It;s nice to think of Facebook in another light and I do see where this post is coming from. But the value of Facebook to connect people should not be undermined. After all, when there are real friendships, the risks of getting rejected are low.
Not that I'm discounting the whole point of the post. Just raising other points for discussion.
Ørv
· 1 year ago
I think going out of your way to amass friends means something like requesting friendships of vague acquantances or people you have only met once IRL.
The "negative" mental aspects of compulsive facebook useage, outweigh, in some cases, those practical aspects like connecting to your peers and so forth.
I noticed voyeuristic aspects of myself popping up when using the dutch socialnetwork Hyves, similiar to facebook. So i deleted my profile and now only have a facebook, which i, of course, almost never use.
joshalosh
· 1 year ago
I think this story, and your opinion on it, is outside the scope of Mashable.com. It's just not what we come to this site for.
joshalosh
· 1 year ago
ugh... that came off harsher than I meant it to. Valid points are made--it's just that we're here for insight into new technologies, rather than opinion. Maybe I should just stop talking now...
Stan_Schroeder
· 1 year ago
I like to think that we keep a healthy balance of news, features and opinion articles here on Mash...hopefully everyone interested in what's new on the web will find something for him/herself! (:
Langer
· 1 year ago
Contrary to Joshalosh's sentiments, I think this sort of opinion is a healthy and necessary component of "insight into new technologies." This story falls into the same category of hyperventilating 6:00 local news-style coverage of web technologies (a la "man kills wife over changed Facebook status!") that only serves to distract from and distort what it is that the web has to offer. Every so often it's necessary to stand up and say, "Hey, wait a minute -- sometimes people kill people for stupid reasons, and that would happen with or without the help of Facebook." To demonize the technology as simply a means by which stupid people are given an avenue to do stupid things is to not only completely miss the point, it's to deprive the web of its promise as a meaningful element of the human experience. And sometimes it's necessary for people who care about the web to stand up and call bullshit on that sort of commentary.
John Dyer
· 1 year ago
I think the idea that "Facebook is a phone. Facebook is a letter. Facebook is a means of communication." doesn't recognize that Facebook is really something different, and therefore it affects us differently than other technologies.
If you just assume that Twitter is the same as a blog (just "means of communication"), you'll miss that each technology itself communicates something. Breaking up with someone via text message means something different than over the phone or in person. So also with Facebook. It doesn't mean Facebook is "bad" or "good", just that we have to recognize that communicating on Facebook uniquely affects people in a way different than a phone call or letter.
Ørv
· 1 year ago
As Marshall McLuhan said it: The medium is the message!
Capri
· 1 year ago
On another site that posted this article, Smallwood claims that it is women who are addicted. What tosh. As if the Top Friends app and the viral "friending" groups are mostly women.
People I didn't know have added me to their list on Facebook because we're in the same group, using the same application or fans of a page. That's not an addiction, my friend list is microscopic compared to most people, men and women alike, and I'm content with that. The site is great for staying in touch with family and friends one already has, that's what I use it for mostly.
FB isn't a waste of time if you know what you want from it and use it for that purpose. It doesn't replace what people consider more conventional social activity, that's pretty obvious with people's statuses of always going places and hanging out with friends. So there goes that paranoid theory as well. Oh, and it doesn't enable "creeping"/"stalking" either. FB is just a site that works well or can get misused like anything else and people need to stop treating it as something somehow more influencial and sinister than any other site.
Scott Riley
· 1 year ago
I think maybe people are analyzing Facebook a BIT too much. Is anyone going to lose sleep over a rejected friend request? Really?
I keep it simple and play with the applications, in my opinion the best part of Facebook. And this one is my new favorite by far:
to be honest i think that some of the people i know are genuinely addicted to facebook. I mean at the beginning it was intriguing but as soon as the novelty wares off people should not use it at much. i reckon it can be really detrimental. AND alot of people are going to regret what they get up to and post on facebook these days.....trust
Iris Dias
· 1 year ago
I think I may be addicted to Facebook, and I see NOTHING wrong with it. I don't add people, but I like to see what other people are up to and what their lives are like.
My name is Iris and I have a problem. It has been 10 minutes since I last checked Facebook.
Capri
· 1 year ago
I don't think you have a problem Iris, you just happen to really enjoy Facebook, and as you said, nothing wrong with that. What is wrong is people like Smallwood blaming Facebook for syndromes he makes up about the opposite gender, and those who make as if Facebook is this dangerous addictive creepy bad influence (toss in any other negative here) zone.
Crystal King
· 1 year ago
Facebook is just as addictive as say, chat was/is to the insecure back in the 90s. It's not really about the technology, it's about filling a void. Facebook brings about those connections, but so can MySpace or Flickr or any other web site that brings people together.
Luke
· 1 year ago
it's funny ...here in Italy some psychologists made the same (superficial) analysis. They tried to gain public attention claiming that the typical facebook user is a kinda of "loser", with dozens (or more). Too many virtual friendships may develop a "super ego". we supposed they copied an old study regarging chat rooms of the Nineties :) Here our post dedicated to that story (sorry italian only!) http://faceitalia.com/2008/10/22/hai-30-anni-e-...
MissKathie
· 2 months ago
Yeah, okay, let's all be victims. What a crock. Stan, loved your analogy. That rocked. Maybe if these therapists spent more time treating the illness and maladies rather than try to circumvent LIFE, we'd have a ... wait, then we'd have a really screwed up society. Bring on the whack jobs, the misfits, the abnormals!
All Comments
Not that I'm discounting the whole point of the post. Just raising other points for discussion.
The "negative" mental aspects of compulsive facebook useage, outweigh, in some cases, those practical aspects like connecting to your peers and so forth.
I noticed voyeuristic aspects of myself popping up when using the dutch socialnetwork Hyves, similiar to facebook. So i deleted my profile and now only have a facebook, which i, of course, almost never use.
If you just assume that Twitter is the same as a blog (just "means of communication"), you'll miss that each technology itself communicates something. Breaking up with someone via text message means something different than over the phone or in person. So also with Facebook. It doesn't mean Facebook is "bad" or "good", just that we have to recognize that communicating on Facebook uniquely affects people in a way different than a phone call or letter.
People I didn't know have added me to their list on Facebook because we're in the same group, using the same application or fans of a page. That's not an addiction, my friend list is microscopic compared to most people, men and women alike, and I'm content with that.
The site is great for staying in touch with family and friends one already has, that's what I use it for mostly.
FB isn't a waste of time if you know what you want from it and use it for that purpose. It doesn't replace what people consider more conventional social activity, that's pretty obvious with people's statuses of always going places and hanging out with friends. So there goes that paranoid theory as well. Oh, and it doesn't enable "creeping"/"stalking" either. FB is just a site that works well or can get misused like anything else and people need to stop treating it as something somehow more influencial and sinister than any other site.
I keep it simple and play with the applications, in my opinion the best part of Facebook. And this one is my new favorite by far:
http://www.sortprice.com/facebook_wishlist/
www.sortprice.com/facebook_wishlist/
My name is Iris and I have a problem. It has been 10 minutes since I last checked Facebook.
Here our post dedicated to that story (sorry italian only!)
http://faceitalia.com/2008/10/22/hai-30-anni-e-...