look, facebook is a tool. you can either fill your friend list with interesting people that provide fun, original, or interesting content, or you can have people on there who post about their cats or (worse) constantly update about how great their lives are right now.

there's a choice here that i think people miss: i've never appreciated using facebook to "keep in touch" cause like trots said, it's lazy. you can call or text or write a letter or an e-mail for that. facebook should be used much like a message board, and since i've finally realized this i started having fun. i got to know people who had the same interests as me by posting content that i liked and commenting on what others posted. i've gotten closer to people this way and it's resulted in some very good friendships.

last year, i was about to delete my facebook because it felt like i was on the lonely side of the glass, watching everyone else have a wonderful life while i sat dismally in my own self-pity. but once i stopped viewing it as a TV show starring my "friends" and started looking at it as an interactive tool, it has become a lot more fun to be on there.

it's not the end all be all. it's entertainment mixed with social interaction. you post when there's activity or you can create activity of your own. but you're not going to be interesting to anyone else or yourself if all you do is stare.

it has nearly limitless potential for what you want to use it for, much like a telephone or a letter. appreciate it for what it is.

.

I like trolling people that say stupid shit. It's pretty fun. It can also be an eye opener like "wow, didn't know that he hates black people and is a Christian, weird." I was recently defriended when a friend of mine from middle school was railing on dane cook's anti-christian jokes or whatever. kind of a weird way for a 15 year friendship to end. But i still laughed, like, a lot.

which is a data mining software program that uses user content to create marketing profiles

i mean you look at it like it's yours. it's not yours. they're using your information to enrich themselves by selling products and and websites to you.

email doesn't do that
the telephone doesn't do that

i mean if you think that everything you post isn't recorded and fed into a database and then analyzed to determine which ads they can place that you would be most receptive to then you're a clown

how does this not bother people

the other week when i posted about the giants i instantly got four ads that had to do with the Giants or the NFL

that's weird and it makes me feel gross

ok?

probably still you since you took the easy way out instead of trying to counter argue my infallible BOMB i dropped on yo ass hoho

HOLLA @ YA BOY

bottom line: facebook doesn't offer a single thing that wasn't available already, even its primary economic use as consumer data mining software that users participate in willfully instead of ignoring was first explored by myspace and i guess friendster

i have these omega concern apocalyptic visions of people with microchips in their forehead or something whenever i think of where facebook will take us

the final stage of capitalism is coming, i'm SO SURE OF IT

my friend is a photographer, all her ads were about photography and loans, and the day she changed her status to Married, it was all pediatric healthcare, new house, family vacation and valentine's day.

that's another good thing to complain about facebook, the relationship status thing

i would be profoundly uncomfortable maintaining that on there, knowing that when I broke it off there'd be a bunch of OMGZ and WHYZ all at the same time in a public forum

also my buddy had a bit of an emotional ladyfriend for a while and she broke up with him on face book at least five times

i mean do you need your whole friends list to know that kind of shit

1) It's free
2) Revenue has to come from somewhere
3) Stop using the Internet if this bothers you, because data mining is everywhere. Even here, oh no!

Virtually every web-based email client does indeed.

Smart phones definitely do.

i don't have a smart phone

email doesn't collect all of your data and use it to sell you products man you are full of bullshit

AND GET RID OF THAT FUCKING AVATAR BOURGEOIS SCUM

Email indeed does. Google, MSN, and Bing all target advertisements to your platform based on algorithms calculated using your inbox. And search history to a lesser extent.

i need some proof of this since you're a notorious liar and talker beyond your depth

i was under the impression that email was private and encrypted.

...do you use gmail..?

yes but i'm going to delete it soon if email isn't private and encrypted

i mean this is some kind of violation of basic human decency that you guys are just blase about

like i just got this on my facebook feed and it brightened my morning a little

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...51097833_n.jpg

oh my god why do you care

i don't get happy seeing pictures of victor cruz

oh wait i'm straight

because they've both been injured and are participating in a pre-practice skate. meaning they're making progress. it has nothing to do with me being gay or finding them attractive (for the record i'm indifferent toward both of them in that regard).

jesus christ why do you insist that everyone has to be as cynical and miserable as you all the time

lol you're pretty screwed up t-lish.

lol
private and encrypted I DEMAND MY EMAILS TO BE PRIVATE AND ENCRYPTED! ENCRYPTED I TELLS YA!!!

it is private, but they do use the content to pick personalised ads while you're reading your emails. (have you never noticed how the ads match the mails? or do you use adblock?)

yeah whatever, you guys are all doomed whores of babylon

at least we know the content is used to select the ads.
meanwhile, you're all like "oh, surely every email is private and encrypted. basic human decency. wah wah."
what do you even mean with "encrypted"? what does that have to do with anything?

whatever dude. if you're happy writing letters to your 4 friends bc the scary internet might try and sell you something that you like. that's your deal.

and sppunk was pretty on point with everything he said. even this place. i can't shop online without whatever i was just looking at/bought popping up all over this place.

we get it. you dont like the oogy boogy facebook machine and we are all tools for using it like one and enjoying it throwing caution to the wind.

i mean i do get the fundamental idea that erosion of privacy is bad, obviously.

but everyone is free to make their own trade-offs based on their own cost/benefit analyses.

i don't get why trots can't accept that some of us are making a decision different from his own.