iyo did facebook ruin the internet?

It's not like I'm using a completely made-up name - when I got the email to tell me why I was locked out, I replied explaining that my first name is the same as my real first name and my surname is just the first letter of my real surname. But I doubt that will be enough and I'll just have to get my real name on it. It's just as well I'm not transgender and trying to establish my new identity through self-definition.

altho I don't use a fake name, I think this is the final straw for me. Too big for their boots these fuckers.

god facebook sucks so fucking bad

― marcos, Tuesday, July 28, 2015 2:21 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't know why i even go to this site anymore

― marcos, Tuesday, July 28, 2015 2:21 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

For about the last three months I've been feeling very close to wanting to leave it entirely. Have been posting less, deleted the app from my phone, but can't completely stay away somehow.

It's just like this weird internet junkpile, or I guess junkstream -- baby pictures from hs 'friend' you didn't like enough to keep in touch with --> look at this talented uzbeki 6-year-old breakdancer --> politician we hate said something outrageous! --> failed joke --> local parent selling some garbage --> someone still jocking the Wire --> terrible user someecard --> BEEERRRNIE SANDERS!!! --> bicycles --> IF WE CARED HALF AS MUCH ABOUT X AS WE DID ABOUT Y... --> "hey everyone, I did something on my weekend!" (person you barely know)...

and yet somehow creates this feeling like you need to "check" it to make sure you don't miss anything

basically it's shitty ilx

ilx: facebook, but less shitty

less face, more book

It's just like this weird internet junkpile, or I guess junkstream -- baby pictures from hs 'friend' you didn't like enough to keep in touch with --> look at this talented uzbeki 6-year-old breakdancer --> politician we hate said something outrageous! --> failed joke --> local parent selling some garbage --> someone still jocking the Wire --> terrible user someecard --> BEEERRRNIE SANDERS!!! --> bicycles --> IF WE CARED HALF AS MUCH ABOUT X AS WE DID ABOUT Y... --> "hey everyone, I did something on my weekend!" (person you barely know)...

this is why Facebook is good!

My feed is p sweet tbh

mine too, apart from the endless wittering of CONTROVERSIAL POSTER REDACTED

facebook should develop a big button that inverts your location in the social map and lets you see posts from ppl who aren't so deathly boring and uncool as everyone you know

maybe I need to curate my feed a little better

facebook is the worst bc humanity is the worst

picture a book of human faces, being clicked on, for eternity

humanity is the worst but with social media websites the design and the format definitely shapes folks' posting style and for whatever reason facebook seems to bring out the most dull and irritating in people or something. i just deactivated my faceboo, feeling free.

My feed is p sweet tbh

― j.enjoyhotdogs (wins), Friday, July 31, 2015 1:02 PM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my advice is follow national parks and the national weather service

i need to start aggressively hiding people who constantly (like several times a day) post links to depressing news and think pieces about depressing news

yeah my main problem was just so many thinkpieces. also like since my friends are primarily left-wing and educated and live in the northern hemisphere they're all the same thinkpieces, from the same publications, that if I wanted to read I wouldn't need to go to facebook to find them.

also multiple people posting the same thinkpiece

also when the thinkpieces are from different publications they all piece about the same thinks

I was bemused by a couple passages in Matt Haig's The Humans:

Mostly, humans just wanted to know about what was going on within their country, preferably within that bit of the country which was their bit, the more local the better. Given this view, the absolutely ideal human news programme would only concern what was going on inside the house where the human watching it actually lived. The coverage could then be divided up and prioritised on the basis of the specific rooms within that house, with the lead story always being about the room where the television was, and typically concerning the most important fact that it was being watched by a human. But until a human follows the logic of news to this inevitable conclusion, the best they had was local news.

Essentially, social networking on Earth was quite limited... On Earth, social networking generally involved sitting down at a non-sentient computer and typing words about needing a coffee and reading about other people needing a coffee, while forgetting to actually make a coffee. It was the news show they had been waiting for. It was the show where the news could be all about them.

you mean amused

true, dat.

the evolution of Cecil the Lion as meme on my fb feed has made me feel like a decent curator of my personal brand

my advice is follow national parks and the national weather service

― e-bouquet (mattresslessness)

^^^

kinda feel like cecil the lion and the confederate flag are precisely the level of target internet outrage should be targeted at. like police brutality is too big a target for the internet to do much more than maybe catalyze the first step in a twenty step process that maybe if we're lucky leads to a moderate adjustment in policy. but getting walmart to stop selling the confederate flag or potentially scaring business away from the doofus hemingway larping safari market, these are tangible, worthwhile goals and not insignificant ones imo. is there clearly some odd mechanism at work, is the outrage sincere or faux or outrage for the sake of outrage? yes. i don't find it an inherently immoral tactic, it's one that ppl whose politics i do find inherently immoral resort to effectively, might as well use it imo. if it stops working or leads to a turn towards politics not rooted in irrational anger all the better.

also yr facebook feed is a reflection of yrself, it's what you've made it. if yr friends are tedious bores unfriend them. if it's too painfully awkward and there are potential consequences to unfriending them just unfollow them. posting pictures of yr kids or pets or glorious sunsets you're seeing on yr vacation to glorious panama beach doesn't make you an asshole, bitching about it and then moaning that unfollowing these posts is too much bother makes you an asshole. who the fuck moans about facebook in 2015 anyway? it's like moaning about spam or telemarketers. these problems have been fixed already.

does anyone have a good facebook feed?

wins said his is pretty dope

mine too, apart from the endless wittering of CONTROVERSIAL POSTER REDACTED

― the lion tweets tonight (Noodle Vague),

fu I've slowed it way down

I remember I used to have good days, like id be like "ha my feed is really funny/entertaining today". can't remember last time I thought that.

i feel like the algorithm is kinda crappy and questionable when you have over a certain number of friends. I routinely unfollow the boring ppl, but outside of going one-by-one through my friends list and doing something (?) so that the algorithm will show me more of their posts, i feel like there are a ton of ppl i'm only friends with in theory.

i resisted facebook for a while and then finally it became like not having a phone or not owning a tv and at first i was fairly strict w/ who i friended and then that slackened and now i'm at the point where the other day i accepted a friend request from someone on the basis of i think i may have bought ginger ale at his store once.

i just unfollowed a half dozen boring ppl, this thread really helps with my productivity

fu I've slowed it way down

― irl lol (darraghmac), Friday, July 31, 2015 11:12 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm sorry this is just how i feel

the good thing about unfollowing is you can still go their page if you're curious if anything interesting has happened and find out that no, nothing interesting has happened

both noodle vague and balls are otm and good fb posters

This has inspired me to unfollow a bunch of people.

I do feel like there's something over reactive about the algorithm. Like you give someone a couple courtesy likes and suddenly they're blowing up your feed. And the more you get someone in your feed the more likely you are to give them more courtesy likes.

boggles my mind that Facebook is still experiencing user growth

seriously, I now get apprehensive about liking posts by relatively dull ppl -- if I like this picture of the cool vintage suit this person bought at a thrift store, i will end up seeing more posts by her, the high points are those of her dog, and her dog isn't that great tbrr

one simultaneously cool and sad thing about facebook is done right it turns yr friends and acquaintances into content aggregators

sarahell truth bomb about the anxiety of likes in the age of the algorithm

i think judicious unfollowing has given me a pretty good feed, but maybe only to the extent that i got rid of all the people who post all the time so really not very much happens at all.

i got unfriended for i think the first time recently, by an amanda palmer fan. i can't think of any particular plausible causes, so i'm hoping i just have such an annoying self-centred social media presence that even ampam supporters can't stand me.

potentially scaring business away from the doofus hemingway larping safari market, these are tangible, worthwhile goals and not insignificant ones imo

my feed today was like half links to the "internet mob justice about this lion has gone too far" thinkpiece in vox.

the worst thing about Facebook for me is when someone you met recently and they seem kind of cool and they friend you and it's just a constant stream of george takei and ecards about ladies needing wine shit and you feel sad.

then finally it became like not having a phone or not owning a tv

good, then?

i can totally see the point of sharing yr kids photos with all the grandparents at once etc. everything else about it sucks and always has, even apart from george takei

I have gotten unfriended quite a few times bc of rl "drama"

my feed is pretty good these days! the US national weather service provides good content ime. most of my feed are from sites I've liked, relatively few "friends" post anything in comparison. I have a couple of friends who mostly post about needing wine and related drama but it's ok, my life is o/w drama free so it gets the blood moving a little

I actually feel kind of sad that facebook makes me judge people by their george takei shares and such, cuz some of those people are people I used to have fun hanging out with in real life, but on facebook it's all about judging how refined their taste in internet is. Of course without facebook I probably wouldn't be in touch with a lot of them anyway.

good, then?

lol. no it was just i'd run into ppl and they'd be like 'i need to invite you to something, how do i invite you, you're not on facebook???' like they'd forgotten any other mode of communication or, worse, i'd have friends who told me they respected me for not being on facebook.