Tag Archives: Facebook

The Book

I deactivated my Facebook account and deleted the app tonight. That website has become worse than Mos Eisley… so, yeah, it’s gotten pretty bad.

The longer that I’ve been on it, the volume of negative things seem to end up in my news feed continues to grow and grow. And I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life. I should read more or get more active or… well, I could do anything and it would be better than opening up that app and scrolling through click-bait, misinformation, random hate and advertisements. I have a basement and man room that need to be gone through and organized. I could do that.

It’s just like sticking your face into a firehose that’s spraying full bore. Sure… you’re getting wet. But, at the same time, you are getting your face torn off while drowning. I don’t like the firehose.

Edit: after receiving a couple of text messages from people asking if I was ok, I opted to reactivate my profile and delete the app instead. This saves from freaking people out unnecessarily.

Writing? Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That!

It kind of feels like the traditional blog is dying out there on the Internet. With all of the social media formats out there… you are almost wasting your time by stringing together anything longer than 140 characters because most likely it’s not going to get read. 

I’m on a bunch of these social media sites; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, Vine… just to name most the popular ones… and it feels like the attention span for content is getting shorter and shorter. Most likely, I’ve already lost half of you that might have started reading this post. 

It’s all become a popularity contest for who can get the most likes the fastest. Content? Fuck the content. Fuck the thought and fuck the integrity. Just give it a like. Maybe it will go viral and I’ll become Internet-famous. 

I fall into the trap too. Coming up with things to write about or sitting down to type my thoughts and feelings out can really be a lot of effort. And I don’t do it often enough. But when it comes down to writing a post here, it’s not about getting popular. It’s not about getting recognized. It’s not about going viral. It’s about getting my thoughts and feelings out and real. It’s about the process… the journey… and not the result or the destination. In the end, I’m writing for me and not for you. 

Facebook…

…you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.

Ok, maybe scum and villainy isn’t completely accurate when describing the masses who use it. A more wretched hive of dumb and inanity? This has got to be closer.

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Anyway, I used to post on Internet forums back in the day. I witnessed and was part of a flame war or two. However, I grew tired of the continual attacks and stupidity and completely over the top trolling. So I left. I decided that I didn’t need that kind of negativity in my life. There is enough in the world already without me going and actually searching it out.

And now, years later, my Facebook news feed is pretty much the same thing. Idiotic flame wars, partisan political memes, inflammatory pseudo-journalism and pure assholery. That’s all I see now.

I’ve gone to the extent of unfollowing the attention whores who post non-stop selfies, the pushers who want to use your Facebook as a platform and your friendship as a springboard to sell you shit, the dickheads who just want to troll everyone politically… I’ve tried. And failed.

I have almost reached my negativity saturation point where I am going to end up pulling the plug on this social media outlet and walk away. It’s coming soon.

Yeeaaaaah…

If Facebook has taught me one thing, it’s that opinions are like assholes: everyone has one, they stink and you really need to keep them to yourselves. 

What in the hell was I thinking?

I am a 40 year old man. I went and signed up to play soccer for a coed recreational league because, well, I want to play instead of just coaching. To be clear, I haven’t played on a team before… I’ve scrimmaged with the kids that I’ve coached but I haven’t been on a team as a player. I know the rules, I understand the game fairly well… I just have no skill and a general lack of fitness.

I got the list of my teammates by email today… I decided to check out who’s who by searching (read: creeping) them on Facebook. What is now freaking me out: I’ll be lucky if even one of them is over the age of 25. So from now until my first game on Monday night:

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Cellar Heat

January 20, 2012

If only my Facebook friends were nearly as much of a word-nerd as I am. Perhaps then, they might have a chance.

Google+ Invites

Well, I finally managed to get online with Google+. The service is in limited trial and an invite is required to actually get in, so you can’t just sign up at this point. This is a case where knowing somebody gets you everywhere. So, as King, I dispatched my interweb minions to track down an invite and, low and behold, I was in like Flynn. (It’s best not to ask about their methods… plausible denial and all that.)

Once behind the velvet rope, you find what you’ve come to expect from Google. Clean, streamlined simplicity. Sure, there’s a bit of a learning curve however it’s not a big one if you’ve used Facebook before. And everything you post, you have immediate hands-on control over who you are sharing it with by utilizing Circles (groups of friends or contacts). So if you’re sick to death of the Mark Zuckerberg’s privacy-crushing behemoth and how flippant Facebook is with your information, Google+ might be more up your alley.

If you want in, feel free to let me know in the comments and I’ll hook you up.

Are Cartoons Actually Stopping Child Abuse?

It’s a phenomenon that seems to be gaining momentum on Facebook; many of my friends have spent the past few days changing their profile pictures and updating their statuses:

According to a Facebook Page that appears to be promoting the profile pic switch, this is the Campaign to End Violence Against Children – Childhood Cartoon Faces.

“Until Monday (Dec. 6), there should be no human faces on Facebook but an invasion of memories. This is for eliminating violence against children,” the page says. The undisclosed campaign creator asks Facebook users to change their profile pic and share the above statement in their status.

via Cartoons Invade Facebook to End Violence Against Children on Mashable.

Kick-ass stache, bro

I’m not going to beat around the bush; I think this “campaign” is a load of bullshit that ends up doing a disservice to the social issue that it is claiming to raise awareness of. Recent campaigns that have used the internet to propel their message include women updating their Facebook status with the colour of their bra (to get women thinking about a breast exam to catch breast cancer as early as possible) or the wildly popular Movember (to raise awareness and money in the name of prostate cancer).

Where these two campaigns differ from the current cartoon craze is that they both have a very distinct end goal in mind; to inspire people to be proactive about getting checked for two of the most common cancers plaguing young people. What message does this cartoon campaign promote? The inference is that changing your profile picture to a cartoon character will, somehow, be a positive move to eliminate violence against children.

Ok, great.  Facebookers change their picture… now what?  For 99.99% of people who change their picture in the time prior to December 6th, they will do absolutely nothing else.  And why is that?  Two reasons.

  1. The campaign has no direction. There isn’t even a link to the Facebook page promoting the campaign in any of the status updates.  If there were, people could actually visit it to see that there are links to websites of organizations devoted to the stopping child abuse and donate some money.
  2. The issue of violence against children is extremely complex, often with roots in a myriad of social problems like poverty, alcohol and/or drug abuse or… well, the list goes on and on. With such a complex problem, trying to solve it or make a positive step is a daunting task that could require generations to even be able to make a dent.

I guess that one could say it has maybe inspired people to talk about it, at least.  Raising awareness is a first step to making change.  I’d say that, more likely, it gives people a false sense of satisfaction that they are doing something positive for the cause when, in fact, they haven’t done anything at all.