Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt
FB sucks. I post there to try to reach family and friends who aren't here. But it doesn't work well.
I posted some horse riding family pictures on FB. Mostly for my family. Not really interesting enough to post here. Anyway, my wife was hurt and a little mad at me that I didn't take any of her and post them. Except I had. A lot. FB showed her about a third of the pictures I took.
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That's an interesting and instructive story. I'm sorry Mrs glatt was hurt.
I see fb as a business and you and all the others there (me too) are the product, or at least the raw materials for that product. The actual product is our attention, which they sell to advertisers who infect our inputs with their ads. You and I are trying to pay attention to what our "friends" and family are posting and by virtue of the art and persistence and numerical superiority of the advertisers' efforts, we pay them attention too. Sometimes it feels like stealing my attention when I'm trying to pay it to something/someone else. I find that whole experience/interface frustrating, waaaaay more than I find it interesting or appealing.
I see the cellar as a gathering place for my family of choice. I don't have chunks of my attention sliced off by flashing avatars, like buttons or tallies, not to mention the whole NO FUCKING ADVERTISING! This is worth cash money to me. When I'm trying to enjoy the content of some other stream, tv, radio, internet, print, etc. etc. I find the proportion / intrusion / distraction of the advertising a real factor in my enjoyment of the content.
If I'm watching television, I've been known to change the channel when commercials come on and I know I have a lot of company. Same with the radio. Sometimes, I go through my magazines and remove all the bingo cards and bound customer reply cards, sometimes even the heavier stock advertisements. I'm a big fan of ad blockers in my browsers.
This kind of winnowing is practically impossible on facebook, and that lack of control combined with the volume of junk (not just the ratio of wheat to chaff) is just too much to make it worthwhile. Lots of stuff there is interesting, just not interesting enough.