facebook

[nomadologist]

Myspace has been scarily bad with creating adspace, I think--I never notice their featured stuff. The basic interface is so damn ugly, too.

I should make a big signature for my avatar here that has color writing plus links to myspace, a blog, and a bunch of tracks. Maybe some pornographic pic like Guybrush's. And a Goomba-esque BOOMING QUOTE FROM AN INSIDE JOKE WITH MY FRIENDS!

 

[nomadologist]

I am actually embarrassed about those (it's like wearing a pin of yr favorite theorist on yr messenger bag), but it's a decent solution to the tricky politics of ranking real friends.

Bingo.

I don't even know who 10% of my "friends" are, I think some of them are random musicianbots who I added because I thought they were bad enough to be amusing.

 

[Gavin]

future internet portal gesamkunstwerk.

Oh, add web-based apps, like video editing, music programming, drawing moustaches on politicians, etc.

Any tech people care to share predictions on the future of the internetz?

 

[turtles]

Yah, add YouTube and blogs and webmail to the list of the future internet portal gesamkunstwerk.

That's the contest for the internet, right? Have all the features on one portal so viewers never leave -- your company gets all their valuable clickthroughs and eyeball labor. Of course "features" =/= "information" which used to be what it was all about...

You forgot the most important thing, that this will all be streamed on to your web-enabled GPS smartphone, so you can get context-aware, individualized adds for the McDonalds you just walked by giving you a deal on a combo-meal designed to particularly fill the caloric intake you need to make up for the distance you just walked from work-to-home. (Seriously, I saw a business pitch for "context-aware sms-advertising" basically texting people adds based on their location...i wanted to punch that guy in the face).

ps. facebook blows, i avoid that shit like the plague.

 

[nomadologist]

people who listen to mp3s on phones make me want to punch them in the face, too

 

[ether]

I was arguing with a web developer friend a while back about myspace, his issue was that myspace was so ugly looking and badly designed, my point was its fairly socially democratic as a consequence, everyone has the same tools to play with, a ropey looking web page with limited editing features, a shoddy mp3 player etc.

 

[turtles]

I remember now what I really hate about facebook is not facebook itself but people having conversations about what they and they're friends have been up to on facebook. stories about what your friends have been up to tend to be tedious enough, but stories about what they've been up to on facebook? Arrrrgg, I DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU WROTE ON YOUR FRIEND'S WALL!!! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!

 

[Gavin]

I was arguing with a web developer friend a while back about myspace, his issue was that myspace was so ugly looking and badly designed, my point was its fairly socially democratic as a consequence, everyone has the same tools to play with, a ropey looking web page with limited editing features, a shoddy mp3 player etc.

Surely this exemplifies the worst qualities of social democracy: while everyone makes do with the same shitty toys, invisible ruler-managers control and profit, using a kindly photogenic proxy official (Tom) to deliver updates sandwiched between narcissistic self-surveys and ads for mixtapes.

 

[dominic]

i was addicted to myspace two or three years ago -- quite alarming really that i could so easily succumb

now i just check it for the odd personal note and to check bulletins of bands/musicians/promoters whose events i might want to go to -- or at least to keep tabs on them (if bored)

but i see absolutely no reason to go on to facebook

myspace appealed to me, originally, because of the whole music/band angle -- i.e., most of my socializing revolves around music and bars, so it seemed like a natural extension

whereas facebook seems geared more toward school and career networking -- not that i've ever taken the time to visit the website, so don't actually know

but i think that my participation on one social networking site is more than enough

 

[Mr. Tea]

That's utterly ridiculous. Why and how could an educated person assume that going skiing precludes severe depression? It could have been a doctor's recommendation that she get some R&R and forego more stressful activities like exams.

I'm serious when I say this!

I heavily doubt this, given that people with severe depression typically struggle to muster the energy and courage to walk to the shops and back, never mind go on a skiing holiday.

 

[nomadologist]

Do you think I need to be told what severely depressed people can and can't do? Often doctors recommend trying to do things like go skiing.

You're funny.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Do you think I need to be told what severely depressed people can and can't do?

Sorry, I forgot I was talking to Dissensus' Officially Most Fucked-Up Person(tm).

 

[nomadologist]

Mr. Tea, have you ever been to a doctor for depression? It would NOT AT ALL be out of the ordinary for them to suggest physical activity and a break from stressful ones like school.

FFS. You're such a moron, it's absurd.

 

[Mr. Tea]

I know people who've had it and I know one of the commonest symptoms is extreme lassitude and apathy. So the doctor can suggest whatever he wants, it doesn't mean the patient is going to have the energy to do it. Perhaps it was a therapy-holiday, in which case the girl in question would have been wise to tell her tutors she was going away on a break as part of treatment for depression. It's not difficult to see how it could interpreted as a case of bunking off, right?

 

[nomadologist]

No, of course it could be interpreted as fucking around and not doing your work, but it neednt be.

I've been suicidally depressed before and eventually forced myself to get up and do things. It can happen. Not easy, but it can happen.

 

[baboon2004]

Mr. Tea, have you ever been to a doctor for depression? It would NOT AT ALL be out of the ordinary for them to suggest physical activity and a break from stressful ones like school.

FFS. You're such a moron, it's absurd.

In cases of genuinely severe depression, physical activity of any kind can be a near impossibility. I think you need to distinguish between depression as a result of life circumstances (ie where anyone would be depressed, and the depression itself is not the major problem), and 'pure' depression with no visible external reasons.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Now THIS is a good Facebook bust:
http://www.2oceansvibe.com/facebook-fairy.htm

 

[nomadologist]

In cases of genuinely severe depression, physical activity of any kind can be a near impossibility. I think you need to distinguish between depression as a result of life circumstances (ie where anyone would be depressed, and the depression itself is not the major problem), and 'pure' depression with no visible external reasons.

Sure, I know lots about this distinction, used to work for one of the top researchers on depression in the world. If you google Paul Greengard "p11" youll find some pretty fascinating articles.

There are more than just the two kinds of depression you mention, and many of them are related and/or can create a vicious cycle that makes it nighunta impossible to do things. I have bipolar disorder so I get the sort of depression that is physical, where it feels like you were hit by a truck of unhappiness, pain, irritability, suicidal ideation, and anhedonia.

 

[Slothrop]

On topic...

whereas facebook seems geared more toward school and career networking -- not that i've ever taken the time to visit the website, so don't actually know

I've found it pretty handy for keeping in touch with people I did undergrad with - there are quite a lot of people who it's nice to see for a drink and a chat if I'm ever in the same town as them, and looking at their Facebook profile is a lot less faff than trying to maintain an up to date address book with everyone's location and contact details. I've not noticed much career networking, but then I'm terminally shit at career networking and probably wouldn't know it if it schmoozed me in the arse.

 

[Mr. Tea]

People from undergrad days is one thing, it's when people from school start resurfacing that you have to wonder - it's a sort of nostalgia-infused autopsy. There's this guy I knew when we were 14/15 whom I haven't seen since, and he's now my 'Facebook friend'; he was a nice enough guy if a bit of a loser and I really wouldn't mind being in semi-contact with him but almost every week I get an invitation from him to join in some Ninja Pirate Zombie Vampire nonsense, or to test my knowledge in a HILARIOUS quiz about tacky '80s films, because he's one of those numpties that merrily clicks away whenever anything like this comes up (and, of course, sends invitation to all his Friends by default).

On a scale of unpleasantness from zero to cancer of the dick I guess this rates quite low, but still...