iyo did facebook ruin the internet?

feeling that post. liking it if u will

As much as I love ILX, this place can be so high-pressure sometimes, because the average level of intelligence and discernment is so high and people are so quick to shoot down bullshit and banality. Sometimes it's freeing to just be like "here's a picture of us having fun at a basketball game" and not have to think of something original to say.

so happy we don't have 'likes' on ilx since the way i see ppl on fb use it, esp during 'political discussions,' is just to 'like' every single comment that agrees w/ them which would obv be out of control here

the stickers and emoji things are really ugly

kind of a slave to the like tbr it's how they get you

I have only ever seen the stickers used ironically.

i exclusively use bee + puppycat stickers on fb

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/08/4b/ac/084bacd68e3fe154557366b3c84fe7ea.jpg

ilx has fun picture threads it's pro fun around here afaict

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well azn people stole the internet from whites so it's fair now

― iatee, Monday, February 23, 2015 2:52 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

Whites stole emoji too. Whites are out of control

bee + puppycat is great. also a big fan of powerrangers and internet slang.

i saw some insane screed this dude posted about the illumanti to the noize bord in like 2005 get revived the other day. feel like thats the internet i want. i mean those dudes are still posting shit but its like youtube vidz which is lame.

those stickers are cute.

luriqua? luriqua was definitely a high pt of internet weird

i think there's something about the shape and color and size related to text ... like my visceral reaction of "ugh gross" to those things feels comparable to the way some ppl responded to that trypophobia thread

like, reading 'intellectual' thort-mag content is just the same old feeling as reading a buzzfeed listicle, only with more brow, and they all still flog it on the same more-more-more new-new-new cycle

^^ yeah I mean this is what I mean by upworthy. it's all fucking upworthy. lots of right-on I'd-agree-with-this-if-I-was-going-to-follow-that-link stuff is the same shit just higher-falutin', adding nothing to anything, just back-patting "I also want to weigh in stuff"

much like this post, my bad

the cactus and monkey stickers are the best

what's a thort-mag

thort - thong/short

sometimes i get a calm peaceful feeling from liking a bunch of stuff i'm not going to click on or comments i don't really care about. steady accumulation of plus ones in the relevant slots.

tbh I read a lot of erowid for old style Internet fun

random acts of kindness xp

lol totally

Maybe it's because I'm getting old, but Facebook (and Instagram and Twitter) seem to be quite dreadful.

So, the trolls can troll me by say, "yes ure getting old", but let me elaborate for those who wish to read my opinion on this.

Facebook didn't ruin anything, yes, but it amplified people's negative side; likewise with Instagram and Twitter. I've noticed many people post the most inane things on social media; partly out of boredom, partly because they have no real interests at that point in their lives, and partly because it's impulsive. I'm sure everything on display on social media was already happening in people's minds, but now we get confirmation of these bad parts of ourselves and social media seems to fuel all of it.

To be honest, I think forums are kind of similar, but at least there are ways users moderate that; be it through shaming, criticising or even trolling. In the end, I think there is a time and place for interesting conversation on the Internet, but most people do not use it for this purpose. I don't mean to say the Internet should always be some encyclopaedia because, of course, even I like to have mindless conversation on it, but I try to limit that.

For me, the wonderful thing about the Internet as a whole is finding new things about your favourite things or hobbies. In my case, music. ILX is a cool source for music. Every time it goes beyond that, even music discussion, it falls into a trap. It's like real life in that respect, except everything is on display, because people feel more comfortable sharing their feelings or getting into virtual fights. Okay, we know people have differences of opinion, we know there are bigots among us, we know there are sociopaths, we know some agree, some don't, some have bad tempers, some don't care, etc. I don't need to see that online to confirm it.

That's probably why my Web use has gone down dramatically, I suppose. I use the Internet/Web for work stuff, read a few articles that might interest me, take them in, think about them, and either write my thoughts down in my diary or among my really close friends (who are only a few). Even when acquaintances share their strong opinions and I happen to differ from them, I just nod. Not that I don't think these people can teach me anything new, but it's just the manner in which it is done is really quite tiresome. I restrict these types of interactions with only my close friends and family.

The irony is when I do post or do something on the Web that is exactly what I say I avoid. I pin it down to exceptions/isolated cases. I guess I'm mostly a lurker, but still.

It's true also that social media is not interested in deeper analyses. For example, I once wanted to have a discussion on Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations on Twitter. I posted a lot about it, got a few favorites, a retweet, but that's about it. Many will say that is not the right medium, and that is also a valid point. Twitter and Instagram are not meant for any meaningful interactions, it seems. They're like the TV of our time.

Similarly, Facebook seems to be like that, as well. I know some will say it depends on your circle of friends, but even my friends with PhDs or 'intellectual' friends shy away from Facebook because of the nature of this medium: it's public, anyone's friends can basically comment, people don't always understand a person's way of socialising/communicating/etc., and sometimes it's too much work to keep up with a Facebook conversation. Needless to say, the more educated bunch don't like the privacy issues. Plus, most of my really close friends hardly use it. Facebook comments, I find, are meant to be more spontaneous or instant, anyway.

Email seems to be a better medium but it's like writing a letter these days. It seems the best way is over a pint at the pub, to be honest.

Okay, remind me not to post semi-deep/pseudo-intellectual BS this year again.

i think that before fb boring ppl were boring in their own ways but now there are readymade templates of boredom that everyone can subscribe to so now everyone is boring in the same way which is like boring to the second power

rather than opening people up to lots of different points of views, fb and the internet seem to have caused people to become further entrenched in their views, which is a bad thing.

friends with phds are the worst, either you see them taking all these bullshit psych quizzes, or liking upworthy content, or spamming activist bait to everyone they know, or you DON'T ever see them post ANYTHING in sync w/ their supposedly elevated intellectual life and then it's like oh you're all just schmucks like everyone else collectin a paycheck and watching downton abbey or cooking competition shows or w/e

ppl have raised existing within their own echo chamber into a virtue. it's like internet ppl are offended when other internet ppl disagree w/ their v important opinions.

some of the dumbest ppl i know have phds - i guess as long as you're willing to take on a certain level of debt anyone can get a phd now.

friends with phds are the worst, either you see them taking all these bullshit psych quizzes, or liking upworthy content, or spamming activist bait to everyone they know, or you DON'T ever see them post ANYTHING in sync w/ their supposedly elevated intellectual life and then it's like oh you're all just schmucks like everyone else collectin a paycheck and watching downton abbey or cooking competition shows or w/e

― j., Monday, February 23, 2015 9:00 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what i've heard from a few is facebook is how they "wind down" and "zone out". so, that's the thing, there is a preconceived notion that social media is supposed to be this time waster and just mindless thing anyway, so people freely partake in it in such a way

I was kind of sad when everybody quit Myspace to go to Facebook, I kind of liked the (often obnoxious) "welcome to my groovy pad" thing going on at Myspace, complete with wallpaper & some song playing.

Facebook is like everybody deciding to hang out in the food court at a mall for the rest of their lives.

tumblr, twitter obv the worst obv

Not obvious at all.

(mind you I am done for good with social-networking-with-friends - my friendships will last longer without it)

snapchat the actual worst

oh its obv

its real obv

w/out tumblr tho how would the world know about otherkin?

My only ish with The Web Today is the folding-up of message boards. Most of my online activity through my 20s is gone, boards deleted and caches missing. Not saying it was worthwhile content but it's like having your scrapbooks thrown out

One thing I've noticed from being friends with a lot of ilxors is that a lot of the conversations that used to happen on ILX now just happen in people's facebook posts

― 龜, Monday, February 23, 2015 11:21 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm surprised this is true. but i guess i shouldn't be, because i look at facebook so rarely. i don't know what people do on it. do you all really talk to each other on fb?

when it comes down to it i'm much more fond of an older internet (and ilx) because i'm a private person. but i still like reading things and mulling them over. the idea of being on FB or twitter with my real name and being all hey the oscars suck or jeez what is up with isis, give it a rest over there, is just gross to me, 'curated' groups of ppl or not.

personally speaking i talk to ilxors much more now on fb (more chat than wall posts) than i do on ilx

hey the oscars suck or jeez what is up with isis, give it a rest over there

are you sure you haven't been looking just a little

phd = becoming an expert in killing time while appearing to be doing something else, so yet my years of posts to ilx are a great example of this.

I think I joined Facebook and ILX around the same time (eleven years or so ago...jesus). Almost everyone I know personally is on Facebook but I've basically diverted all time and attention I used to spend on Facebook to a site where I know no one personally. That might be what I actually want from the internet, honestly.

when i was in grad school i already noticed that a lot of grad students were majoring in their own identities and there wasn't a whole lot of original research going on - i can only imagine that trend has increased (nb i was in a trendy NYC humanities program so i probably saw the worst of the worst there) xp

it's like being the guy at the coffeeshop who is perennially on the first page of some ostentatious tome but making it your entire failed-career identity.

what i was trying to say way back at the top of the thread: i see facebook as the foremost example of a form of internet discourse in which we are way overexposed to one another. i think normal or healthy relationships with others requires a kind of opposite of intimacy--some formality or distance or something which puts a barrier between you and every passing thought of the other person. this is why almost everyone is annoying on twitter (me included). it's not quite noise out there, it would be easy to ignore if it was, but it introduces a lot of information into our relations with others that we are probably better off without.

Last year there was a death in the family and a cousin put up a fb memorial page, my mother who has never been online was relaying it to me she said "They have put a memorial on that e-bay, they don't print them in the paper any more ".

From what I have seen of fb I will probably never go on it, there are too many people from my past who I would cross the road to avoid and it looks like a stalker app.

A psychopath I went to school with used fb to groom victims, he was pretending to be a recovering alcoholic to garner sympathy and hooked in this poor lass into some horror relationship that ended in her being hospitalised. The same (middle aged) guy tried to chat up my 12 year old niece on fb, I was really pissed when my sis wouldn't get the police involved.

Last year there was a death in the family and a cousin put up a fb memorial page, my mother who has never been online was relaying it to me she said "They have put a memorial on that e-bay, they don't print them in the paper any more ".

<3 this so much. my mother persistently thinks lol means lots of love so i got a text from her saying, 'dad started chemo today lol'

dying