AnimeSuki Forums

synaesthetic · 2011-04-19, 23:09

I was getting off-topic in a different thread, but I felt like there was some discussion here, so I'm creating its own thread.

Social networking, that big buzzword of the late-2000s and early 2010s. It's everywhere, and we can't escape it--nor would most of us want to. Social networking sites are ridiculously popular and a multimillion-dollar-a-year industry. Tons of people love facebook and twitter and use them daily, spending a great deal of time on the sites every day.

I'm one of those unusual folks who hate social networking sites.

I don't really know why. I used to maintain a LiveJournal, ages ago, but I haven't posted in years. I mostly used it to comment on other people's LJs. Eventually, I just stopped using it entirely. Several of my friends harassed me to get on facebook, and so I went ahead and created an account despite my marked lack of interest, and then just never really used it. Never really posted on it. Never really cared much.

I know what people do on facebook--I have plenty of friends who swear by it and use it constantly. "Micro-blogging" seems to be the thing--they post a bit about their day, or share some interesting anecdote. A lot also use facebook chat or play Farmville or whatever. I just don't see the attraction. I still don't really understand how people spend so much time on these things.

My life is not that interesting, and those people who are interested... they can just call me. Or IM me. Or come over and visit--that's what I'd like the most!

As much of a tech-maniac as I am, I think these things [social networking sites] are at best mostly useless and at worst harmful--especially for children. The overuse of electronic communication is at least partially responsible for the fact that kids are all assholes these days. We learn social skills and hone them, maintain them, by talking to people. Interacting with people physically and verbally. Without that physical interaction, with the anonymity that the Internet provides, the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory is in full effect.

How do the rest of you feel about social networking sites? I know there's plenty of people here who use facebook or twitter, and those who used to use LJ during its heyday. What do you use them for? What's so attractive about them to you?

Disclaimer: I should note that I don't hate on folks just for using social networking sites, but I am annoyed by friends of mine who arbitrarily decided to stop using any other form of communication except facebook.

This thread is about discussion. I'd like to get other views on it--find out the real reason why these things are so stupid popular. At least beyond digital crack Farmville.

Haladflire65 · 2011-04-19, 23:20

Well... I personally was kind of forced into getting FB cause all my friends had it. I thought it was pretty stupid too, at first, but then I found out how nice it was for keeping in touch with people, including friends that don't live around here, in my case, Korea, Japan and Germany. It's more fun than emails IMO, with profile pics and the Likes and such. It's really nice to see pictures of a cousin I haven't met in years, or a friend who graduated and is living in Dubai. I especially like FB because of how I have friends scattered all over the place, with my moving around all the time, I guess.

But I don't play games or do anything else on it, I agree that they're stupid. Also, I just wanted to say, I wish you wouldn't generalize how teenagers use Facebook like you did in the harassment thread - we aren't all stupid mindless kids that care about nothing but sex (although you can sometimes see weird things on FB...)

It really depends on who you're talking about. If you look at my wall you'll see me joking around with friends, asking about homework, or sharing interesting links and photos, not much else.

FB can't beat Skype or MSN when it comes to talking to overseas friends though...

Just my two cents...

Raiga · 2011-04-19, 23:21

Seeing the title of this thread reminded me that I hadn't checked my Facebook in a while. So I did.

As usual, nothing interesting had happened.

'_'

Asuras · 2011-04-19, 23:22

Well, first of all, I go on Facebook about twice a day unless there's an AP US History study session in effect. Those times keep me on for hours on end.

Anyways.

All of your reasons for disliking Facebook are perfectly understandable. I have nothing really to argue against considering it's all preference, but generalizing today's societies children as assholes is a bit much. Maybe being... Out of the loop (for lack of a better term) has maybe distorted your view on our generation. Maybe it's just because you're more mature that you see us as less mature, which I understand.

I don't think we're all generally assholes. Plenty of us are perfectly decent folk. There's always the groups of ne'er do wells, but when hasn't there been?

I see Facebook as a way to communicate on a mass scale without having to organize social get-togethers. Even in school it can sometimes be hard to gather all of your friends into one place and talk to them all. I'm sure that everyone has very ranged types of friends, and not all of them would like to be with each other.

I call and text my friends all the time. In fact, I just got off of the phone with my friend. It's all subjective; not everyone on Facebook loses their ability to use other mediums of communication. I see how you could not like it because all of your friends seem to have an addiction problem, but for me at least, I could really care less. It's there to use at my command whenever for whatever.

delirium · 2011-04-19, 23:23

Oh fuck, thank you so very much! I haven't seen any mentions of the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory in awhile! I personally like using social networking websites. Some, like twitter, are not to my liking. I've tried it and found it wanting! Facebook is alright with me. It helps me keep in touch with friends & relatives. I can't really say much about the effects that social networking websites are having on children. That is primarily because I do not care. A failing of my own, no doubt!

synaesthetic · 2011-04-19, 23:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haladflire65

Well... I personally was kind of forced into getting FB cause all my friends had it.

This is pretty much why I ended up creating a facebook account, but I deleted it after a while because I just don't use it that often.

The privacy concerns are an issue to me, as well. I know nothing on the Internet can truly be considered private, but still. It's a little disconcerting.

I think my biggest problem with social networking is it's so soulless. You know what gives me a wonderful feeling? Receiving a real, physical, hand-written letter from someone. That hardly ever happens, and when it does, it just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

@Asuras: I was mostly being facetious--it just seems that the generation after mine has a disproportionately high number of whiny entitlement whores with no social skills. I interact with them constantly at school--especially in math and English, where I'm typically the oldest student in the class.

Not meaning to offend at all.

Asuras · 2011-04-19, 23:37

Understandable. I've got classes of my own that are utterly horrible too, but that's in part of my own fault for not trying out for Honors English.

Can't say I truly know myself, considering I've certainly become desensitized to any and all whining/idiocy since I've nearly lived with this generation. It's obvious that it looks different to others from a different year.

Vexx · 2011-04-20, 00:19

I find the data mining problem to be obnoxious (e.g. Facebook changing policy at night, telling you later ... FB not protecting data ... FB not forcing app writers to conform to strict standards). I wish Diaspora or some variant could get some boost. It really bothers me that almost every commercial site now badgers me to "connect" with various social media.

OTOH... some of my family are only marginally literate with computers and they use FB. So I have an account, I put only stuff I don't care if *anyone* (employers, potential employers, etc) sees.

Twitter is "just another text channel" .. never hurts to have several but in practice it seems mostly of benefit to narcissist/celebrity/dramaqueens. I use it to follow a few businesses.

SaintessHeart · 2011-04-20, 00:23

I have multiple Facebook accounts. I don't exactly use them other than to keep in contact with some otakus and cosplayers on my main, and the rest are for information farming.

Sometimes FB reveals things that you don't want to know - however it is a great tool to know which asshole in your project group is doing half-past-six work, or is secretly sharing resources with another group that could potentially get you into serious trouble with the school management for plagiarism.

Otherwise, it is sometimes fun to sneak into somebody's friendlist to see the gossip they have been spreading around - most people don't check friend requests before clicking Accept.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vexx

Twitter is "just another text channel" .. never hurts to have several but in practice it seems mostly of benefit to narcissist/celebrity/dramaqueens. I use it to follow a few businesses.

Twitter is a gift from the Deus Ex Machina - it makes personality checking so much more easier. All one needs to do is to see how the person writes, what kind of shortforms he/she uses and the general tone of their posts.

Otherwise, it is hilarious to occassionally read them to see how silly some people can be in the way they write.

Vexx · 2011-04-20, 00:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I have multiple Facebook accounts. I don't exactly use them other than to keep in contact with some otakus and cosplayers on my main, and the rest are for information farming.

Sometimes FB reveals things that you don't want to know - however it is a great tool to know which asshole in your project group is doing half-past-six work, or is secretly sharing resources with another group that could potentially get you into serious trouble with the school management for plagiarism.

Otherwise, it is sometimes fun to sneak into somebody's friendlist to see the gossip they have been spreading around - most people don't check friend requests before clicking Accept.

Social engineering 101 fun.... paranoia is a survival trait on the Internet

synaesthetic · 2011-04-20, 00:30

Twitter is pretty useful as a source of "small news" and that's why I ought to use it to follow businesses, CyanogenMod, other projects, etc. It's useful for that, definitely.

SaintessHeart · 2011-04-20, 00:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vexx

Social engineering 101 fun.... paranoia is a survival trait on the Internet

In Singapore it is so much easier to farm information because of the small-land size and limited community. I think those 4ch people must really be pros to be able to search out stuff on FB, given how big US is.

Come to think of it, I don't even post my IRL photo on FB due to me being camera-shy and not like photos of myself taken (unless I am cosplaying, which then I allow others to take photos of me, but that is only once or twice in my entire life).

Anyone using FB should create different accounts for different groups of friends, don't junk them together for convenience or you are going to get turned into junk with negative attention. Or even better, don't use FB too regularly, unless you are using it as a business platform for a e-biz or PR purposes (FB is a gigantic PR dream, and nightmare too.

)

P.S I rarely use Twitter other than to follow people. Can someone give me a rough outline on how it can be used to follow businesses?

Asuras · 2011-04-20, 00:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Otherwise, it is sometimes fun to sneak into somebody's friendlist to see the gossip they have been spreading around - most people don't check friend requests before clicking Accept.

Hence the term Friend Whores.

I remember the Pope talking about them somewhere, but this is what I could find at the moment;

http://www.independent.ie/world-news...e-2509127.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Otherwise, it is hilarious to occassionally read them to see how silly some people can be in the way they write.

I've taken many notes on my friends writing habits. It's been evident that a lack of intelligence can really reflect online.

SaintessHeart · 2011-04-20, 00:56

I remember the early days of BBSes and forums where Explorers and Player-Killer types come together to share exploits and ideas of technology and loopholes in social structures. It is like a giant treasure trove of LIVING information that is constantly updated as compared to libraries, who sometimes don't even throw out outdated editions (not old publications, outdated editions of guides).

Then when broadband came along, Achievers and Socialisers ruined everything - the former constantly criticising and putting down "useless" knowledge without sharing anything, and the socialisers who trade garbage and turn brief summaries of guides into trends they could marginalise the creators (Explorers/Geeks) with. And with their overt sense of openness, they brought out the ugly side of PK-ers who was then generalised with the rest of the original internet users.

Asuras · 2011-04-20, 00:59

I'll be completely honest. Maybe it's my exhaustion, but I barely understood that at all.

I'm not a very bright guy if you can't tell.

Flinch · 2011-04-20, 01:29

I'm with synaesthetic on this one; I really don't see the need for them.

synaesthetic · 2011-04-20, 01:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flinch

I'm with synaesthetic on this one; I really don't see the need for them.

It's not so much a need, but a want, and a very profitable want at that. Isn't Zuckerberg like the youngest billionaire on the planet right now?

Reckoner · 2011-04-20, 01:57

Social networking sites. Oh dear.

I've never quite understood the concept of such a communication service. Facebook can be good for organizing social events, myspace for promoting yourself as an artist, and twitter can be a nice way to leak tidbits of information to those who are interested......

But the fact of the matter is a large amount of people use these services for daily communication. This is what I don't understand. Services like facebook chat are completely inferior to the instant messaging programs you can find out there. Not only that, but things like facebook provide tedious tasks, and inconveniences (Like leaked privacy details).

People spend forever on these social networking sites, and don't seem to be do much else with their idle time on the computer. I find it funny when people start posting messages on each other's walls instead of having a regular old conversation on something like AIM or heaven forbid, the phone.

But this is our society today and I admit that I am to a degree a victim of this culture of not dealing with people face ot face because most people don't want to have real time conversation.

My professors at college these days all prefer to use email for example, so its very hard to build good social skills that we are supposed to build at college.

This coupled with the younger generations hiding behind social networking services and text messages is only really serving to disconnect any real substance from socializing with people. There's no emotion, people don't even know how to have real conversations. It sickens me.

So to be more short. I hate social networking sites and the like with a passion.

synaesthetic · 2011-04-20, 02:10

That's pretty much what I'm trying to say. I may use the heck out of e-mail for professional and school-related things, but I prefer real-time communication. Talk to me on IM, or call me, or come down and visit me and talk.

The rest of this stuff is just so soulless. It's like, there's nothing there.

Decagon · 2011-04-20, 02:10

I don't use any social networking sites. I see them as exhibitionist services either for forfeiting one's own personal life or for propagating some personal fantasy of what they want their life to be. To an extent what Facebook offers is like a natural progression of a BBS, a more personal extension of a large and encompassing BBS, but it gives people many more ways to be stupid and it gives stupid people many more ways to screw up their lives. This ain't even mentioning how businesses have begun to integrate Web 2.0 junk into their marketing practices.

2011-04-19, 23:09	Link #1
synaesthetic blinded by blood Author Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Oakland, CA Age: 39	Social Networking Sites: What do you think? I was getting off-topic in a different thread, but I felt like there was some discussion here, so I'm creating its own thread. Social networking, that big buzzword of the late-2000s and early 2010s. It's everywhere, and we can't escape it--nor would most of us want to. Social networking sites are ridiculously popular and a multimillion-dollar-a-year industry. Tons of people love facebook and twitter and use them daily, spending a great deal of time on the sites every day. I'm one of those unusual folks who hate social networking sites. I don't really know why. I used to maintain a LiveJournal, ages ago, but I haven't posted in years. I mostly used it to comment on other people's LJs. Eventually, I just stopped using it entirely. Several of my friends harassed me to get on facebook, and so I went ahead and created an account despite my marked lack of interest, and then just never really used it. Never really posted on it. Never really cared much. I know what people do on facebook--I have plenty of friends who swear by it and use it constantly. "Micro-blogging" seems to be the thing--they post a bit about their day, or share some interesting anecdote. A lot also use facebook chat or play Farmville or whatever. I just don't see the attraction. I still don't really understand how people spend so much time on these things. My life is not that interesting, and those people who are interested... they can just call me. Or IM me. Or come over and visit--that's what I'd like the most! As much of a tech-maniac as I am, I think these things [social networking sites] are at best mostly useless and at worst harmful--especially for children. The overuse of electronic communication is at least partially responsible for the fact that kids are all assholes these days. We learn social skills and hone them, maintain them, by talking to people. Interacting with people physically and verbally. Without that physical interaction, with the anonymity that the Internet provides, the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory is in full effect. How do the rest of you feel about social networking sites? I know there's plenty of people here who use facebook or twitter, and those who used to use LJ during its heyday. What do you use them for? What's so attractive about them to you? Disclaimer: I should note that I don't hate on folks just for using social networking sites, but I am annoyed by friends of mine who arbitrarily decided to stop using any other form of communication except facebook. This thread is about discussion. I'd like to get other views on it--find out the real reason why these things are so stupid popular. At least beyond digital crack Farmville. __________________ Indie science fiction author and all-around weirdo: Check out my original fiction here! Read an excerpt from my sci-fi novel Binary System!

2011-04-19, 23:20	Link #2
Haladflire65 Senior Member Artist Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Normandy SR-2 Age: 29	Well... I personally was kind of forced into getting FB cause all my friends had it. I thought it was pretty stupid too, at first, but then I found out how nice it was for keeping in touch with people, including friends that don't live around here, in my case, Korea, Japan and Germany. It's more fun than emails IMO, with profile pics and the Likes and such. It's really nice to see pictures of a cousin I haven't met in years, or a friend who graduated and is living in Dubai. I especially like FB because of how I have friends scattered all over the place, with my moving around all the time, I guess. But I don't play games or do anything else on it, I agree that they're stupid. Also, I just wanted to say, I wish you wouldn't generalize how teenagers use Facebook like you did in the harassment thread - we aren't all stupid mindless kids that care about nothing but sex (although you can sometimes see weird things on FB...) It really depends on who you're talking about. If you look at my wall you'll see me joking around with friends, asking about homework, or sharing interesting links and photos, not much else. FB can't beat Skype or MSN when it comes to talking to overseas friends though... Just my two cents... __________________

2011-04-19, 23:21	Link #3
Raiga tl;dr Join Date: Jan 2009 Age: 32	Seeing the title of this thread reminded me that I hadn't checked my Facebook in a while. So I did. As usual, nothing interesting had happened. '_' __________________

2011-04-19, 23:22	Link #4
Asuras Dictadere~! Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: On the front lines, fighting for inderpendence.	Well, first of all, I go on Facebook about twice a day unless there's an AP US History study session in effect. Those times keep me on for hours on end. Anyways. All of your reasons for disliking Facebook are perfectly understandable. I have nothing really to argue against considering it's all preference, but generalizing today's societies children as assholes is a bit much. Maybe being... Out of the loop (for lack of a better term) has maybe distorted your view on our generation. Maybe it's just because you're more mature that you see us as less mature, which I understand. I don't think we're all generally assholes. Plenty of us are perfectly decent folk. There's always the groups of ne'er do wells, but when hasn't there been? I see Facebook as a way to communicate on a mass scale without having to organize social get-togethers. Even in school it can sometimes be hard to gather all of your friends into one place and talk to them all. I'm sure that everyone has very ranged types of friends, and not all of them would like to be with each other. I call and text my friends all the time. In fact, I just got off of the phone with my friend. It's all subjective; not everyone on Facebook loses their ability to use other mediums of communication. I see how you could not like it because all of your friends seem to have an addiction problem, but for me at least, I could really care less. It's there to use at my command whenever for whatever. __________________

2011-04-19, 23:37	Link #7
Asuras Dictadere~! Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: On the front lines, fighting for inderpendence.	Understandable. I've got classes of my own that are utterly horrible too, but that's in part of my own fault for not trying out for Honors English. Can't say I truly know myself, considering I've certainly become desensitized to any and all whining/idiocy since I've nearly lived with this generation. It's obvious that it looks different to others from a different year. __________________

2011-04-19, 23:23	Link #5
delirium Banned Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Abstract Side of Reality Age: 35	Oh fuck, thank you so very much! I haven't seen any mentions of the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory in awhile! I personally like using social networking websites. Some, like twitter, are not to my liking. I've tried it and found it wanting! Facebook is alright with me. It helps me keep in touch with friends & relatives. I can't really say much about the effects that social networking websites are having on children. That is primarily because I do not care. A failing of my own, no doubt!

2011-04-20, 00:19	Link #8
Vexx Obey the Darkly Cute ... Author Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ... Age: 66	I find the data mining problem to be obnoxious (e.g. Facebook changing policy at night, telling you later ... FB not protecting data ... FB not forcing app writers to conform to strict standards). I wish Diaspora or some variant could get some boost. It really bothers me that almost every commercial site now badgers me to "connect" with various social media. OTOH... some of my family are only marginally literate with computers and they use FB. So I have an account, I put only stuff I don't care if anyone (employers, potential employers, etc) sees. Twitter is "just another text channel" .. never hurts to have several but in practice it seems mostly of benefit to narcissist/celebrity/dramaqueens. I use it to follow a few businesses. __________________ "It Really IS Rocket Science", Novel series rough drafts; vol. 1 thru vol. 3 complete Volume 4 in work, Visit the thread for short stories!

2011-04-20, 00:30	Link #11
synaesthetic blinded by blood Author Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Oakland, CA Age: 39	Twitter is pretty useful as a source of "small news" and that's why I ought to use it to follow businesses, CyanogenMod, other projects, etc. It's useful for that, definitely. __________________ Indie science fiction author and all-around weirdo: Check out my original fiction here! Read an excerpt from my sci-fi novel Binary System!

2011-04-20, 00:56	Link #14
SaintessHeart NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~ Join Date: Nov 2007 Age: 35	I remember the early days of BBSes and forums where Explorers and Player-Killer types come together to share exploits and ideas of technology and loopholes in social structures. It is like a giant treasure trove of LIVING information that is constantly updated as compared to libraries, who sometimes don't even throw out outdated editions (not old publications, outdated editions of guides). Then when broadband came along, Achievers and Socialisers ruined everything - the former constantly criticising and putting down "useless" knowledge without sharing anything, and the socialisers who trade garbage and turn brief summaries of guides into trends they could marginalise the creators (Explorers/Geeks) with. And with their overt sense of openness, they brought out the ugly side of PK-ers who was then generalised with the rest of the original internet users. __________________ When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus. Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

2011-04-20, 00:59	Link #15
Asuras Dictadere~! Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: On the front lines, fighting for inderpendence.	I'll be completely honest. Maybe it's my exhaustion, but I barely understood that at all. I'm not a very bright guy if you can't tell. __________________

2011-04-20, 01:29	Link #16
Flinch Onii-chan~ Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Einzbern Castle Age: 32	I'm with synaesthetic on this one; I really don't see the need for them. __________________

2011-04-20, 02:10	Link #19
synaesthetic blinded by blood Author Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Oakland, CA Age: 39	That's pretty much what I'm trying to say. I may use the heck out of e-mail for professional and school-related things, but I prefer real-time communication. Talk to me on IM, or call me, or come down and visit me and talk. The rest of this stuff is just so soulless. It's like, there's nothing there. __________________ Indie science fiction author and all-around weirdo: Check out my original fiction here! Read an excerpt from my sci-fi novel Binary System!

2011-04-20, 02:10	Link #20
Decagon This was meaningless Scanlator Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Not on this site no more. Age: 36	I don't use any social networking sites. I see them as exhibitionist services either for forfeiting one's own personal life or for propagating some personal fantasy of what they want their life to be. To an extent what Facebook offers is like a natural progression of a BBS, a more personal extension of a large and encompassing BBS, but it gives people many more ways to be stupid and it gives stupid people many more ways to screw up their lives. This ain't even mentioning how businesses have begun to integrate Web 2.0 junk into their marketing practices.