little boxes, little boxes all the same

[sanpaku]

With the inevitable agglomeration of "friends" on Facebook comes a plethora of short, pithy "status updates" when you log in. Boxes with faces that bear a distant relation to a half-remembered visage from some previous life or other -- an old job, high school, a trip to Israel -- ten or fifteen or twenty years in the past. All in their thirties,

Comments

[eyelid]

, to exist, you need to shove your grinning self into everyone's face.

eh. Facebook status updates are generally only available to one's friends. I think of it more as a "here's how I'm doing" greeting card to friends/family, keeping basically in touch without a huge amount of effort. If you don't want to see someone's status, you can just take them off your friends list.

[sanpaku]

Well, the problem is that everyone you've ever met and your brother asks to friend you, and at some point defriending is considered, well, unfriendly. So you end up with scads of people you barely know. Someone has to explain to me why someone from high school who I never remember talking to would want to friend me in Facebook, because there the hell they are.

I know there are filters and suchlike, but I guess the bigger point is that people expend thought on these updates that sort of by definition say nothing. Nothing of significance can go into a tweet. It's like screaming to the world that you've had a cheese sandwich. I guess the exhibitionist/narcissistic streak in all of this online culture is just starting to wear thin on me these days.

[eyelid]

Nothing of significance can go into a tweet.

well, yes and no. I mean, Patrick will update with something like "today we bought birds" with a link to a pic. Or a friend might say "feeling sick" or "vacationing in Hawaii" or "mad about XYZ political thing" or "just gave birth!" While not hugely deep, I think these things are useful to share w/friends.

and I'm not too concerned with people I don't even know feeling like I'm being unfriendly ;)

[flw]

We failed the people 10 years behind us... in terms of keeping the schools free of cameras, strip searches, etc... Now kids are comfortable with a very intrusive, or intruded upon lifestyle. There's just this expectation that benevolent fascists are fascinated by your every BM. Just think how tough it is going to be for them to disappear into obscurity once no one is fighting to take camera-phone pics of them flashing at a Senior Tadpole's...

[sanpaku]

Well, I don't have too many of the kids as friends? Although yeah, they definitely scare the hell out of me. I'm thinking of early middle age, with kids and formerly bohemian attitudes and whatnot. The whole aesthetic of the thing seems to be, "look at how happy/goofy/fulfilled I am!" when in fact this time of life is none of those things for probably 90% of the people I'm looking at.

[flw]

It is odd to see young people who are filled with optimism and acceptance... of things like living in a Police State and wearing tracking collars around. They seem to feel protected by the warm all-encompassing embrace of techno-dazzle. They seem to view themselves as Sims...