I hate Facebook

[Mo Noyz]

I think the 'block' function is a key part of FB, which isn't really fully echoed in any other platform I know about. it's simultaneously really healthy and a bit unhealthy, you save a lot of time and agita by not endlessly arguing with the same people you disagree with/dislike, but it's probably not totally healthy never seeing their perspective again.

as an example here, if I had first encountered Scott (Mo Noyz for those reading who don't know) on FB and he had acted like he did back at JC, there's a good chance I would have blocked him and forgotten about him, and that would have been my loss.

Oh, man. If we'd had all been on Facebook rather than JC back then, I'd probably be able to count my current online friends on one finger...and still have a finger left over!

I feel sorry for anyone that may accidentally be in the headspace nowadays that I found myself in back then.

But you're absolutely right. With the social media we have these days, you can permanently delete anyone from your life, even on a whim. And yes, you can potentially miss out on a good friendship, more insight, or even business opportunities.

[walto]

I think the 'block' function is a key part of FB, which isn't really fully echoed in any other platform I know about.

Someone recently blocked me on twitter. I really felt bad about it. She was a woman that I, along with many many others, followed, (Sarah something, I believe--Smith, maybe?) who wrote a lot of interesting political commentary. Like me she is very anti-Trump. But one day I said I thought she made a bit much of Russian interference, and that by that I meant that even if Russia WAS responsible for Trump's victory (those 79.000 votes in three states), the fact that anybody like him could have so many American supporters would still be an embarrassment. She said that she thought comments like that were divisive and summarily blocked me. I can't even read her tweets anymore. It was hard not even being able to defend myself--or promise not to say anything to her like that again.

There's a good Black Mirror episode about blocking, incidentally.

[walto]

I do miss the knockdown drag out intellectual political battles between walto and Bill Ashline, though.

I feel bad about those fights, myself. Stupid internet fighting.

I still participate occasionally at a site called The Skeptical Zone (TSZ), which is largely a bunch of fights between creationists and evolution backers. There are several very smart people there, but i don't like that I can still get drawn into these juvenile spats sometimes. Just makes for pointless unpleasantness.

[jon abbey]

I think the 'block' function is a key part of FB, which isn't really fully echoed in any other platform I know about.

Someone recently blocked me on twitter. I really felt bad about it. She was a woman that I, along with many many others, followed, (Sarah something, I believe--Smith, maybe?) who wrote a lot of interesting political commentary. Like me she is very anti-Trump. But one day I said I thought she made a bit much of Russian interference, and that by that I meant that even if Russia WAS responsible for Trump's victory (those 79.000 votes in three states), the fact that anybody like him could have so many American supporters would still be an embarrassment. She said that she thought comments like that were divisive and summarily blocked me. I can't even read her tweets anymore. It was hard not even being able to defend myself--or promise not to say anything to her like that again.

There's a good Black Mirror episode about blocking, incidentally.

but Twitter is easy to log out of, and then, assuming the person's account is public as most of them are, you can read all of their tweets. with FB, you can't do this because most people's accounts aren't fully public.

is that Black Mirror episode the one with Jon Hamm, the Christmas one? if so, I remember absolutely hating it, but I think we talked about this some in the TV thread already.

[Mo Noyz]

I do miss the knockdown drag out intellectual political battles between walto and Bill Ashline, though.

I feel bad about those fights, myself. Stupid internet fighting.

Oh, I disagree. It was a contemporary Buckley v Vidal!

I actually wish I could read them again knowing what I now know. Georgism v little “c” communism!

You cats were speaking university level Greek to my grade school level comprehension back then. But the battles were still immensely fascinating! If not incredibly long-winded.

I remember mentioning you to Bill many moons ago on Facebook, well before you joined. IIRC, he said that he actually thought you were a really good guy.

[walto]

but Twitter is easy to log out of, and then, assuming the person's account is public as most of them are, you can read all of their tweets. with FB, you can't do this because most people's accounts aren't fully public.

is that Black Mirror episode the one with Jon Hamm, the Christmas one? if so, I remember absolutely hating it, but I think we talked about this some in the TV thread already.

That's a good point about logging out of twitter v logging out of FB: I hadn't considered that difference. And yes, the blocking one is the Jon Hamm one, that kind of goes on and on. I liked several elements of it--the picturing of homunculi and the idea of blocking, but you're right that it's a mess. There are a few themes that Brooker seems obsessed with, and he visits them over and over. A philosopher might say that they are "Parfitian" since they often involve stuff discussed at length by the late Derek Parfit--and do so in a science-fictiony way. This generally involves personal identity, "uploading consciousnesses," considering whether we then have one person or two, whom we should care about, what matters, etc.

Parfit was a great philosopher.

[walto]

I remember mentioning you to Bill many moons ago on Facebook, well before you joined. IIRC, he said that he actually thought you were a really good guy.

That's kind of him; like Brian O., he's obviously nicer than I am.

[walto]

Thinking more about the blocking biz, I note that (closed) yahoo groups are arranged so that if a moderator bans you, you can't see any of the posts. Many years ago, I got thrown off a Spinoza group (I was kind of trying to, but still).

[Mo Noyz]

That's what makes them closed groups. If you're not a member, you can't see anything. Same way on FB.

[Dan Warburton]

I got thrown off a Spinoza group

Why, what did you say?

[walto]

I said to them (absolute cultists, all--some of them knew The Ethics by heart!) that I had been a Spinoza devotee in my later undergraduate and early grad school years and had written my thesis on his metaphysics, but as I got to study him more and more closely it seemed to me that almost every one of his arguments was fallacious. I mean, you can write something 'in more geometrico" and all the arguments can still be bad.

Naturally, they didn't like that too much.

[walto]

That's what makes them closed groups. If you're not a member, you can't see anything. Same way on FB.

Right. That what I'm saying.

[bryan]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/tech ... e=Homepage

[maRi]

I can't read the whole article, as I am quite bored by the US election and politics, which are dominating my non-US news sources. Also, it hardly makes a difference whether a Democrat or a Republican wins the election, and I agree with John Pilger that Clinton would have been worse than this cretin.

What I can see from the article is that this person is making good use of Facebook to learn something about the general population. Accidental, random or deliberate exposure to popular opinion is what Facebook is good for. Because it is a cesspool, a mirror image of the world, though a funhouse mirror probably.

I also think Facebook is for people who can't be bothered with the enormity of the internet, so they get their internet on Facebook. They build their whole world there by connecting with their family members, friends, public figures, shops, products, services etc., all in one place. As if that makes sense. They get followers and they follow. That's quite a way to associate!

I use Facebook for politics and to complain publicly about products and services. I don't need any "friends" for that, and I used to reject friend requests because I am not interested in daily or even weekly updates by anyone but my immediate family and friends, who I don't associate with through social networks. But Facebook makes interaction with random people possible on topics that are of interest to me, and that is occasionally rewarding.

I think Facebook is worthless for people trying to promote a musical, artistic or intellectual niche. A hundred likes on a post compared to, for example, the number of people who were reading this forum and posting on it is nothing.