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I have been pretty much avoiding Facebook for years. I have an account and I remembered how to log in a few months ago, but I don't go there much. Recently I got back into reading it and I'm reminded why I shouldn't be.
Facebook is teeny. The windows are teeny, the posts are teeny, the comments are teeny, and its because of the user interface; if you try to put in more than one paragraph it automatically ends your comment (and I think even your post but I don't remember at the moment and can't be arsed to try it out.)
So it doesn't encourage any kind of thoughtfulness. People say what they think in the shortest, most forceful way because they basically have to. And that's fine as long as its something I agree with. But when its something I disagree with, it is extremely annoying. The format makes people leave out all the temporizations, all the background, all the "of course there are exceptions" all the "but on the other hand it does occur to me that"s that might make such a post, or comment, tolerable, or even, on occasion, convincing.
And then, of course, my comments are made in the same horrible user interface and thus have the same problem, compounded by my tendency to reach for exactly the right words, the ones that are the most clear and true, and provoke the most powerful emotional response. Good approach for lyrics; perhaps not so great for social networking.
This is threatening to turn toxic for me. I have work to do--work that is impeded by feeling like I have to go back and check what that ass said about atheists, or science, or gays, or liberals *this* time. I have friendships I would like to maintain that have been, or are at risk of being, damaged by these interactions, at least as far as I'm concerned. Maybe someday I will have the perfect equinamity to let people be Wrong on the Internet under my nose without feeling the need to try to fix it, but that day is not now. I either need to go back to never checking Facebook or I need to unfriend everyone who gets disagreeable, and I'm not sure which tack to take.
For now I think I will just go back to not checking.
And I guess in a way it's progress to notice I need to do this before it is keeping me up nights. So good on me for that much, anyway.
Facebook is teeny. The windows are teeny, the posts are teeny, the comments are teeny, and its because of the user interface; if you try to put in more than one paragraph it automatically ends your comment (and I think even your post but I don't remember at the moment and can't be arsed to try it out.)
So it doesn't encourage any kind of thoughtfulness. People say what they think in the shortest, most forceful way because they basically have to. And that's fine as long as its something I agree with. But when its something I disagree with, it is extremely annoying. The format makes people leave out all the temporizations, all the background, all the "of course there are exceptions" all the "but on the other hand it does occur to me that"s that might make such a post, or comment, tolerable, or even, on occasion, convincing.
And then, of course, my comments are made in the same horrible user interface and thus have the same problem, compounded by my tendency to reach for exactly the right words, the ones that are the most clear and true, and provoke the most powerful emotional response. Good approach for lyrics; perhaps not so great for social networking.
This is threatening to turn toxic for me. I have work to do--work that is impeded by feeling like I have to go back and check what that ass said about atheists, or science, or gays, or liberals *this* time. I have friendships I would like to maintain that have been, or are at risk of being, damaged by these interactions, at least as far as I'm concerned. Maybe someday I will have the perfect equinamity to let people be Wrong on the Internet under my nose without feeling the need to try to fix it, but that day is not now. I either need to go back to never checking Facebook or I need to unfriend everyone who gets disagreeable, and I'm not sure which tack to take.
For now I think I will just go back to not checking.
And I guess in a way it's progress to notice I need to do this before it is keeping me up nights. So good on me for that much, anyway.
