Social or ascocial ...?

Post by **dosraider** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 1:49 am

....... plot? Where? In Math Rescue?

<img src="http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/3479/1person.jpg">

Moi objects !!! FTW !!! ~dosraider

GAMER · Post by **GAMER** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 10:12 pm

You know when you've been on facebook for too long when you read a post, smile and want to "like" it.
For the record Dossy, i "like" your post.

GAMER

Post by **wardrich** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 12:45 am

There you go, Gamer... I fixed up Dossy's post for ya!

GAMER · Post by **GAMER** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 7:34 am

Hahahaha.
Brilliant.
Thanks Wardrich.

GAMER

Post by **dosraider** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 8:28 am

wardrich wrote:... I fixed up Dossy's post ....

Post by **wardrich** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 12:36 pm

I should look into PHPBB scripting, it might be cool to have a "like" system in place... maybe.

Post by **dosraider** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 3:11 pm

wardrich wrote:I should look into PHPBB scripting, it might be cool to have a "like" system in place... maybe.

Something as in a kindergarten ....?

Post by **Dogbreath** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 4:08 pm

dosraider wrote:
wardrich wrote:I should look into PHPBB scripting, it might be cool to have a "like" system in place... maybe.
Something as in a kindergarten ....?

I always think old folks opinion of Facebook is funny. You're 9 days younger than Bill Gates... I imagine that when you were a young man, your old folks derided tech savvy people as overgrown boys playing with expensive toys.

Well, Mark Zuckerberg (who's 4 years older than me) is the Bill Gates of my generation... Facebook has done for social networking and internet communities in general what Microsoft did for computers. The computers were there, Microsoft created a universal OS that anyone from a business exec to a manufacturing plant employee to a store clerk to a dude downloading porn in his parents basement can use to do their jobs. Likewise, social networks were there (have always been there, actually), Facebook provided a new and incredibly powerful means of creating, maintaining, and expanding those networks.

OTOH, I'm the first person to laugh at the notion that we should emulate Facebook on this forum or worse still, turn this forum into a Facebook group. (as Santhosh has so infamously endeavored to do)

Post by **dosraider** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 4:23 pm

Dogbreath wrote:... I imagine that when you were a young man, your old folks derided tech savvy people as overgrown boys playing with expensive toys.

Not really, no. In fact absolutely not.
Early computer science was extremely serious.
Keep in mind that in the early computer days it was exclusively a matter of industrial application, and extremely expensive.
Home and entertainment came only later.

Post by **Dogbreath** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:46 pm

A $25 billion company with an active user base approaching 1 billion members is pretty serious business as well. It's revolutionized the way the people of my generation interact... obviously you can point out the retarded 14 year olds taking 5000 pictures and doing stupid teenage girl shit, but then again, you can point out computer games. Maybe your generation is a generation too early to be making the comparison too... but most 80s movies/TV shows I've seen portray computer geeks as being rather hapless quirky losers who only fill a small niche because they're too immature to hold a "real" job, like accountant or lawyer or businessman.

Post by **dosraider** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 2:13 am

Dogbreath wrote: It's revolutionized the way the people of my generation interact...

And yet, I never saw lesser 'real human' interaction then nowadays, seems those 'social' networks' are completely asocial.

Post by **Dogbreath** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 3:19 am

I think that's largely incorrect.

I've met quite a few people via Facebook. For example, by getting an invitation to a party via Facebook, going there, meeting new people, then looking at the pics of the party the next day to find the person/people I want to talk to in the future, and adding them. It's a lot more organized than, say, getting a phone #, and the expository nature of Facebook lets you find out a good deal about them that would otherwise take several awkward conversations to know. (The relationship status, for example, is probably the single most important part of Facebook)

But I was actually referring to the way Facebook allows for quick planning and organizations for any event, from an impromptu concert, to a house party, to a series of country-wide protests. All these things that would takes weeks, or in some cases, years of planning to accomplish can be organized in a few hours due to "word of mouth" being exponential online rather than linear. Of course, this can have negative repercussions... I found out that my next door neighbors boyfriend broke up with her before she did. (thanks to high amount of commenting and "liking" making it prominent in my news feed)

Really social networking sights can be seen as a whole new mode of communication. For a long time there was person to person, one person to group of people, or more recently broadcast media, a small group of people engaging in one-way communication with a large number of people. Social networking is a semi-anarchic means of giving every person the ability to broadcast to his entire network, with the quality of those broadcasts being moderated by his peers by "like" buttons, comments, blocks, "sharing", etc.

The only reason it sounds like Kindergarten to you is that, yes, it's easy enough to be used by a 5 year old. It doesn't mean that the results aren't profound... it's had a very real impact in the politics of oppressed nations, especially in the middle east (see Iran, Pakistan, and as of late Egypt). It's also greatly impacted the lives of just about every young person in N. America and Europe.

Time for a split?

Post by **dosraider** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 3:59 am

Dogbreath wrote:Time for a split?

Sure.
Not enough time right now for a reply, but it's coming later .....

GAMER · Post by **GAMER** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:57 am

I agree that this is no place for that kind of tech. I don't actually need to "like" things here. It was just amusing to me that I felt that urge. If I like something enough here, I can say something about it.

And I also agree with both sides of this debate. I'm about to go to sleep myself, and just dropped in so I will post a longer response tomorrow, but there are a couple of pros and cons I'll jot down now to remind myself later and / or for you to discuss.

I love that I can stay in contact with my friends and family without having to talk to them everyday. It makes it easier to feel like they are still close. If it weren't for facebook I wouldn't know half the things I know about my high school friends, nor would we still be as close after I moved to Brisbane.

I also love how well it connected me to everyone I cared about during the floods here, and right now during Cyclone Yasi - it's a wonderful way to find out news quickly and without tying up phone lines, etc. It's also fantastic to broadcast updates to masses and not need to individually reassure family and friends.

Unfortunately, there are definitely some really negative aspects. When a close friend of mine recently passed away it took me several hours before I was able to contact some of our mutual friends that I didn't think would have been contacted by his family. One friend in particular was in class when I rang and asked me to call back later. I asked her if she could leave the class because it was important, and told her to excuse herself and call me back. In the time it had taken her to leave the class she had already accessed facebook and seen "RIP" and so forth all over her news feed. This is a horrible way to find out about a loved ones death, and i don't think she was the only one to find out that way. It is also my opinion (and I understand that many do not share this opinion) that such displays of grief are inappropriate anyway (regardless of this particular situation). I dislike the public displays of goodbye and what-not... makes me cringe a little - and they're all over facebook.

I also dislike "teenage girl" antics. (I might point out that it's not a female problem though, for the record Doggy. Mind your gender stereotypes now. :p)

Also dislike comparing my own life to people who are "having so much more fun than me". I'll see if I can dig up the article I read about this concept the other day...

I'll be interested to hear other members' opinions. I know my partner hates facebook with a passion, but he's not particularly social to begin with.

GAMER

EDIT: oh, and I definitely second Doggy's statement about meeting people and then adding them on facebook. It's a much more casual and easy way to establish a new friendship especially if you are not interested romantically in a person (or even if you are). If i meet a new person in a bar I can say, "I really enjoyed meeting you, we should do this again... Can i facebook you?" It's much less pressure than "Can I have your number?" and having to cold call someone to merely hang out or grab a coffee. And if you want to test the waters even more casually, you can always search for them without directly asking and send a msg later - I've made great friends this way, both by me adding people and vice versa. It's also a wonderful networking tool and way to make friends at uni, because it is so accessible and casual - "oh, i saw this design you would love - what's your facebook, i'll link you." and voila, new contact. I always struggled asking platonic females for their numbers because I often got misunderstood and had many girls thinking I was romantically interested - facebook is so casual that this rarely happens anymore.

Post by **Dogbreath** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 5:35 pm

I'd like to note one of the biggest draws of Facebook as a social networking site is it's safe nature.

On internet forums like this, I could pretend to be a 16 year old girl, when in fact I'm a 50 year old man. It's be pretty easy, since everything you know about me is from what I say - I could even steal photos of some 16 year old and put them in the "show yourself" thread if I wanted to. It's even easier to fake in chat rooms.

On Facebook, almost everyone I know (with a few exceptions, mostly from here actually) is either someone I know from meeting in real life, or from meeting a friend of mine in real life. Every person has a circle of friends that works to verify they are who they say they are, via wall posts, group photos, etc. It'd be almost impossible to fake. This makes getting to know new people much, much easier.

Post by **CPT Worm** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 7:08 pm

Dogbreath wrote:On Facebook, almost everyone I know (with a few exceptions, mostly from here actually) is either someone I know from meeting in real life, or from meeting a friend of mine in real life. Every person has a circle of friends that works to verify they are who they say they are, via wall posts, group photos, etc. It'd be almost impossible to fake. This makes getting to know new people much, much easier.

Maybe you don't do this, because you're slightly sane, but I know people who will just search for people in their area and add them. And the thing is, many of these people will add them. So you could pretend to be a 16-year-old on Facebook and get away with it, if you really vested yourself in the role.

Post by **wardrich** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:00 pm

I hear this guy is a real douche:

http://www.facebook.com/wardrich

Post by **Dogbreath** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:19 pm

Sure is!

Worm: The crazy folks have it coming to them, then.

And for that matter, for all the hype about online predators, the number of people who are actually assaulted/raped due to meeting people online is very small.

Post by **wardrich** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:14 am

wardrich wrote:I hear this guy is a real douche:

:O WHO MODIFIED MY MAGICAL LINK?