What's the deal with Facebook?

by serenitynow! 40 Replies latest jw friends

  • bottleofwater
    bottleofwater

    Libelle: Just make a profile. Everything will go from there...

  • serenitynow!
    serenitynow!

    I don't like the fact that people can remove your comments. I made one honest comment about this horrible youtube where this toddler is like getting the holy ghost at some fundamentalist church service and my comment gets taken down. I found that to be a violation of my right to free speech, how dare they.

  • Markfromcali
    Markfromcali

    That's because they don't value free speech, well not other peoples anyway. A lot of people online are only interested in promoting their own agenda, whether that's religious, commercial, or whatever. The way they see it, it is "my space" and they can do whatever they want with it, and if they're not interested in any kind of dialogue or open exchange of ideas, that's what you get.

  • LisaRose
    LisaRose

    I just signed up and it's been nice. It's a way to stay connected with my family. My son and daughter-in-law post a lot, and it's interesting seeing what they are up to, and also they post pics of my grandaughter. I have also been able to stay more connected with a brother. Everything he posts automatically shows up on my wall. I wouldn't say I spend hours on it, more like 5 minutes a day. I also like the Birthday thing, facebook tells you whenever someone in your circle has a birthday, so you can post a b-day greeting on their wall.

  • badseed
    badseed

    A canadian study revealed that facebook users have a low self esteem. Probably why it's so boring..

  • kurtbethel
    kurtbethel

    It is a massive data mining operation.

  • Aussie Oz
    Aussie Oz

    Wife and i use it purely as a marketing tool for our art and lifestyle. 90% of all sales of her art come from facebook.

    as for all the games, quiz crap etc...well we stay away from that

    a little stay intouch with friends and family.

    but mostly to sell sell sell

    oz

  • William Penwell
    William Penwell

    It is more of a womans thing. Most guys find it boring.

  • Black Sheep
    Black Sheep

    Most of my schoolmates that remember me, remember my cult self, which I would rather forget.

    My real friends from my past are mostly dead ... accidents, heart disease, cancer.... Watchtower God was supposed to have caned their sorry arses by now, but he has excrement and is still in the privy.

    Facebook always has surprises for me. I don't like surprises. I also don't give a sh!? how many sheep my long lost rellies have on their cyber farm.

  • Markfromcali
    Markfromcali

    Another quote from Jaron Laniers manifesto, You Are Not A Gadget:

    Facebook is like No Child Left Behind

    Personal reductionism has always been present in information systems. You have to declare your status in reductive ways when you file a tax return. Your real life is represented by a silly, phony set of database entries in order for you to make use of a service in an approximate way. Most people are aware of the difference between reality and database entries when they file taxes.

    But the order is reversed when you perform the same kind of self-reduction in order to create a profile on a social networking site. You fill in the data: profession, marital status, and residence. But in this case digital reduction becomes a causal element, mediating contact between new friends. That is new. It used to be that government was famous for being impersonal, but in a postpersonal world, that will no longer be a distinction.

    It might at first seem that the experience of youth is now sharply divided between the old world of school and parents, and the new world of social networking on the internet, but actually school now belongs on the new side of the ledger. Education has gone through a parallel transformation, and for similar reasons.

    What computerized analysis of all the country's school tests has done to education is exactly what Facebook has done to friendships. In both cases, life is turned into a database. Both degradations are based on the same philosophical mistake, which is the belief that computers can presently represent human thought or human relationships. These are things computers cannot currently do.

    When it comes to people, we technologists must use a completely different methodology. We don't understand the brain well enough to comprehend phenomena like education or friendship on a scientific basis. So when we deploy a computer model of something like learning or friendship in a way that has an effect on real lives, we are relying on faith. When we ask people to live their lives through our models, we are potentially reducing life itself. How can we ever know what we might be losing?

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