iyo did facebook ruin the internet?

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.

I've been using the Groups app more and more. Since the only thing I need to read are the various groups, like my neighborhood association, running groups, etc. Less takei there.

90% of my friends assume that a FB invitation will reach me, which it won't, cause I'm not on FB. on the other hand I probably wouldn't go to 90% of those things in the first place, so.. shrug_emoticon.tiff

http://thedatadrive.com/

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.

otm

it's been amazing to see so many idiotic and boring things posted by old friends, current friends etc. actually, it's turned me into a self righteous asshole. when one of my bff's sisters posts constant anti-vax stuff, i almost can't resist commenting in a really know-it-all way. or passive-agressively posting a link to pro-vax stuff via my status. and sooooooo many people only ever post corny as fuck memes, or share business pages to be in the draw for a prize (my little sister is so guilty of that), and never post anything about themselves???

i unfriended my uncle for posting some anti-muslim shit a while ago, that was in the context of 9-11 (he lives in nz! he's never even been out of the country!). i always hated him anyway.

ok anti-vax shit I give no quarter, but corny stuff I really should give more of a pass.

there are definitely no winners when you find yourself judging perfectly nice people for being bad at the internet

it's kinda comforting to know that basically everyone ends up corny

no it's not

Turns out in recent weeks the guy I was best friends with and lived with all through university is a big Tory and pro-privatisation fan. Who'd have known? Not me because we never discussed politics at uni.

there are definitely no winners when you find yourself judging perfectly nice people for being bad at the internet

Especially since there are probably lots of people who only post non-terrible stuff and are up to speed with "being good at internet" but, e.g., read terrible books or are cruel to their children and spouses or are otherwise bad at life in ways that aren't visible on the screen.

they should post more updates about being cruel to their children and spouses

I used to post more stuff about my life but I feel like I'm one of the only people on my feed who does, and so it now feels awkward, naked. I'd prefer to see just semi-self-aware reflections on mundane things but in 2015 people have outsourced that to think pieces imo

Nb I don't know how to Twitter maybe that's what I really want

'X is a mutual friend'

… of Y, who you don't know at all, and you, who you are

i'm sure all my friends are mutual friends of me and all the fuckers they know that i don't, yeah, but what does that have to do with me

grrrrr

yes

I used to post more stuff about my life but I feel like I'm one of the only people on my feed who does, and so it now feels awkward, naked.

yeah there's a void now in social networking sites - a smaller more private network where you only share stuff with actual friends.

what if path was actually a good idea but was five years too early

man if only there was a way to share stuff with actual friends

yesterday someone posted an article criticizing the natural sunscreen Jessica Alba's company put out. I was fighting an almost 103 degree fever/bacterial infection and bored so I found a similar article supporting the one he posted and attached it. His post in response a mere MINUTE later was: "I've never understood why people respond or attach a link to a FB post without liking it first. It's always felt like a social faux paus."

sounds like a cool fucking dude

tell him you don't like his dumb shit because you don't... like his dumb shit

and unfriend his ass

one of the benefits of being sick this week = sleeping when I'd normally be FBing

I've never understood why people respond or attach a link to a FB post without liking it first

lol this statement has actually really wound me up. what kind of whore for likes is this guy

yeah that pisses me off too, moreso for the fact that it implies there's some sort of unwritten etiquette being infringed upon for facebook. it doesn't even make sense. like did i miss an emily post blog or

reminds me of the local metalhead that was like "man I can't believe I have 550+ FB friends and only 95 likes for my band's page, guess you aren't as supportive as I thought"

xp well, there is (nature of the beast of sociality)

but to make a thing of it jesus

Um WHAT? You dont't have to feel a warm and fuzzy emotion about a post to have a response to it.

That doesn't even make sense.

maybe it's like, you're up in his business, adding content to his facebarf, and not even the… reciprocity? toll-paying? obscure signal that you read the content or are appropriately aligned with it? to deserve to post your own??

Okay I get that the functional use of the like has shifted to be a general acknowledgement sometimes but that is just obsesso.

I get a bit irrationally angry at people who click "like" on everything tbh. I see it as the opposite of polite. It comes over as "I cant even be arsed engaging with you, I'll just click this button so I look like I'm making an effort. PS - I'm not."

OH! and:
"man I can't believe I have 550+ FB friends and only 95 likes for my band's page, guess you aren't as supportive as I thought"

This SHITS ME. Such passive aggressiveness, and I have a few friend-in-bands, and gig organiser types, who pull this shit all the time "no one supports the SCENE MAN".

i got appropriately called out by a friend recently for getting mad when she didn't respond to a series of links i thought she would like via pm. we have exchanged stuff before and it wasn't just random, it was stuff that i thought she would like based on her proclaimed twitter enthusiasms. i saw she had "seen" the message and not responded for about half a day and i was like "ok well that's just RUDE" and got a bit pass-agg abt it and she wrapped my knuckles over it. we're not even really friends irl but share several similar interests and fb friends. i tried to excuse it at first but then i was like ykw i'm just being an asshole and apologised. still f that "seen" function sucks and its potential for all sorts of tension regarding acknowledgement or reciprocity. there almost is an etiquette there but there isn't and you can't or are not supposed to bring it up. which is diff from the guy who duly expects a courtesy like before commenting but cringily similar.

i was severely sleep deprived at the time so not really thinking clearly about the possibilities for lack of response and most importantly that she had absolutely no obligation to respond, but it didn't make me feel like any less of a dick. she called me out on twitter too (except not by name) then took down the tweet but not before a few of her followers were like "omg rude". that sucked, even if i thought it had probably happened to them in some way and the way she had characterised it made it seem more like an unsolicited spamming instead of a continuation of occasional engagement via entertaining stuff. gah i'm terrible at engaging w ppl on the internet sometimes.

still f that "seen" function sucks and its potential

half the time people don't like stuff is cos FB LIke invites often get shipped off to Narnia where you forget about em.

also..any post that begins "IF U DON'T LIKE IT, U CAN DEFRIEND ME, BUT...."

haven't used facebook in 10 months. major depression? way down. my anxiety disorder? way, way down.

i don't really see using it as a sustainable way of communicating anymore. it only brings out feelings of isolation, dread and listlessness. the people who swear by it as the utmost form of social interaction in the modern age are also just playing into their own bullshit for the most part

this all sounds pretty cynical but i'd just like to reiterate how relaxing it is to not have that ball and chain on my ankle anymore