Browsing Tag: facebook

    Social Media

    Second thoughts on social media

    December 11, 2016
    (This guy would fit right in on Twitter these days.)

    Two weeks away from Twitter? Yep, I did that recently. It was two of the most enjoyable weeks of my life.

    Part of the hiatus was because I was out of the country on vacation with my wife, and even though we had plenty of internet access, family policy is that we don’t advertise when we’re traveling.

    But the hiatus was mainly because I’m growing tired of Twitter. When I get on Twitter, I see too much hate, hypocrisy and drama. I see too many people who think they’re funny, trying to crack snarky jokes at someone else’s expense. Too many people who claim to be tolerant, but have no respect for anyone who disagrees with them. Too many people who think they have all the answers and know what’s best for the rest of us. Too much smug self-righteousness.

    Yes, I know I’ve been guilty of some of those things in the past. And all of that is why, for now, I’ve had enough.

    I see a lot of the same things on Facebook, by the way, but at least there I can click “Hide This Post.” And to Facebook’s credit, it’s starting to understand what I want in my News Feed and what I don’t. I don’t see any of that on Instagram, thankfully, and that’s where I’ve been spending most of my social media time in the past few weeks. I’ve also been blogging more in this space — four posts in November! And one at the end of October!

    But as far as Twitter is concerned, I’m not reading as much, not tweeting as much, and when I do tweet, it’s mostly been for work-related content lately. I suspect that’ll continue.

    And based on what I described above about the stuff I see on Twitter, not to mention things like fake news, harassment, terrorist recruiting and so forth, I’m just not convinced social media is such a good idea.

    Miscellany

    Is Google Trashing Facebook’s Future?

    May 19, 2013

    I love that one of Google’s related searches for the word “Facebook” is …. MySpace.

    facebook-myspace-google

    That almost seems like it has to be an easter egg, doesn’t it? Too funny. Google thinks Facebook is the next MySpace.

    facebook-flipflops
    Miscellany

    How I Learned to Love … Well, Like … Facebook

    July 23, 2012

    facebook-flipflopsA year ago, I had almost 400 “friends” on Facebook, and another 300 or so friend requests that were awaiting replies.

    And I hated Facebook.

    I’d log on a couple times a week. Every once in a while, I’d see something fun or cool from my wife, one of my sisters, a different relative or a friend across the country. But most of what I saw was unwanted advertising (SEOs and online marketers promoting their articles) and other garbage (Farmville updates, etc.).

    I thought about just zapping my account into oblivion and forgetting Facebook altogether. But there were a couple things pulling me away from that option:

    • I really enjoyed seeing what my relatives and friends were up to, and Facebook was the best way to do that short of calling each of them every day.
    • My wife was using Facebook unconventionally to build her local real estate business and I wanted to see what and how she was doing it. (By “unconventional” I mean she wasn’t using a business page, she’s using her personal Facebook account.)
    • As a guy who speaks about social media at the GetListed.org Local University workshops, I really couldn’t toss in the towel on Facebook and then try to educate small business owners about it.

    I really had no choice but to stay on Facebook and learn how to enjoy it. Here’s what I did:

    1.) Changed my definition of a Facebook “friend.”

    I set rules about who would be on my friends list. I rejected all of the outstanding friend requests that were in my queue. I started mass unfriending — too much self-promotion, too much politics, not enough real friendship with me? All gone. I figured they’re called “friends,” not “acquaintances” for a reason. I can keep in touch with my industry acquaintances just fine on Twitter, so no need to try the same on Facebook.

    I’m currently down from almost 400 friends to 116, and I think I’ll end up with about 100 when I’m finally done.

    2.) Changed my default sharing settings.

    I set “Friends” as my default posting setting, instead of “Public/World.”

    3.) Got more active.

    Since pruning my friends list and changing my sharing settings, I’ve been posting more often and getting responses from people that matter to me.

    The Result

    The content that I get in the News Feed is a million times more enjoyable now. I see stuff from close friends with whom I have real friendships, and from family members that live all across the country. I’ve gone from checking Facebook a couple times per week to checking every day, and sometimes a couple times per day.

    The content that I post is seen by people I care about the most (when I share with friends only), and yet I still have the option to share certain things with the 100-200 people who aren’t on my friends list, but are subscribing to my public updates.

    And that’s how I’ve learned to like Facebook.

    (But I’ll still be watching my privacy settings like a hawk. There’s a difference between liking and trusting.)

    (Image via kudumomo and used via Creative Commons license.)

    Featured, Social Media

    Facebook: Annoying? Mysterious? Both?

    December 24, 2011

    facebook-logo-square-311I just finished updating my Facebook profile to the new Timeline. What a nerve-racking experience….because with Facebook, you never know what privacy settings have been changed without your permission, what new options and features are turned on by default, and so forth.

    Facebook doesn’t exactly have a good history of protecting its users, especially when it involves things (i.e., data) that benefits its advertisers. Because, as the saying goes, when a service is free, the users aren’t the customers — they’re the product being sold.

    Anyhoo, when it comes to Facebook and any social networking site, I try to be very protective of my location. I don’t accept Foursquare requests from people I’ve never met, and even from some whom I have met. On Facebook, I’ve only used the check-in feature once, to test it when it first launched. And I don’t let friends check me in to places they visit, either.

    So you can imagine my surprise and frustration when I switched over to Timeline and saw this:

    unacceptable

    Somehow I’ve checked-in or been checked-in 35 times on Facebook. Say what??!! How does that happen? I just don’t get it, and I don’t like it.

    Luckily, I was able to remove that maps thing from my profile. At least I think I did. You never really know with Facebook.

    And then there was this: While I was reviewing my history of liking pages, Facebook decided to list MapQuest in my Likes, even though — as the button suggests — I never really did Like them on Facebook.

    unacceptable-2

    What’s that all about?

    Is Facebook more annoying than mysterious? Or vice versa? I can’t decide.