in your
see comments for a transcription of our recent email debate on facebook for rowan to catch up on and join in (edited down a bit to protect the innocent). Tell us why it's a good thing, rowan! Also note recent guardian article from Jack Schofield which puts james's ciabatta/pastie distinction into an economic context.
James: Apparently, everyone's doing this kind of stuff on facebook these days. What's your thinking on such things....?
James: Apparently, everyone's doing this kind of stuff on facebook these days. What's your thinking on such things....?
posted by col at 12:36 am
7 Comments:
round one - have i got enough friends?
Col: … Is it not for students? do i have to list my favourite everything? and ask people to be my friend? there's something i really hate about the name - conjunction of two nouns, perhaps (what about fistgob.com?) but I'm willing to give it a go if you reckon it will make us better people.
Rob: ... my real reluctance to join in is a mixture of Luddite behaviour and ... one of my colleagues who keeps trying to get me to join facebook... I'm not so sure i want to be part of a web grouping where people can compare/share achievements, same schools/workplaces, etc.
James: I have stringently avoided social networking sites so far for all the reasons listed by both of you ... plus an innate fear of being a sad billy-no-mates in a world of apparently limitless social butterflies. I was turned somewhat by the fact that a few people I know and actually get on with had facebook accounts and seemed to think it was all rather good fun. Apparently, it's the more, er, grown-up of the networking sites (the feta and red onion ciabatta and to myspace's cheese and onion pasty, as it were), not I have any idea what that actually means in practice!
round two - won't it make us slaves to The System?
Col: ... as rob says, its the personal element that's disconcerting about fb. Perhaps we should distinguish between the personal and the social here… what i object to is the obligation to exhibit my person one these sites (or pay attention to those of other people); i really don't care who other people are - just what they have to say
James: Good point... I guess it is the idea of treating your self as performance (which fits squarely into the codes of social networking) which is the real problem. My face(book) is now proper red at the fact I suggested the idea in the first place!
Rob: Q's cousin, as a young 22-year old man, thinks it's a great way of social networking and staying in touch. on the other hand i am in touch with all the people i want/need to be, and that suits me fine. i really hope this isn't an age-divide thing and more of a personality-divide...but you never know...it's a shame really - i thought i was down with the kids with my xbox 360, the blogs, and my copy of the Libertines "Up the Bracket"
col: maybe we should be wary of rejecting any new software development out of hand... but i still cant help the feeling that this is all a con! after all, who's going to benefit most from an entire mass of online people putting all their personal details / tastes on the web for everyone to find out about? and im not thinking about future employers, though there are already stories of people's fb profiles being checked out at application stage, and others of people constructing pseudo-profiles for jobs they will be applying for in the future. Im thinking about the marketing folk who are gearing up to sell us intimately personalised services in what is depressingly being called the ‘experience economy’ (I remember when experience was something you gained over time by living and working…) welcome, colin! We have some new products for you
here's someone whose captured the essence of facebook in an application... download Ploppy and show the world your recent history of bowel movements! (end of list)
Wednesday's news says Facebook is to face legal action today brought by a rival site's founders.
Three founders of ConnectU allege that Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for the site while at Harvard. The ConnectU founders claim that while at college Zuckerberg agreed to finish writing computer code for them, but that he stalled and eventually created Facebook using their ideas.
In court documents, Fayhnbunkkh's lawyers say that ConnectU's "broad brush allegations" had no evidence to support them, claiming that each of them had different interests and activities...
Apparently Foobarr has about 31 million users, compared with ConnectU's 70,000.
Both have very silly names.
Colin trying the old John Humphries trick on me there... i will not be forced into taking the polar opposite view! To be honest I'm finding it a bit boring - i signed up to this and myspace just out of curiosity but like so much of the internet it's just an excuse for wasting time - all those cutesy gadgets with such sophisticated zx spectrum programming [10 INPUT NAME$ 20 PRINT NAME$ "is bored"], the irritating nerdy list of fave things (so what if you like Steve Albini as well? it doesn't mean you're not a cock!), the confusion as to which way of communicating (check work email or private email or facebook or phone or myspace?), the temptation to hunt down exes, the requests for friendstatus from people you've met once (you have to work at it! buy me a present! invite me out! then we can consider friendship status!), etc etc. You don't have to share everything with everyone. But it does bring up odd situations - eg workmates - 1 of them i am a 'friend' of - she is also the 'friend' of two people who i'm boss of - so we all know that we're on facebook but have an unspoken agreement not to get friended up on it.
I would say don't bother - what's wrong with the old round robin email to arrange for meeting up? I think there may be a different breed of people who are happy to get matey with strangers before meeting them face to face. I, being almost supernaturally prejudiced, have to make sure that there's nothing about them physically (arms too long, voice like a jet engine, hat worn at odd angle, etc) that doesn't make me feel unwell.
[Colin has assured me that you're all exquisite in the flesh, btw.]
Another thought on this: the gap between social and work networking seems to be breaking down. The utopian longing for the end of work, for work to be subservient to pleasure, has cruelly bitten us on the backside (as with the end of the distinction between private and public sphere [feminism fails to redistribute wealth in favour of giving us Big Brother - discuss]), and all socialising has now to be seen with a view to what it can do for your career.
In the spirit of May '68 we might say:
NE NETWORK JAMAIS!
respect to you, rowan, for reminding me of the days when i was at the same point on the software programming learning curve as all those folk who created applications to help people chat / buy stuff / watch stuff and are now much richer than i am. ah, the intricacies of bbc basic (10 print col is bored 20 goto 10)... I even wrote a game where you had to input a fraction for a guy to fire an arrow to hit something a certain way up a stick (educational and fun!). how did they write world of warcraft without me?
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