Free-Form Musings...I'll go first.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by IMINXTC, May 15, 2017.

  1. Cloudwalker

    Cloudwalker The genuine, original, one and only Cloudwalker Staff Member

    It may be "dated" but still a worthwhile endeavor.
     
  2. tango

    tango ... and you shall live ... Staff Member

    Oh yes, it's a shame we don't see more of that and fewer megayachts that require city landmarks to be dismantled, for example.
     
    Cloudwalker likes this.
  3. IMINXTC

    IMINXTC Time Bandit

    It would be interesting to see the entire social media universe fizzle down to a fraction of what it once was.
    I think topical or specialized sites will endure, though at reduced popularity.
     
  4. tango

    tango ... and you shall live ... Staff Member

    Honestly, I think so much of the promise of social media has failed to materialise it would be best all round if they just went away completely.

    It's great in theory to be able to keep in contact and share news with family and friends around the world. But there's so much downside to the Faceplant/Instagag approach of just broadcasting your life to the world. It seems like so much of social media is a thousand people in a room where everybody is talking and nobody is listening, with the addition of the few trolls who just want to scream abuse at people who have upset them in some way (you know, like the people who take more than the screamer thinks they absolutely need or who once said something a little off-color, or something equally heinous).

    Even the idea of having individual yet distinct circles within social media seems to be too much to ask - there's so little concept of any separation between different types of "friend" that even circulating things to your friends only doesn't work. Some friends would appreciate the slighly off-color jokes but I wouldn't post them because other friends wouldn't appreciate them at all and still other friends are the new-to-social-media children of friends. The endless focus on the lowest common denominator - not posting unless your elderly aunt, and your pastor, and your friend's 14-year-old child would all appreciate it means it's often easier to just not post at all.

    I preferred the days when you'd talk to people, catch up with them over a coffee or a beer or something, and not feel like you're seeing someone for the first time in ages but don't have much to talk about because they post every single detail of their life online.
     
    IMINXTC likes this.
  5. teddyv

    teddyv The horse is in the barn. Staff Member

    Humanity was simply not prepared for social media.
     
    IMINXTC and tango like this.
  6. RabbiKnife

    RabbiKnife Open the pod bay door, please HAL. Staff Member

    I'm so glad not to be on social media other than this singular bit of non-reality and the other bit of non-reality that is morte again.

    I do have the firm required LinkdIn account but I don't even know how to sign in to it...

    I'm with Tango -- face to face is best
     
    IMINXTC likes this.
  7. Athanasius

    Athanasius Life is not a problem to be solved Staff Member

    I have got the LinkedIn now, a real shame.
     
  8. tango

    tango ... and you shall live ... Staff Member

    One thing that gets me with social media these days is the expectation that people and companies will not only have a presence but an active presence on every single social media out there.

    Frankly I have neither the time nor the inclination to regularly update a dozen different online sites just in case that's the preferred way someone wants to talk to me. Call me, text me, email me. If you're looking for me on Instagag or whatever you'll be looking a long time - I'm not there and have no plan to be there.

    Then people get into the question of what happens to their "digital identity" after their death. When I'm dead I don't care what happens to my Faceache account. I don't really care what happens to it now, I never post anything meaningful on it. Perish the thought someone else should gain access to my timeline of cringeworthy dad jokes (which are all posted publicly anyway).
     
  9. teddyv

    teddyv The horse is in the barn. Staff Member

    Oooh! some LinkedIn people. I'll try and track you down... o_O

    I've been bopping around Twitter a bit - I have no presence other than just following a couple people. Dear Lord, how did we ever think that rational communication between people is possible in a sentence was even an feasible idea. Burn it all down.
     
  10. tango

    tango ... and you shall live ... Staff Member

    A lot of things can be conveyed in a sentence. "I'm going to the Red Lion for a beer, anyone want to join me?" doesn't need more than a few words. But trying to condense more complex analyses into 140 characters can do little other than turn everything into an overly simplistic presentation, strawmen and shouting. With 140 characters it's easier to call someone a knucklehead than try and fit in a rational counterargument.
     
  11. Athanasius

    Athanasius Life is not a problem to be solved Staff Member

    I got a 'hate' page suspended the other day, me and my wokery. Twitter is a dumpster fire and always has been.
     
    IMINXTC likes this.
  12. IMINXTC

    IMINXTC Time Bandit

    It all sounds to me like your average citizen grunting out whatever fanciful opinion and "that's all there is to that." Magnified and seemingly legitimized on social media.
    So, if social media is a reflection of the public at large, we are in deep yogurt.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2022
  13. tango

    tango ... and you shall live ... Staff Member

    I sometimes wonder whether the problem is that people truly believe that complex issues can actually be reduced to 140 characters as if everything in life were perfectly defined with no shades of gray at all, or whether they just put stuff out there to see what happens. Are people really obnoxious, or are they just emboldened behind a facade of anonymity online, where nobody reading their words can give them the punch in the face they would almost certainly receive if they said it in a crowded pub, for example?

    I think about one particular person I know who is a really nice person in reality but if you read their social media posts you'd get a totally different impression of them. Even talking face to face this person has a tendency to assume everybody thinks the way they do but on social media all the graces fall away and they are just nasty.
     
    IMINXTC likes this.
  14. RabbiKnife

    RabbiKnife Open the pod bay door, please HAL. Staff Member

    Complex issue… I am now more stuffed than the turkey carcass
     
    Cloudwalker and tango like this.
  15. tango

    tango ... and you shall live ... Staff Member

    And even a lawyer can condense that into 140 characters.... :p
     
  16. IMINXTC

    IMINXTC Time Bandit

    These billionares playfully dominating almost every aspect of popular society as self-proclaimed arbitors of what is right or wrong.
    Would love to see them and their sites abandoned.
     
  17. tango

    tango ... and you shall live ... Staff Member

    It's one thing when they take to the stage as if their thoughts were worth anything but when they control so much of modern media it's a lot more concerning. It would be great to see the whole lot burn.
     
  18. Cloudwalker

    Cloudwalker The genuine, original, one and only Cloudwalker Staff Member

    Happy 100th Birthday Charles Schultz
     
    IMINXTC likes this.
  19. IMINXTC

    IMINXTC Time Bandit

    They (whomever?) nurture and sell this daily cultural illusion that civilization is intact and set for uninterrupted continuance.
    I have my doubts.
     
  20. IMINXTC

    IMINXTC Time Bandit

    No matter how significant one's 70th birthday seems - a major milestone, it simply flies by without fanfare.
    Brutal time does not care. Ask any mummy.
     

Share This Page