Look this isn’t another “I hate Facebook/don’t get it” thread. I like Facebook, I get Facebook. I don’t mind at all when people what they post what they had for breakfast (unless that’s ALL they post). I find it okay when people post song lyrics meaningful to them. Even if I think they’re boring and feel bad bugging my friends in games, I can understand the appeal of the games (though not as much the social aspect of them).
What I don’t get is the kind of “forced stalking” people enable. Like phone apps that update your Facebook status whenever you get in a resturaunt, or the ones that tell the world every news article you read, or the ones that post every. Damn. Song. That plays on your Pandora radio. It’s just so alien to me. I really, truly don’t see the appeal of AUTOMATING everybody knowing exactly where you are and what you’re doing at any point. I can understand posting a status saying “hey, I’m at Starbucks, come join me!” I don’t understand the hole “James is at Safeway.” “James is at Chipotole.” “James is at Century Theaters.”
I guess I kind of get the news articles one, since it could promote discussion, but isn’t that what the “share” button is for? Letting everybody know you want to talk about an article. I’m sure a lot of the articles people read they don’t really care enough about to discuss, so why automate the posting? To be fair, for the news readers you have to take GREAT care to not let them post on your wall – either setting privacy settings for the app individually or copying and pasting the article title into search and finding it without the social reader, so overall I don’t really fault the people with automated news-stalking. However, stuff like the automated check-in apps or the Pandora “tell everybody what I’m listening to” app actually take a concentrated effort to install and link to your account, making me think that at least those are voluntary and wanted.
It’s really just an alien viewpoint to me. It’s not paranoia that people will stalk me, or an obsession with personal privacy, I just don’t get why you’d go out of your way to promote it. I promise I’m not making another one of those threads where the OP rants about how everybody is beneath him and Facebook is the sign of the end-times. Or how something everybody uses makes them dumb. It’s really only a tiny minority of my friends who do it, but I. Just. Don’t. Get. It. I really just want to peer into the mind of somebody who gets it or likes it and know what their thought process is. No hostility, I really just want to get it, feel more connected and understanding of my fellow man etc etc.
Yeah, Facebook is the commodification of narcissism. That’s how it’s going to make money, because with every loop of hyper self-representation that runs, an opportunity exists to expose (advertise) a product or service. Facebook is figuring out some pretty clever ways to keep these loops running.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I understand perfectly why Facebook or other companies provide such apps. Free advertising money! I just don’t get why people willingly submit to it. Interestingly, my most annoying, narcissistic friends aren’t the ones using these apps. The truly narcissistic ones instead take great strides to PERSONALLY inform everyone of everything they do, tag every place they’re in manually, and tag hundreds of pictures with them in it every week.
I see people with these apps reporting their every location and keep wishing that I had the get-up-and-go to go into home burglary as an occupation, especially now with all the police forces cutting back.
A lot of FB apps are pretty much viral now. You see a potentially interesting article that someone else read, and in trying to read it, you have to install some intrusive social reader app that starts reporting on what you’re doing, and the cycle continues.
I hate 'em. Hate FB apps in general - in particular, the dishonesty they use to try to get you to install them makes me furious; if you accidentally click on an invitation to install the app, it takes you to a page with two buttons; ‘install app’ and ‘cancel’ - except cancel doesn’t cancel - it just asks you again if you want to install - and keeps asking you until you close the page.
I enjoy reading things my FB friends have actually posted. I block application-based updates the first time I see them.
