Tag: #facebook

  • ODDS and ENDS: Coffee Mugs in Cars, Nothing But Ads, and the Last Weekend

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    There are many things that I don’t get about this world. One of them is people who take coffee mugs, full of coffee into their cars. I’m not talking a thermos, or a travel mug. No, what I am talking about are people who take a normal, regular coffee mug with them in their car. How do they stop it from spilling? Is there a secret to this? It just seems like uncovered vessels that contain liquid in a car is a recipe for a disaster.

    Not that I spend a bunch of time on FaceBook anymore, but I was scrolling through this morning, and I noticed that about half of the postings on my feed were sponsored posts. I have one from NEWSMAX, which if the algorithm was working correctly, should know that type of post would find not purchase in my feed. I am sure this has to do with my lack of interaction with the site. So, if I keep up this level of inactivity, in like two years, my feed with be nothing but sponsored posts?

    So, not that this is a big deal, but this is the last weekend of Summer Vacation. Eleven weeks went flying by, and we are ready for school to start on Monday. We got the school shopping done, talked to the kid about have to wear a mask all day. The wife and I talked about what the morning routine will need to be, because we haven’t had to do this since March 2020. It also means the end of Dad teaching school, and playing board games, and Barbies. No more pirate ship and puppet shows. It needs to come to an end, as the kid needs to be back in school and around her friends. This was a special time together, and I don’t know if I will even get this much father/daughter time again. But the other side of this is that she will get that spark of excitement of learning, and the daily victories and defeats that come with friendships. She’ll start becoming her own person, independent of her parents, as it should be.

  • New Lease on Social Media Life

    I think I’m detoxing from FaceBook right now.

    As the handful of you know, I got it an online argument with a friend on FaceBook about voting and the Postal Service. I posted on here what I had said to the guy, and I knew full well that after the last post I was done with it, but he would post something trying to egg me on in some way. But I was done, I had said my peace, and I didn’t want to play anymore. To hold to that commitment, I couldn’t go back on FaceBook, read his response, and then, basically, state the vicious cycle all over again.

    So, I haven’t been on FaceBook for two days now.

    I have no idea what is going on in people’s lives, and I think I am okay with that. The pandemic has given me too much free time, and I have wasted a great deal of it looking online to see how other people were using their time, and most of them appeared to be very productive. (I know everyone lies on the internet.) It created a feeling in me that I wasn’t doing enough, which wasn’t helpful, and in and return, I let myself get discouraged making it more difficult to motivate myself. But I know fully that I was letting this happen, and choosing to be discouraged.

    And also, in strange way, getting my dander up about an issue, taking time to think out my response, and being honest that I am passionate about something that affects others, did make me feel more connected to the world. I’m not saying that I’m about to turn into a social media activist, because action in the real world is needed, not posting on a feed, but I need to get off my ass and help out in this world again.

  • Hydroxychloroquine News Story

    Hydroxychloroquine News Story

    It was just heartbreaking to see. I went on Facebook, and I saw that a good friend of mine from college had posted a pro hydroxychloroquine news story. There was no comment left, or request that we should, “read the article, and keep an open mind,” or any other phrase of have some sort of civil debate about this topic. Through they had left not a word of whether they believed hydroxychloroquine worked or not, it just broke my heart to see.

    Broke my heart because it caused me to fear the worst about them.  This was a person I went to college with, who I would describe as a person of above average intelligence, huge amount of compassion, determination, and not a person I would describe as easily fooled. This is also a person who would describe themselves as conservative, and a Christian, but in no way closed minded to people who are different from them.

    It broke my heart because it made me feel like they drank to Kool-Aid.

    I have friends that are 100% pro-Trump, and to them, there is nothing that he can do wrong. I know people who claim to be libertarians that will argue that you can’t force anyone to do anything, even if it would benefit the world. But these people have always been like that, so when they post Trump stuff, or argue that they will never wear a mask, it fits within their proclivity.

    It broke my heart because it means my old college friend has changed, and chosen to go down this path. They are choosing to believe something that has been proved not to work.

  • More FaceBook Thoughts

    I am still thinking about the FaceBook NYTimes article that came out yesterday. What has stuck with me, or what I keep turning over in my head is what protections do we have from corporations when we seem to be living in a time where an individual seems to have less and less power to stand up to them.

    “Seem” is the word I am using as I am not sure if that statement is true. It sure does feel that way, but is that the reality?

    If I try to be objective when it comes to the formation of my opinions, there are two major camps. The first is from my Grandpa Lawrence, who was a union man, a Democrat, and who said that if there wasn’t a check on corporations, then they would run amuck and destroy everyone and everything to make a profit. The other thought camp is my Grandpa Delmore who was the manager of a quarry, was pro-business, believed that individual liberty was key to being an America, and was a Republican.

    These are the two voices that debate in my mind when issues like this come up. Delmore would say that you don’t need FaceBook to live and work, so don’t sign the agreement and you won’t lose any of your data. Lawrence would say that unregulated corporations lead to corruption and destructive behavior.

    In this situation, I see myself siding with Lawrence on this issue, but how do I want government to weigh in on this? If I want to use an internet service, and it is being offered for free, does that mean I have to surrender my personal info to use it? IS there another business model that will work? Or is this just a matter of we have to start paying for what was once free.

  • FaceBook, Same as the Old Boss

    I just read the new article in the NY Times that details how FaceBook put up privacy walls for users, but then turned around and created partnerships with other tech companies and gave them the private data.

    For one, 2018 has been an awful year for FaceBook.

    And for two, why am I still on FaceBook and Instagram?

    There’s lots of ground covered in the article, and Facebook isn’t the only guilty party in this story either, but are any of us really surprised that a corporation was greedy, and put profit over the well-being of their customers? Even lied to their customers, so they could keep making more money, and to make the shareholders happy. (Even Google has stopped using it’s, “Don’t Be Evil,” moto. That can’t be a good sign for a corporation.)

    I’m not naïve enough to believe that there was ever a “good era” for corporations; such as, corporations were acting in the best interest of their customers and society in general. Their job is to make as much money as possible, and I don’t think that will ever change. What I do have a problem with is that there seems to be no repercussion for a corporation when they get caught telling outright lies to their customers and the country. What are you going to do?

    We could sue them?

    Nope, we all signed agreements that allow FaceBook to do this. And even if we wanted to sue them, we couldn’t because we agreed to settle any disputes in arbitration, and not a court.

    Yes, I am seriously thinking about deleting all of my social accounts.

    But is it even possible anymore to go anonymous on the internet?