Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Stop and Ponder

Facebook users:
If there was no Facebook, what would you be doing with your time?
What is it that Facebook gives you that real life is not?
Are your connections to Facebook friends more real than your physically present friends?
Where do all the things you put on Facebook end up?
Do you wonder how many servers it takes to house all the stuff on Facebook?
Do you consider how much electricity it takes to run those server arrays and storage devices?
Do you think the cost of that energy expense should be added to your personal carbon footprint?

What did you do with your time and your life before Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot and the trend of over sharing on the Internet?

sign me,
Not judging, Just wondering and guilty of having blogs too


5 comments:

Horroru said...

Great post Kathy, I've often thought the same things. I go on Facebook about once a week, and that's enough for me before I want to blow my head off from all the utter self absorbed/self inportant crap that gets posted there.

For every ONE post I do enjoy (such as interesting news stories/actual events friends may want to know about like Birthdays, etc./clever insights) there are about TEN of the following:
"Jane Doe feels grumpy today, harumpf...."
"We had ham for dinner, mmmm"
"John Doe hates rainy days :-("
"Betty found a little lost lamb in Farmville, golly gee!"
"If you don't agree with my wacky left wing views that sex offenders should be allowed to be school teachers and have free health care then you're a nazi!"
"If you don't agree with my wacky right wing views that Jesus told me in the shower that all science is evil then you're a nazi!"
"Sign my online petition for rights for gay cats..."(that one comes with a 'Hang on In There' cat poster)
Has your head exploded yet?

When Facebook starts replacing someone's real life interactions with people, there's a problem.
(I can imagine the future:
"Hey remember that time I texted you about something, and you posted back on Facebook! Wow, good times!")
And when people can't tell that what they're posting is narcissistic crap, that's also a problem. (Mmmm, I did just have a great turkey sub for lunch though...)

For me, nothing replaces real physical interaction. Hanging out at the Comic Shop for example-- to hear the excitement in a voice as someone relates a cool experience, to hear laughter as someone tells a crappy joke, to see facial expressions, to give handshakes to your friends as they arrive, it's what makes us humans and not just living computers.

On a related note, check out this funny and insightful article on Facebook's fantasy games (like Farmville):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33626149/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

I Ain't No Oprah said...

Bunch of cranky luddites.

Facebook is fun.

Kathy said...

ah hahahahahah

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

cute stuff!

How to promote a site on google? said...

Face Book is the No.1 social networking sites on Internet.