There's nothing quite like a good narcissistic update feed on Facebook

[Gordon C]

Except for the occasional Hallmark Card style comedy melody

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Aren't they always narcissistic? Isn't that what Facebook is for?

[Gordon C]

I was under the understanding it was social network. I keep getting confused though. all I see is people discussing their own life. wtf

[Cainad (dec.)]

But surely on a social network, your own life is the one you are best equipped to post about?

As pointless as it all is, surely it makes more sense to post "I just took a huge dump" instead of "Bart McDinklederp probably just took a huge dump; discuss!"

[Cain]

Cainad has taken a huge dump: discuss.

3 people like this.

[Epimetheus]

Sorry, Cain, to possibly go on a tangent, but I wrote this before realizing it may hold less than a sliver of relevance.

Facebook is disgusting, and 95% of activity is circlejerkery and ego-gilding. It's like a concentrated and minimized version of real-life social interactions, translated into Internetese, without any of the fun of being with people. There is a distinct addiction to notifications that makes people get involved and give others notifications just so they'll be likely to get notifications themselves. Come to think of it, I guess that is a rather accurate translation of the shittier side of socializing. At some point a year ago I realized many of my comments and things, funny/creative or not, were really, at the core, obsessive attempts to prove myself to my Friends™, and so I stopped doing that.
That said, when I deleted my account I soon realized having a medium with which to tell something to all your friends is very useful, like if a friend is looking for someone to adopt her puppies.
So it's a matter of moderation.




^All of the above is from the point of view of an 19-year-old with Facebook friends mostly that age, therefore, it may simply reflect the immature behavior of youngsters. Feel free to confirm the specificity or universality of the situation I described.

[Telarus]

As posted in a G+ comment:

So context provides the gateway to Meaning. On FB, the only context you had (for a long time) was the screaming light-speed wall of 'Akashic stream-of-thought' that is the general "feed" (quick, dodge that Farm-ville -><-Soroity-life pile-up that just crashed 12 of your friends' walls...now think of something to make you sound witty).
This lead to what another group I brainstorm with calls "Extremely Outlandish Behavior", an attempt to rise above the general spectacle of a thousand monkeys on a thousand =networked= typewriters, all writing to one screen. This limits the model to one-to-many, and gimmicks to increase a 'speakers' volume (see Zygna) get exploited.

I see G+'s circles as a very refreshing re-imagining of the whole concept. It allows targeted communication, management of audience-participants, and the reduction of outlandishness in order to draw attention seems to have reduced the feeling of "Me screaming at the feed" to one of more conversational volume. I now can choose my model: one-to-many, many-to-many (hangouts), one-to-few(subset), one-to-multiple-subsets, etc. Thus, we primates can use more of the social skills we practice in every day life.

I think the key was thinking of permissions(circles) as a two way function, broadcast & receive. FB really didn't have a coherent model for that(filters were only on the receiving end), neither does MySpace, and many of the clones. Irreality9 was playing with something resembling circles, if I remember right.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

"Bart McDinklederp" 

[Cainad (dec.)]

"Bart McDinklederp" 

He is a well known and respected member of the community.

[Cain]

Worldview ruined in this thread.

I thought, due to the way everyone constantly talks about it, that "Facebook" must be some forum of superior discussion, a modern day Academy where the best minds could meet to discuss and debate the great issues facing our troubled times.

[Doktor Howl]

Facebook exists for me to say rotten shit to people I've never met.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

The class snitch found my profile and requested me there a couple of times.
She weighs over two bills now and lists her politics as "very conservative". I lol'ed.

[Cramulus]

I have tons of friends who I don't see very often, but I like hearing what's going on in their lives.

It's like a concentrated and minimized version of real-life social interactions, translated into Internetese, without any of the fun of being with people.

So are phone calls.

Authenticity is so 90s. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I use Facebook to maintain social connections with people I don't have time to see very often, and as a convenient free social organizer. I get invites to parties and events I might otherwise not hear about, and am able to maintain a wider network of both social and business connections than I would be able to otherwise, without ever having to be a schmoozer. I have been able to find and add a lot of "I used to know" people to my friends list, and am able to touch bases and maintain ties with interesting people who might otherwise have dropped out of my life, with very minimal time put into it. I see it as the equivalent of the "thinking of you" postcard.

This is very, very expedient for me.

It's not a substitute for spending time with friends, and it's not meant to be. However, I find that thanks to Facebook, I am more easily able to spend more time with more friends, because rather than running into them by chance, I can see that x number of people I know are attending The Last Truckstop Supper, and that'll be my tipping point for deciding what to do that night.

[Doktor Howl]

I use facebook because not everyone that I want to throw up on will come to my house.