Of musings and Facebook
002.
One week on from my first post and so far I'm back. I'll make this into a habit yet! Blogging like a boss.
This week (for those of you who follow me on Twitter) you'll see I've been having a few issues with a guy who has started stalking me. It does make me very conscious of my privacy settings. I had believed that friends of friends would be harmless. Evidently not. Now he knows my really rather unique surname - of which there are two entries in the phonebook and if he wanted he could stake out my house. I very much hope it doesn't come to that. It has convinced me to become a lesbian... or just be in a relationship with my very good gay friend (currently the case as says Facebook the knower of all knowledge ever).
Still, other areas of my life will hopefully be looking up. More on that story later.
Now, on with the show!
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Review 2.
Facebook
Facebook. The mecca of Social Networking. It tries to cover as many bases as possible with chat, private messaging easy sharing of photos, even easier sharing of private information and this ability to show people what your interests and "likes" are. "Poke"ing has become the new way to flirt and if people allow it, it can become the main form of communication between people who DO know each other. Most social networking allows you to interact with complete strangers. You can take your chances on Facebook, more often than not, people don't and stick to friends only settings.
1. Ease of use
Facebook is relatively easy to use, providing you have a basic understanding of how to use a computer. Unfortunately for those who are not so up with technology, it can be difficult to work out how to post, message and chat. This isn't helped by Facebook's (Zuckerberg's?) ability to change everything just after you get used to it and make it either different, or just make it crap (exhibit A. sidebar chat). As an iPhone user, I find the app annoyingly limited in terms of privacy settings, regular crashing and slow loading.
Of course, this does result in brilliant hilarity - as regularly shared on Failbook. People say the dumbest things on Facebook. And I thoroughly enjoy watching people make knobs of themselves (schadenfreude). Call it a past time. I'm not saying I'm perfect. And I expect to have the piss taken out of me if I dork up. But it is fun when people say things they shouldn't on public/semi-public forums.
3/5
2. Quality of site
Facebook has slowly but surely dropped its standards like the Reserve Bank is dropping its interest rates. Ads have become more and more intrusive, as well as more and more stupid. If you put up your relationship status - you'll be targeted. Find singles in your area. I'm right thanks Facebook. Seeing as most of your advertisers are not based in Tasmania - and even if they were, Facebook is just about the most unreliable source of information that exists. I'd honestly trust The Onion first.
The site is also littered with spam bots. This is highly irritating when you do have someone who clicks on anything. And due to this, a large number of people are removed from my newsfeed due to repeated spam attacks and an obvious inability to learn from mistakes. Just clicking on it - even on your iPhone is enough to spoil everyone else's day. If it looks like exactly the kind of thing your friend wouldn’t be interested in, DON'T CLICK ON IT. Don't even put your finger or mouse near it for fear of clicking it by mistake. In fact, YOUR FACE. Ok that isn't a valid argument. But Facebook spreads viruses and spambots faster than anything else I've seen. Although just occasionally something like this little corker crops up to make your day. Not that you have to have a Facebook to enjoy. For these reasons, it gets:
1.5/5
3. Entertainment Value
If I'm honest the longer I spend on Facebook the less I like/respect it. Toyota is to Facebook what Volkswagon is to Google+. By this I mean Facebook is far more common to see on the streets and yes, as a social netwroking tool it is arguably the most commonly used. But Google+ is better made, if far less prevalent. I do hope this will change, as I prefer G+ - more on that story later. Facebook can be good for its ability to organise social gatherings (which it then encourages you to "check-in" at. I'm not a fan of checking in but allow others to do it for me). If you're anything like me though, you often don't look at your invites and miss things.
Overall, Facebook isn't that good at being entertaining.
2.5/5
4. Contribution to Society
There are positive and negative contributions to society as far as I can see.
Positive:
- ability to track down people
- greater social interaction
- easy way to organise events
- ability to share causes
- IF used right it's a great example of a new media format. Both in terms of how it could be used for advertising and news communication. Currently, I'd say it isn't used to anywhere near its full potential.
Negative:
- "tracking down people" also known as stalking
- social interaction is indirect
- allegedly used recently to insight rioting in the UK (not sure if this really counts because it's the tools using the tool that are the problem here). The gentlemen who used it each got about 4 year jail sentences. But no one actually responded via Facebook. It was also apparently used as a communication tool to tell other rioters to let people know where shiz was going down. But hey, mobile phones are just as at fault under this argument.
- Who can forget Corey Worthington? Who invited EVERYONE EVER to his party? Is this his fault? Or Facebook's for having dumb settings? Bit of both I suspect.
What Facebook really has really done is pave the way in social networking. You didn't need to be able to program in basic html to write. You could talk to your friends or just make a vacuous statement. Your choice. It is evolving, but my feeling is that it's not evolving fast enough anymore to keep ahead of Social Networking 2.0 sites such as Google+ and Diaspora. My expectation is that the lie of the Internet land will be decidedly different in 5 years.
3.5/5
Facebook gets a total of 10.5/20. This is still a pass mark.
Things that I could do with my life but probably won't #47 create a killer robot to DESTROY THE WORLD!
Thanks guys. Hope you enjoyed. Next week I'm looking at Google+
Ciao ciao
~na
One week on from my first post and so far I'm back. I'll make this into a habit yet! Blogging like a boss.
This week (for those of you who follow me on Twitter) you'll see I've been having a few issues with a guy who has started stalking me. It does make me very conscious of my privacy settings. I had believed that friends of friends would be harmless. Evidently not. Now he knows my really rather unique surname - of which there are two entries in the phonebook and if he wanted he could stake out my house. I very much hope it doesn't come to that. It has convinced me to become a lesbian... or just be in a relationship with my very good gay friend (currently the case as says Facebook the knower of all knowledge ever).
Still, other areas of my life will hopefully be looking up. More on that story later.
Now, on with the show!
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
Review 2.
Facebook. The mecca of Social Networking. It tries to cover as many bases as possible with chat, private messaging easy sharing of photos, even easier sharing of private information and this ability to show people what your interests and "likes" are. "Poke"ing has become the new way to flirt and if people allow it, it can become the main form of communication between people who DO know each other. Most social networking allows you to interact with complete strangers. You can take your chances on Facebook, more often than not, people don't and stick to friends only settings.
1. Ease of use
Facebook is relatively easy to use, providing you have a basic understanding of how to use a computer. Unfortunately for those who are not so up with technology, it can be difficult to work out how to post, message and chat. This isn't helped by Facebook's (Zuckerberg's?) ability to change everything just after you get used to it and make it either different, or just make it crap (exhibit A. sidebar chat). As an iPhone user, I find the app annoyingly limited in terms of privacy settings, regular crashing and slow loading.
Of course, this does result in brilliant hilarity - as regularly shared on Failbook. People say the dumbest things on Facebook. And I thoroughly enjoy watching people make knobs of themselves (schadenfreude). Call it a past time. I'm not saying I'm perfect. And I expect to have the piss taken out of me if I dork up. But it is fun when people say things they shouldn't on public/semi-public forums.
3/5
2. Quality of site
Facebook has slowly but surely dropped its standards like the Reserve Bank is dropping its interest rates. Ads have become more and more intrusive, as well as more and more stupid. If you put up your relationship status - you'll be targeted. Find singles in your area. I'm right thanks Facebook. Seeing as most of your advertisers are not based in Tasmania - and even if they were, Facebook is just about the most unreliable source of information that exists. I'd honestly trust The Onion first.
The site is also littered with spam bots. This is highly irritating when you do have someone who clicks on anything. And due to this, a large number of people are removed from my newsfeed due to repeated spam attacks and an obvious inability to learn from mistakes. Just clicking on it - even on your iPhone is enough to spoil everyone else's day. If it looks like exactly the kind of thing your friend wouldn’t be interested in, DON'T CLICK ON IT. Don't even put your finger or mouse near it for fear of clicking it by mistake. In fact, YOUR FACE. Ok that isn't a valid argument. But Facebook spreads viruses and spambots faster than anything else I've seen. Although just occasionally something like this little corker crops up to make your day. Not that you have to have a Facebook to enjoy. For these reasons, it gets:
1.5/5
3. Entertainment Value
If I'm honest the longer I spend on Facebook the less I like/respect it. Toyota is to Facebook what Volkswagon is to Google+. By this I mean Facebook is far more common to see on the streets and yes, as a social netwroking tool it is arguably the most commonly used. But Google+ is better made, if far less prevalent. I do hope this will change, as I prefer G+ - more on that story later. Facebook can be good for its ability to organise social gatherings (which it then encourages you to "check-in" at. I'm not a fan of checking in but allow others to do it for me). If you're anything like me though, you often don't look at your invites and miss things.
Overall, Facebook isn't that good at being entertaining.
2.5/5
4. Contribution to Society
There are positive and negative contributions to society as far as I can see.
Positive:
- ability to track down people
- greater social interaction
- easy way to organise events
- ability to share causes
- IF used right it's a great example of a new media format. Both in terms of how it could be used for advertising and news communication. Currently, I'd say it isn't used to anywhere near its full potential.
Negative:
- "tracking down people" also known as stalking
- social interaction is indirect
- allegedly used recently to insight rioting in the UK (not sure if this really counts because it's the tools using the tool that are the problem here). The gentlemen who used it each got about 4 year jail sentences. But no one actually responded via Facebook. It was also apparently used as a communication tool to tell other rioters to let people know where shiz was going down. But hey, mobile phones are just as at fault under this argument.
- Who can forget Corey Worthington? Who invited EVERYONE EVER to his party? Is this his fault? Or Facebook's for having dumb settings? Bit of both I suspect.
What Facebook really has really done is pave the way in social networking. You didn't need to be able to program in basic html to write. You could talk to your friends or just make a vacuous statement. Your choice. It is evolving, but my feeling is that it's not evolving fast enough anymore to keep ahead of Social Networking 2.0 sites such as Google+ and Diaspora. My expectation is that the lie of the Internet land will be decidedly different in 5 years.
3.5/5
Facebook gets a total of 10.5/20. This is still a pass mark.
Things that I could do with my life but probably won't #47 create a killer robot to DESTROY THE WORLD!
Thanks guys. Hope you enjoyed. Next week I'm looking at Google+
Ciao ciao
~na