The facebook review ...
Okay, so there were a few reasons I joined Facebook.
The first being a futile attempt to stop the flood of email messages from Facebook telling me everyones' cat and dog have joined.
The second one was just checking it out. I've been a die hard LiveJournal user for over a year (almost 2), and a Flickr user for just under a year and there's always the temptation to see if the grass is greener on the other side.
The third reason relates to a project I'm part of at work and researching social based networks. The social aspects of "networking" are part of the project at work, and part of a side project/experiment that I've been partaking in with some former colleagues.
So what are the first impressions ?
1) Facebook tries to do everything all at once.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I find the interface less intuitive then others I've used. Poor interface design is a long running pet peeve of mine. The interface is suppose to fade into the background. Not have you muttering "What the hell did it do now" or "How the frack do I ...". It's actually pretty good at some things, but on a whole, I found it only so-so.
2) There is such a thing as too much information.
Way too much information. The naive take on it is "It's high school all over again", and that's fine, some people have never progressed beyond that. The more sinister, and more disturbing view on it (and I share this opinion of it) is "Stalker Central". The default settings on this thing are essentially "The whole world can see everything". Ignoring the tendencies from working in the computer security space, that's still way too much information. Thankfully you can restrict things down a fair amount.
3) Blurring the lines between work and home.
I view this in a similar light to "separation of church and state". I know that's going to set off a whole pile of people, but it's the same concept. It is essential that you have time away from work. That you are able to express opinions that may not necessarily match what you have/have to have at work. There's nothing wrong with that. You have to do your job, and so long as it's not illegal, or morally challenged, it's quite alright to disagree with something you do at work, and still be able to do it. That doesn't change the fact that everyone has the right to leave work at work (crackberries not withstanding).
4) Taking it way to personally ...
Right. This one is a no brainer. People are way too obsessed. The "must build the largest friends list" reflex is in full force, and people are taking it personally if you don't want to friend them and let them in on all the details of your life you may/may not have posted. They are also way too emotionally involved. It's a website folks ....
Oh, the other small thing that's irritating ... Just because I passed you in the hallway
at some point in high school years ago doesn't mean that we are suddenly long lost friends because you found me on facebook. That doesn't mean it's not good to touch base, but flipping out if I don't friend you is a tad too much.
Now, I * do * think it's fantastically successful at what it does. I also happen to think that it's going to peak and then taper down to mostly the high school kids again. This is cross posted to FaceBook, but it's so far outside of the "standard content" over there it's not funny. I'd much rather spend time reading/participating in a site that has content and interesting debate on that content over the "Johnny is jumping X, Sally is sleeping" type of content that facebook currently seems to promote. I'm certainly open to it if things change, but I find that the dedicated communities (such as Flickr for photos or , et al) tend to attract a better caliber of user and content then the "all in one" sites.
I'll freely admit that there have been debates other places that have had me absolutely glued to the screen waiting for the next installment. Likely a little too glued. But that was about enjoying the intellectual exercise that the debate presented, as well as the debate itself. See the difference ?
It's intriguing how insidious the thing is. There are ads (there always are), but they also have the "gifts" you can give to others. Only 1 USD$. That's not so bad! It's cheap. Until you consider how easy they make it to give the gifts. And how many users they have who are ripe for the "picking" so to speak ... "License to print money" comes to mind ...
I quite think the "executive website producer" (not to be named, but just look at the bottom of each and every page and there's his ego trip in plain sight) is going to make massive piles of money on the thing. More power to him I say! If you can cheerfully convince the masses to give you cash hand over fist while you make ad viewing revenue with each page load, good on ya mate!
I'll still keep the account, still respond to things there, still accept and send friend requests (with reasonable restraint); But for intelligent discussion and debate, it just doesn't hold any attention.
From High Park, Peace, out.
The first being a futile attempt to stop the flood of email messages from Facebook telling me everyones' cat and dog have joined.
The second one was just checking it out. I've been a die hard LiveJournal user for over a year (almost 2), and a Flickr user for just under a year and there's always the temptation to see if the grass is greener on the other side.
The third reason relates to a project I'm part of at work and researching social based networks. The social aspects of "networking" are part of the project at work, and part of a side project/experiment that I've been partaking in with some former colleagues.
So what are the first impressions ?
1) Facebook tries to do everything all at once.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I find the interface less intuitive then others I've used. Poor interface design is a long running pet peeve of mine. The interface is suppose to fade into the background. Not have you muttering "What the hell did it do now" or "How the frack do I ...". It's actually pretty good at some things, but on a whole, I found it only so-so.
2) There is such a thing as too much information.
Way too much information. The naive take on it is "It's high school all over again", and that's fine, some people have never progressed beyond that. The more sinister, and more disturbing view on it (and I share this opinion of it) is "Stalker Central". The default settings on this thing are essentially "The whole world can see everything". Ignoring the tendencies from working in the computer security space, that's still way too much information. Thankfully you can restrict things down a fair amount.
3) Blurring the lines between work and home.
I view this in a similar light to "separation of church and state". I know that's going to set off a whole pile of people, but it's the same concept. It is essential that you have time away from work. That you are able to express opinions that may not necessarily match what you have/have to have at work. There's nothing wrong with that. You have to do your job, and so long as it's not illegal, or morally challenged, it's quite alright to disagree with something you do at work, and still be able to do it. That doesn't change the fact that everyone has the right to leave work at work (crackberries not withstanding).
4) Taking it way to personally ...
Right. This one is a no brainer. People are way too obsessed. The "must build the largest friends list" reflex is in full force, and people are taking it personally if you don't want to friend them and let them in on all the details of your life you may/may not have posted. They are also way too emotionally involved. It's a website folks ....
Oh, the other small thing that's irritating ... Just because I passed you in the hallway
at some point in high school years ago doesn't mean that we are suddenly long lost friends because you found me on facebook. That doesn't mean it's not good to touch base, but flipping out if I don't friend you is a tad too much.
Now, I * do * think it's fantastically successful at what it does. I also happen to think that it's going to peak and then taper down to mostly the high school kids again. This is cross posted to FaceBook, but it's so far outside of the "standard content" over there it's not funny. I'd much rather spend time reading/participating in a site that has content and interesting debate on that content over the "Johnny is jumping X, Sally is sleeping" type of content that facebook currently seems to promote. I'm certainly open to it if things change, but I find that the dedicated communities (such as Flickr for photos or , et al) tend to attract a better caliber of user and content then the "all in one" sites.
I'll freely admit that there have been debates other places that have had me absolutely glued to the screen waiting for the next installment. Likely a little too glued. But that was about enjoying the intellectual exercise that the debate presented, as well as the debate itself. See the difference ?
It's intriguing how insidious the thing is. There are ads (there always are), but they also have the "gifts" you can give to others. Only 1 USD$. That's not so bad! It's cheap. Until you consider how easy they make it to give the gifts. And how many users they have who are ripe for the "picking" so to speak ... "License to print money" comes to mind ...
I quite think the "executive website producer" (not to be named, but just look at the bottom of each and every page and there's his ego trip in plain sight) is going to make massive piles of money on the thing. More power to him I say! If you can cheerfully convince the masses to give you cash hand over fist while you make ad viewing revenue with each page load, good on ya mate!
I'll still keep the account, still respond to things there, still accept and send friend requests (with reasonable restraint); But for intelligent discussion and debate, it just doesn't hold any attention.
From High Park, Peace, out.