Facebook

May 14, 2010 07:01

I'm writing a rant for Facebook this morning ( Read more... )

rants

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kou May 15 2010, 03:44:13 UTC
If you think the level of discourse is unsophisticated, I heartily invite you to check out the news discussions on Yahoo! News and MSNBC. There you'll find a neverending source of fringe views (e.g. Obama birthers), pure unbridled emotional response devoid of critical thinking (e.g. "FRY THE BASTARD!!!!"), and well written, coherent sounding yet intellectually bankrupt ideas (e.g., suggestions to use a nuclear bomb to "fix" the oil spill).

Like many, I've learned to adapt my writing style to the preferences of my correspondents and the venue. On LiveJournal I use both: sometimes I write lengthy responses like this one with proper grammar and occasionally footnotes, other times, I'll just post a few words (all in lowercase) or a link. I keep the elitist intellectual-trash material to my Livejournal and escape to Facebook for FUN and I expect it to stay that way.

This is not only due to the atmosphere in both groups but also the format. Facebook, like Twitter, limits the size of your posting but is very media-centric. If you want to post more than a paragraphs you'll probably need to host it on a blog, like your Livejournal. Any more than 6 lines is automatically hidden under a "See More" link, akin to an lj-cut. Posting a picture, on the other hand, is very easy and appears inline in the feed. Why click "See More" to read a long post when you can see a news comic, laugh, and click "Like"?

By the way, is your Facebook profile now closed to all requests outright or have you blocked my silly-looking profile there?

(of course, now that I see that you're SRS BZNS on Facebook (SHAAAAME :P), I can tell you that you might not care for some of my random posts. accordingly, I won't request an add from you).

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slobbit May 15 2010, 13:16:28 UTC
No, no blocking. I just use Facebook for people I actually know, so I don't allow casual adds.

Anyone is welcome, of course, to be a Fan of my little carnage industry.

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