So what's so special about Facebook? [modified]
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I mean, apart from it being very popular, and frankly just loads of fun. What about it is new? EDIT: For clarification: I like Facebook. Stop hassling me.
modified on Sunday, June 6, 2010 1:15 PM
;P
Later, JoeSox CPMCv1.0 - Last.fm - MyFriendfeed - Joesox.com
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Don't get me wrong, I *like* Facebook. What I'm interested in is why it's caused so much of a stir, that even politicians (ours, that is) are starting to take notice. Mind you, they took a full 15 years to notice the internet itself. Apparently, apart from it being loads of fun, immensely popular, an excellent way of keeping in touch with people you rarely see, and almost a social stratosphere in itself, there must be something that sets it apart from other websites. Any ideas? (Before you respond, please read the first sentence of my post again.)
ametheus wrote:
What I'm interested in is why it's caused so much of a stir, that even politicians (ours, that is) are starting to take notice.
Facebook has differing potentials for different people. If someone wants to use it to keep track of events for a low-profit gym, or a non-profit organization, they can use facebook to schedule 500 people easily. It is commonly referred to as distributed computing in the programming arena. One process distributes the information and 500 pick it up as they want. Win-win. Via email, it has the same potential, but the overhead is all held by the initial process. The organization sends 500 emails and overloads their account, runs up the fees and passes on the fees to the members through overhead. Lose-lose. However, it creates a stir because of the "I am going to the bathroom now." type status reports. People without lives can abuse it, leading to the conclusion they have a life. I will admit during my year-long stint with facebook it was addictive. I had professional musicians encouraging me and giving me tips in my native american flute playing, and I even got better from it! I had people who never knew me in high school suddenly standing up and saying, "hey, he's a nice guy." I had over 200 friends on facebook before I dropped off. That is 100 times more friends than I usually have at any given time. So why is this a problem? I don't have 200 friends, I never had, and I never will. The professionals were being nice, and I appreciate it, but that is just it, they are being nice people. One of the classmates left empty beer bottles on my table at the class reunion, because no matter how you cut it, I am still the class geek. They needed computer tips, computer advice, computer help, log on to facebook and get the help of the class geek... all you have to do is be his "friend." Facebook has great potential for good, it also has great potential for harm. It is all up to the people. And people are by nature, cruel, insensitive, and unfriendly. There is the "me" syndrome, they are more important than anyone else, they will lie, cheat, steal, and even befriend the class geek (which I am sure is down there with barium enema's - not sure which is lower) if it is something that will help them. That is life. I met some incredible people doing great things across this nation that I would never have met, and to be completely truthful, will never meet. I met some really incredible people. And maybe those incredible peopl
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ametheus wrote:
So what's so special about Facebook?
It's a fantastic means of being "socially active" for those people who don't have a real social life. Sites like those give people with a dull and uneventful life with something to do and gives them a feeling that they're important (for example, take twitter where I can tell the entire world what colour my shit was).
Workout progress:
Current arm size: 14.4in
Desired arm size: 18in
Next Target: 15.4in by Dec 2010Current training method: HIT
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
It's a fantastic means of being "socially active" for those people who don't have a real social life. Sites like those give people with a dull and uneventful life with something to do and gives them a feeling that they're important
Just like the Lounge then? :)
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A lot of not-for-profit organizations including some voluntary groups and charities use FB as a portal page for their members. Events and activities are logged through the FB group and it's easy to follow updates, share documents and photos from events etc. Just because it has some negatives does not mean everything about FB is bad. People who think so are delusional.
Regards, Nish
Blog: blog.voidnish.com Most recent article: An MVVM friendly approach to adding system menu entries in a WPF application
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I mean, apart from it being very popular, and frankly just loads of fun. What about it is new? EDIT: For clarification: I like Facebook. Stop hassling me.
modified on Sunday, June 6, 2010 1:15 PM
There is nothing really special about Facebook except for the fact that it is popular. A lot of other programs, web sites etc.. have the same features, they just aren't as popular. Why is one dance club have a waiting line around the block while the rest are empty? Is it because the beer tastes better at one bar vs. the other? Of course not. It's because it's popular. Why is Facebook popular? Does anyone remember being invited by 10 or 20 friends before they had a facebook account? I do. They got people to give up their email lists so Facebook could spam everyone on it. Kinda sounds like a virus. lol
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ametheus wrote:
So what's so special about Facebook?
It's a fantastic means of being "socially active" for those people who don't have a real social life. Sites like those give people with a dull and uneventful life with something to do and gives them a feeling that they're important (for example, take twitter where I can tell the entire world what colour my shit was).
Workout progress:
Current arm size: 14.4in
Desired arm size: 18in
Next Target: 15.4in by Dec 2010Current training method: HIT
That's a fallacy, all the people I personally know who are on facebook are incredibly socially gregarious, some have been told they should run for mayor because they know so many people. If you look at thier status etc you can see they are constantly doing something social away from computers. I suspect you've got it exactly back to front, truly socially inept people are just as unlikely to mingle on facebook as in real life.
Yesterday they said today was tomorrow but today they know better. - Poul Anderson
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I have no idea. I have both Facebook and MySpace accounts to keep in touch with friends, and frankly, MySpace is the better product. It's cleaner, works better, and works with all the browsers I use. Facebook is buggy and unreliable, and many features don't work with either Opera or Chrome. I don't get the attraction to Facebook at all.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Roger Wright wrote:
I don't get the attraction to Facebook at all.
It's purely and simply critical mass. I went on facebook recently after years of resisting simply because everyone I knew was already on Facebook. Once they have a critical mass of enough users they are entrenched and the defacto standard regardless of how buggy it is (which is very buggy indeed).
Yesterday they said today was tomorrow but today they know better. - Poul Anderson
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I mean, apart from it being very popular, and frankly just loads of fun. What about it is new? EDIT: For clarification: I like Facebook. Stop hassling me.
modified on Sunday, June 6, 2010 1:15 PM
I used Facebook awhile ago to find an old friend (via his brother). Keep touch with various folks I don't normally see. Negatives: wierd people I barely know wanting to friend me. Or people I do know, but don't want to be in contact with. Not to mention the new "everything is public" policies...
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That's a fallacy, all the people I personally know who are on facebook are incredibly socially gregarious, some have been told they should run for mayor because they know so many people. If you look at thier status etc you can see they are constantly doing something social away from computers. I suspect you've got it exactly back to front, truly socially inept people are just as unlikely to mingle on facebook as in real life.
Yesterday they said today was tomorrow but today they know better. - Poul Anderson
John C wrote:
That's a fallacy, all the people I personally know who are on facebook are incredibly socially gregarious, some have been told they should run for mayor because they know so many people.
:laugh:
John C wrote:
If you look at thier status etc you can see they are constantly doing something social away from computers.
And yet they update every minutia about their mundane boring life on a networking site so friggin' frequently. Irony. :)
Workout progress:
Current arm size: 14.4in
Desired arm size: 18in
Next Target: 15.4in by Dec 2010Current training method: HIT
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John C wrote:
That's a fallacy, all the people I personally know who are on facebook are incredibly socially gregarious, some have been told they should run for mayor because they know so many people.
:laugh:
John C wrote:
If you look at thier status etc you can see they are constantly doing something social away from computers.
And yet they update every minutia about their mundane boring life on a networking site so friggin' frequently. Irony. :)
Workout progress:
Current arm size: 14.4in
Desired arm size: 18in
Next Target: 15.4in by Dec 2010Current training method: HIT
Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
Workout progress: Current arm size: 14.4in Desired arm size: 18in Next Target: 15.4in by Dec 2010
You know what they say about people in glass houses...
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I mean, apart from it being very popular, and frankly just loads of fun. What about it is new? EDIT: For clarification: I like Facebook. Stop hassling me.
modified on Sunday, June 6, 2010 1:15 PM
I can't figure it out either. Keep in touch with friends? Email them (or they email me). Or (god forbid) call them on the phone. Have a presence on the web? Get a web site. And you can post anything you want without having to adhere to convoluted rules and policies. That can, and do, change at any moment. Want to broadcast minutia of your life to the world? But a blog on your web site. Want to find old friends from school? Google. Do it just because "everybody's doing it"? Well....even more people are "doing" the internet. I can find nothing that FaceBook offers that you haven't been able to do with the internet for a very very long time now. About the only thing I can come up with is that you do have control over who views your info. Whereas a blog is visible to the world. But hardly a day goes by that you don't hear about somebody getting "caught" or fired from their job over something they posted on FaceBook. So I would list this as more of a con than a pro. Because FaceBook gives you the illusion of privacy - you are lured into posting about that little floozy you frolicked with at DevCon this year. At least with a blog - you know EVERYTHING is public and you keep these dirty little secrets to yourself (as well you should) I've got no use for it. But there are a few million teenagers that obviously disagree with me.
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Rajesh R Subramanian wrote:
Workout progress: Current arm size: 14.4in Desired arm size: 18in Next Target: 15.4in by Dec 2010
You know what they say about people in glass houses...
You know the difference between someone keeping a block of text as their signature (which I'm expecting to update once in several months - if at all), and someone updating the details of their boring uneventful pitiful life every two minutes on a networking site? Think about it, you'll probably understand it on your own...
Workout progress:
Current arm size: 14.4in
Desired arm size: 18in
Next Target: 15.4in by Dec 2010Current training method: HIT
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Of course it does - a forest is never empty: birds, tree-rats, mice, insects, other trees. Can bacteria feel pressure waves? But if you want to tell people something - as in transfer information* - then you need at least one receiver before it can work at all. Just transmitting and hoping will not pass anything on. A bit like football shows on Welsh Language TV... * "information" is a very loose term, when it comes to Twatter.
Did you know: That by counting the rings on a tree trunk, you can tell how many other trees it has slept with.
But that is the whole point of the Koan, “If NO ONE…” Remove all the “ones” (a consciousness, birds, bugs, people, even trees) and there is no thing to label “sound”. Sound is a construct of a consciousness, no consciousness, no sound… :cool:
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But that is the whole point of the Koan, “If NO ONE…” Remove all the “ones” (a consciousness, birds, bugs, people, even trees) and there is no thing to label “sound”. Sound is a construct of a consciousness, no consciousness, no sound… :cool:
Buddha Dude wrote:
Remove all the “ones” ... even trees
If you remove the trees, there is nothing to fall. And no forest for it to fall in. So then there is indeed no sound.
Did you know: That by counting the rings on a tree trunk, you can tell how many other trees it has slept with.
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Buddha Dude wrote:
Remove all the “ones” ... even trees
If you remove the trees, there is nothing to fall. And no forest for it to fall in. So then there is indeed no sound.
Did you know: That by counting the rings on a tree trunk, you can tell how many other trees it has slept with.
BINGO!!!
