high school. Beyond that...feh.
Andy is spot on with his assessment of Seattle elites, BTW. I'm glad I only work up there, and escape to the south to live.
Seattle is a strange place, indeed. Does your observation include the Microsnot folks, as well? Or is Redmond separate and apart? ;-)
ReplyDeleteJohn who?
ReplyDeleteDvorak is an icon in the IT world, BR. He's an older dude who's been writing on technology since I went into the biz back in '85, and is sorta a demi-god.
I share your take on FB. I reconnected with a lot of folks I'd lost during the six months I was there. But that wasn't enough to make me stay.
Microsoft folks. Hmm. They're kind of up there with Amazon folks. Software developers, anyway, which are everywhere. They're elitism is very, very similar. It goes like this:
ReplyDelete"I am fatter and dirtier than you, I act like I am poorer than you, and I eat at more taco trucks than you. Now where's that god damned shuttle to take me from my desk to the bathroom?"
LOL! I know... or knew... folks like that! Like limo-liberals from another era, but pretty much the same.
ReplyDeleteI interact regularly with some of the "softies". I find the management types to professional and personable. The grunts hold truer to Andy's observations.
ReplyDeleteWell... I take kindly to that, BR, speaking as a former IT manager. ;-) <=== That's a BIG-ass grin.
ReplyDeleteYer not gonna like this at ALL, I guarantee it, but...
ReplyDelete...on this topic, you are just like Morgan except more vivid, strident and uncompromising than the original.
than the original.
ReplyDeleteThe original? Sez WHO? You're still there... on Facebook... I left over a year ago. And I began my campaign against FB waaaay before I broke down and went there.
I mean, I've called FB all these nasty names but I'm still posting over there. You're just like me, but more militant. Not being a very good moderate.
ReplyDeleteI am inspired to copy-and-paste my list of derogatory nicknames for FaceBook:
1. Facebook is a blog you wind up with a little key
2. Facebook is a blog printed up with pleasing primary and pastel colors
3. Facebook is a blog that, when you drop it in the bathtub, it floats
4. Blog is to CAD program as Facebook is to an Etch-a-Sketch
5. If Facebook was a movie, it would be a guilty-pleasure flick...like "Joe vs. the Volcano" or "Road House"
6. Facebook is a blog you can gnaw on to help your teeth come out
7. Forget my earlier snarky comment about an automatic transmission; you have to pedal Facebook with your feet to make it go
8. Facebook reminds me of that crocodile in the comic strip who can't kill the zebra living next door and his parents get all ashamed of him when he orders out for cardboard tubs of fried chicken
9. Facebook is a blog that says one of five things when you pull on its li'l cord
10. Facebook is a blog you push along on the ground while making an engine sound with your lips
11. Facebook is the Jar Jar Binks of blogging, with much better public relations
12. Facebook is a blog carrying a little tiny dog around in a purse
13. "Blogger" uses a bottle opener; WordPress twists the cap off with its bare hand; Facebook punches a little hole in the box with the straw that was taped on to the side
14. If "House of Eratosthenes" resided primarily on Facebook, it would be made out of Lincoln Logs
15. Facebook is the "Twilight Series" of blogs
16. Facebook is a blog that comes with crayons and a puzzle
17. Facebook was really a book, it would be something by Dr. Seuss
18. If Facebook was an entree, it would be a grilled cheese sandwich that your momma could've made you at home
19. Blogging can be crackers, beer nuts or cashews; Facebook is Teddy Grahams and, sometimes, Cheerios in a little sandwich baggie
20. When Facebook writes its own name, it wishes it ended with the letter "i" so it could dot it with a little heart
Sadly, I tried it. My opinion is it is designed for lonely girls and women. The men are there just to see who wants to get laid.
ReplyDeleteHere's a quote from someones wall: "I am sooooooooo lonely.... I have to bribe my own kids to even get them to hang out lol........... I need a hobby or something !!!"
No, you need a man who can fill what's left of your hysterectomy...
LOL!! I'm SOOOoooo glad to know that what I thought to be intuitively obvious about the basic nature of FB
ReplyDeleteis shared by more than 'lil 'ole me..
PS: Goes for the latest "hipster" addiction--TUMBLR--too. You know, for the "creative community." LOL
A www. Y'all stop making fun of my inner child.
ReplyDeleteNot being a very good moderate.
ReplyDeleteHeh.
Anon: Yet ANOTHER interesting take.
Virgil: I surrendered to peer pressure and went there for around six months. Then I quit.
Moogie: Heh.
Well I guess I stand alone here - and I'm OK with that.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy FB. Like BR it has allowed me to reconnect with people I had lost touch with; not necessarily because I wanted to but because time and life got in the way. And because so many of The Oracle's wildly-spread-out family use it - we also get to stay connected to family we love and that we hardly ever see.
Do I record my every thought, feeling or experience? No.
Count me in with Kris. I love Facebook. I have been able to reconnect with family, friends, and former coworkers from all over the country who I would nevere have stayed in touch with were it not for Facebook. With some of them, I have built better friendships than I ever would have by other means.
ReplyDeleteI also administer three Facebook sites: one for our local Republicans Party, one for our local Tea Party, and one for our extended family. All of them are a great way to spread information, post pictures, and interact with like-minded people.
I also have a list of public officials who post on Facebook, so I can keep up with what they are doing, and I don't have to search all over the internet to read their posts.
Hardly anyone (except Buck and Lou) regularly respond to my blogs on Blogspot, but on Facebook, there is much more interaction. I love that. For me there is not much negative with Facebook.
I think I see what's going on here, from a geek perspective. You're not - at least Dvorak and Morgan are certainly not - bemoaning Facebook for the way it brings out the ridiculousness of people and cheapens the human experience. Instead it's bad because it is not technically complicated enough to be used as a springboard for the formation of little inner circles of code tweakers and IT studs to have their way with it and own some special knowledge about it. It's too simple, too efficient, and too effective at doing what it is set up to do from a tech geek standpoint. Aside from my obvious snark, does that sound about right?
ReplyDeleteI take this all from Morgan's #13 up there. He lists Facebook, Blogger, and Wordpress, with Facebook being on the easiest to use end, and Wordpress on the easy, but with the most potential for intricate messing around with end. I agree with the analogy he used, with one exception: In my experience, Wordpress isn't twisting the cap off with it's bare hand, it is constructing a Rube Goldberg device in order to do what everyone else is doing, just with a potentially bigger wow factor. It's all in what you want to do with it, I guess.
Me, I hate Facebook because people use LOL when they aren't even making jokes.
I think you're right about Morgan and Dvorak, Andy. I'm not a coder, have never been a coder, and will never play a coder on teevee. I dislike FB because it's inane. It has one good point, as EVERYONE who uses it never fails to mention: staying in touch. But at what price?
ReplyDeleteFacebook is only as ridiculous as the friends you choose to accept. Those are the posts that you will see.
ReplyDeleteYour points are valid, Sharon.
ReplyDeleteAnd let me add this... FB IS impressive from one geeky standpoint: the org has developed a robust platform AND the infrastructure required to support it. That's no mean feat with 300 million users (or is it 500 million now?).
Actually, I think people like Buck and people like me are in complete agreement when you get down to it. The "automatic-ness" of FB promotes a way of looking at life, much the way an automatic transmission promotes a way of looking at the road. It has a lot to do with laziness and not much to do with thoughtfulness.
ReplyDeleteI've personally seen a lot of "friends of friends" say incredibly inane things. And of the inquisitive variety, as in, "why would anyone hate people from foreign lands so much they would support SB 1070?" Actively asking for clarification...and then when you attempt to so clarify, you're told this person does not accept comments from non-friends.
That, my friend, is pure laziness. Fried up on a stick.
On the OTHER hand, I do have to say in some ways FaceBook is more mentally invigorating. Trouble with blogs is, after awhile the audience takes on the biases of the blogger. Here, for example, easily eight in ten active participants would agree with the statement "Sarah Palin is a nice enough person, but not qualified to be President." That is the stated opinion of the chief cook-n-bottle-washer; it is NOT the majority viewpoint outside of EIP. Out in the great beyond, you find me ten people who think the Wasilla Wunder is underqualified, I'll find you nine people who want to feakin' eviscerate her and think she's the incarnation of evil.
It works that way at my place too, where eight in ten agree with the statement "She's natural born, over thirty-five, would do a better job than the Current God King as well as His last two predecessors, so she's got my vote." Those are the sentiments of the dude in charge over there.
FaceBook offers a superior opportunity to go out and see what "The Big Everybody" has to say about things. Blogs don't offer much in this department. I mean, they do, to start off with; but it falls away after awhile.
The challenge is, to educate yourself about what's going on without losing track of how everybody else is thinking about things. At some point, these become mutually exclusive goals. But if you don't want to throw in the towel on either one, it's a good thing to keep more tools in the arsenal.
I guess the best thing about Facebook is: If you like it, use it.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't, don't.