ok the dangerous teenage hug epidemic - another important new york times trend piece

haha dude, man, is there something specific in that you're calling our attention to, or is it just the noise?

Another thought the scene had turned desperate.

This ain't a scene it's a login.

Just the whole thing. How could someone write a paragraph like that and not think "I am the world's biggest douchebag"?

because of writing declarative sentences about somebody else?

don't get me wrong, I prefer serial commas too, but it's a newspaper, whatchagonnado

For a while, they cultivated a cool-planet online gang.

this is crucial

Well he was "the coolest guy on the planet" according to her friend Alex's email message.

how DARE the INTERNET try to sell us (shudder) BOOKS AND MOVIES~!!!!!@!?????!!!

yeah I mean I can get finding the piece thin or useless, but that paragraph is just relaying someone's story as told to the writer, so ... eh?

i agree with you though Alex--paragraphs like that, what can you say about them except? Blech. I mean, it's just horrible journalism. Or should I say "journalism." It's like third rate blog writing.

Que it's a column

Well he was "the coolest guy on the planet" according to her friend Alex's email message.

― Alex in SF, Monday, August 31, 2009 11:03 PM (56 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

when the dude from the Dos Equis commercial says join facebook, you join facebook

so they had problems with ads for books and movies and not for teeth whiteners, weight loss, and dating sites?

it may be a column, it still has no place in the New York Times. I used to love reading my hometown average guy suburban type columns when I was in high school. that paragraph is just bullshit piled on top of heresay on top of nonsense.

...wrapped in an enigma.

with a dollop of sour cream on top

i could go for some potato skins round about now how about you guys?

Ten minutes to the end of the workday, I'm with you.

Ian don't try to sell me stuff on the web.

they cultivated a cool-planet online gang.

this makes these people seem extremely lame ... and like they still have some inadequacies carried over from the 7th grade lunch table.

Shit I have bacon and cheddar cheese at home. This could lead to something good....

I think everyone here needs to compare/contrast with this week's back-end Lives, which if I remember correctly was about a white guy teaching English in Japan who slowly realized that when Japanese women told him he'd gained wait it wasn't an insult and was actually somewhat playful

(as in like I'm curious which piece people would prefer)

He'd gained what?

My friend Alex joined four years ago at the suggestion of “the coolest guy on the planet,” she told me in an e-mail message. For a while, they cultivated a cool-planet online gang.

i have absolutely no idea what this means. what is a "cool-planet online gang"? she says these things like normal people are supposed to understand them. who was the guy and why was he so cool? are we just supposed to take virginia heffernan's friend alex at his word?

But then Scrabulous was shut down,

wasn't this because they were infringing on a copyright? was facebook only worth it if you could play word games over a period of weeks?

someone told her she was too old for Facebook,

why smash a dumb sterotype when you can accept it?

she found the whole site crawling with mercenaries trying to sell books and movies.

i have been on facebook essentially since it started and have no idea what she's talking about.

“If I am going to waste my time on the Internet,” she concluded, “it will be playing in online backgammon tournaments.”

ok at least that's otm.

she found the whole site crawling with mercenaries

http://www.gonemovies.com/WWW/MyWebFilms/Oorlog/ApocalypseWillardModder.jpg

xp - and aren't there like a dozen faux-scrabble facebook games anyway?

He'd gained where?

xp Yeah, but that was the most copywrite infringing so. . .

he'd gained. . . wait! that wasn't an insult!

that lives piece was fine iirc. i mean "lives" is basically for goofy shit like that (or sad shit about like parents with alzheimer's)

at least it tells a story and is not just like "hey this is what my friend said and this is what my other friend said"

the great thing is i don't have to pick which one i'd prefer--i still think this one is stupid

xp alex - but it isn't like they were suddenly unable to play internet scrabble ...

if no scrabulous was really a deal breaker i guess that's fine, i mean i don't know.....

at least it tells a story and is not just like "hey this is what my friend said and this is what my other friend said"

very crucial here^^^

gained WEIGHT, pardon

haha I'm so confused by y'all picking that paragraph apart -- it's a straightforward summary of some woman's stated experience with Facebook as relayed to the writer; is this really that weird? I mean, I dunno, would you really prefer to have your intelligence insulted by having such things be ILX-friendly and go

My friend Alex joined four years ago (LOL) at the suggestion of “the coolest guy on the planet” (yeah right like she knows anything about who's cool), she told me in an e-mail message. For a while, they cultivated a cool-planet online gang.* But then Scrabulous was shut down, someone told her she was too old for Facebook (she totally is, and lame too), her teenage stepson seemed to be losing his life to it (LOL what about the children) and she found the whole site crawling with mercenaries trying to sell books and movies. “If I am going to waste my time on the Internet,” she concluded, “it will be playing in online backgammon tournaments.” (OMG LOL BACKGAMMON what a dumb fuck my friend Alex is let's all laugh at her)

* note that this one is already readable as kinda scare-quoted and potentially sarcastic

what's the difference between scrabulous and all the other ones that are basically the same concept?

well is she trying to come up with reasons why one might actually leave facebook or is she just repeating things she has been told? when i say i don't know what she means i'm not exaggerating--those sentences do not make any sense to me.

is this really that weird? I mean, I dunno, would you really prefer to have your intelligence insulted by having such things be ILX-friendly and go

it's not a binary. it's not one way or the other. why are you wasting time trying to defend a piece of writing when it obviously struck a nerve with some of us?

if she wanted to come up w/reasons to leave facebook, then fuck, do some actual reporting and find some valid ones. if you just want to regurgitate things get a blog not a nyt column.

let's defend vacuity

(I mean like I said, I get disliking the column, but that fairly neutral paragraph is like ... I dunno, it's like hating an ordinary brick in a building you dislike, you know?)

xpost - haha I'm not so much defending a piece of writing as marveling at various interpretations of it -- also dude you spent like two hours every weekday picking on various stuff I post, so let's not get into productive-use-of-time issues here

nabisco....are...you.......trolling?

this is disturbing like when you were a kid and the bad superman showed up on superfriends

"what's the difference between scrabulous and all the other ones that are basically the same concept?"

Scrabulous was more copyright infringing and thus cooler for the people on planet cool.

also dude you spent like two hours every weekday picking on various stuff I post, so let's not get into productive-use-of-time issues here

huh?

You forgot to scare quote "friend" in your ILX-version above, nabisco.

this is just a seriously mediocre article ... it isn't even wtf enough to qualify as a wannabe onion article, like the hug epidemic one.

me, trolling? I'm the one who thinks it's an ordinary paragraph about how a woman that age might relate to Facebook! I mean I basically agree with Jaymc that the whole flaw about the column (besides just being kinda *shrug*) is it's about a specific age group and social sphere's relationship with Facebook, not the world's; haha but I feel somewhat left out on why it's interesting or mockable that the Times would run a column sorta from the viewpoint of professionals 5-15 years older than me, or that one of them would say in an email that she he has this cool-guy type friend

"(I mean like I said, I get disliking the column, but that fairly neutral paragraph is like ... I dunno, it's like hating an ordinary brick in a building you dislike, you know?)"

I think I just find her "friend" Alex more repellant than you do, nabisco. It's cool. You don't have to hate all the Alex's, I do.

does she even say how old these people are though?