Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Tom Cod]

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formerly of the SWP

On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 9:44 AM, Tom Cod  wrote:

> Some people publish huge amounts of stuff.  My friend Bob S, from SDS,
> cranks out 20-30 per day, Kipp D of the SWP is a large producer as
> well, which is fine.  I think my top ten producers probably post up to
> 80 posts per day.


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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Tom Cod]

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"Unfriend" is different from "unsubscribe", the latter meaning a
person's posts will not be published to your home page, a setting that
can be altered at will,  meaning you still have access to this
person's page and posts.  Anyone who has a large number of friends has
to restrict the number of people they are subscribed to in order to
make their site manageable.  It's sort of like fielding a barrage of
phone calls in a busy office.  Some people you might not be able to
talk to, but it would a rare person who you would block from calling
in the first place.

Some people publish huge amounts of stuff.  My friend Bob S, from SDS,
cranks out 20-30 per day, Kipp D of the SWP is a large producer as
well, which is fine.  I think my top ten producers probably post up to
80 posts per day.  I simply can 't have all of them flooding in all
the time 24/7, so I'll often rotate who gets published from time to
time.  In addition you can click "important only" to minimize.  I
would never unfriend someone, however,  for a logistical reason like
that as I value my connection with them.


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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Louis Proyect]

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On 3/4/12 12:33 PM, Mark Lause wrote:


It's the nature of American civilization at this point that it makes a
certain portion of its population sociopathic.




One other problem I have with FB is how bereft it is of serious 
discussion or debate. And often when it occurs it is with people who you 
really have little or no affinity with.


Yesterday a grad student in London named Sebastian wrote glowingly about 
Steve McQueen's "Shame", a movie I really hated, even more so than 
"Hunger", his horrible movie about Bobby Sands.


When I took exception to the film, I found myself in an argument with 
people on Sebastian's wave-length, who are grad students like him or 
junior faculty members. When one of them wrote "Also, what about someone 
like Tarkovsky? His films are suffused with emotion, but his characters 
are either detached or otherwise somewhat lacking in internal life. They 
are tools to engender a kind of purely temporal experience of cinematic 
haecceity", I chuckled at the use of the word "haeccity" and signed off.


There are frequently good discussions engendered by something that Doug 
Henwood writes or Corey Robin wrote (I unfriended him a while back out 
of pique, probably a mistake) but that's about it.



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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Mark Lause]

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I, too, accept all friend requests from real people.  If you click on the
profile, a quick look can reveal sales scams, etc.

In some years, I've only unfriended a few people.  One was this character
who entered into a rant about how critics of the wars are objective allies
of the terrorists who should be put up against a wall and shot.  The guy
was genuinely hurt when I unfriended him and actually messaged me to ask
why.  I replied that I have no "friends" who want me killed.  He said that
he had exaggerated and didn't really want me killed . . . just confined
indefinately.

It's the nature of American civilization at this point that it makes a
certain portion of its population sociopathic.

ML

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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Dan Scanlan]

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I have elected to accept every Facebook friend request. I don't necessarily 
need so many friends but I like the comfort of knowing that the gendarmes who 
monitor Facebook and other social and political forums (like Marxmail I assume) 
have a harder time telling what's really important to me. 

Dan


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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Einde O'Callaghan]

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On 03.03.2012 23:17, Louis Proyect wrote:

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On 3/3/12 5:05 PM, Joseph Catron wrote:

If you don't feel like waiting for them to show up, go to their profiles,
click "Subscribed," then "Unsubscribe." It's as quick and easy as
removing
them from your "Friends" list altogether, without the hurt feelings or
ensuing drama.



As anybody who knows me, this is not my style. What is the point of
having an "unsubscribed" "friend"? This has a Pecksniffian odor.

They can read what you post - which is probably why they asked you to 
friend them in the first place!


Einde O'Callaghan


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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Einde O'Callaghan]

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On 03.03.2012 15:54, Louis Proyect wrote:

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I simply don't understand how comrades with a large number of FB
"friends" can wade through all the stuff to find something relevant. I
only have 330 friends and it takes forever to go through the posts. I
know that some people who are really into it have more than a thousand
"friends". It is the same kind of complaint I used to hear from people
who unsubbed from Marxmail because they couldn't deal with the volume.
That is why I set a 5 post a day maximum. Part of the problem is that my
FB friends feel the need to convey information that will not be news to
anybody on top of current events. For example, I don't need to be
informed about Rush Limbaugh's sexist radio commentary. I guess that
goes with the territory when you become "friends" with total strangers.

Using the subscribe function you can limit the types of posting you get 
- so for example I've cut the posts about games from all my FB friends.


It gives you a bit more control than simply unfriending them.

Einde O'Callaghan


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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Erik Toren]

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Facebook. Twitter. Goggle+. MySpace.Friendster (the old version). Diaspora.
Most, if not all, social network sites have the same issue. The issue that
as far as conversation goes it's going to be limited and overwhelming.
Limited in that most of these sites have a limit on how much text to input
(initially or in Twitter's case always). Most folks can only write a couple
of sentences and many links, pics, videos, etc. Overwhelming in that the
"stream" of info is always moving.

I keep the FB friends to a limit. To me the stream is just a news ticker
that I pay attention only at that moment i am logged in. Personally, I use
FB more for event creation/invitation and for the groups. By in large part,
most of the youth activists keep in touch tru FB. Events, meetings,
community actions, etc get done tru FB.

Erik Toren


On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 1:51 PM, Mark Lause  wrote:

> I subscribed to Facebook initially only because a student organization I
> advice used it exclusively as a way to organize what it was doing.  I've
> found it marginally useful for some things.  The issue's not the number of
> "friends," but what you actually bother to follow.
>

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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Sergii Kutnii]

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> What is the point of having an "unsubscribed" "friend"?

Permissions are the reason. Friendship can be used for access control.
So there is some point in it. Consider a situation when someone writes
something interesting that people start sharing. If you are friends
with the person, you can easily get into the activity but if you are
not and this user makes it friends-only it'll be a bit difficult for
you.


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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Joseph Catron]

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On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 12:17 AM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

What is the point of having an "unsubscribed" "friend"?
>

Some of them might like reading your posts?

-- 
"Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen
lytlað."

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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Louis Proyect]

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On 3/3/12 5:05 PM, Joseph Catron wrote:

If you don't feel like waiting for them to show up, go to their profiles,
click "Subscribed," then "Unsubscribe." It's as quick and easy as removing
them from your "Friends" list altogether, without the hurt feelings or
ensuing drama.



As anybody who knows me, this is not my style. What is the point of 
having an "unsubscribed" "friend"? This has a Pecksniffian odor.




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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Joseph Catron]

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On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 8:25 PM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

Why do my eyes glaze over when I read this?
>

If that's too much for you (as it is for me), there's a little "X" to the
immediate right of the name of every poster on your feed. Click on it and
select "Unsubscribe from" their name, and you'll be spared all their stupid
crap without the snub of "Unfriending" them.

If you don't feel like waiting for them to show up, go to their profiles,
click "Subscribed," then "Unsubscribe." It's as quick and easy as removing
them from your "Friends" list altogether, without the hurt feelings or
ensuing drama.

-- 
"Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen
lytlað."

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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Erik Toren]

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Lolz. You should. That's what some friends do.

Erik
On Mar 3, 2012 12:26 PM, "Louis Proyect"  wrote:

> ==**==**==
> Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
> ==**==**==
>
>
> On 3/3/12 1:19 PM, Erik Toren wrote:
>
>>
>> In Facebook, they can "subscribe" to you newsfeed without being your
>> friends. In Google +, works similar. A number of bloggers use Google+
>> since
>> folks can sub to your feeds, but you don't have to "friend" them nor get
>> their feeds.
>>
>
> Why do my eyes glaze over when I read this? Frankly, I am giving serious
> consideration to cutting my "friends" down to about 50 people.
>
> __**__
> Send list submissions to: 
> Marxism@greenhouse.economics.**utah.edu
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> utah.edu/mailman/options/**marxism/ectoren%40gmail.com
>

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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Mark Lause]

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As is always the case with the new technology, the main issue is to keep
what you expect of these things realistic.

I subscribed to Facebook initially only because a student organization I
advice used it exclusively as a way to organize what it was doing.  I've
found it marginally useful for some things.  The issue's not the number of
"friends," but what you actually bother to follow.

I have rarely found it a useful way to have conversations I would not have
rather had through other venues, but I don't think the latter would have
been possible under any foreseable circumstances.  I have found it a good
way to reconnect with people, though at the cost of sifting through far too
many "friends" who send me far too many invitations about the opening of a
new coffee house in Four Corners, Nebraska, to which I am expected to
respond.  I rarely take the time to respond and i never feel guilty about
not responding.

This is also the problem in terms of Marxmail.  Actually keeping up with
everything posted here would be a full-time job.  I have one of those and
it actually takes about 60-70 hours a week.  I don't feel guilty about not
reading things here or on any of the half dozen other lists.

I don't feel guilty about not responding to things I probably could and
should respond to.

I don't feel guilty about careless proofreading.

All this comes with the turf.

ML

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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Louis Proyect]

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On 3/3/12 1:19 PM, Erik Toren wrote:


In Facebook, they can "subscribe" to you newsfeed without being your
friends. In Google +, works similar. A number of bloggers use Google+ since
folks can sub to your feeds, but you don't have to "friend" them nor get
their feeds.


Why do my eyes glaze over when I read this? Frankly, I am giving serious 
consideration to cutting my "friends" down to about 50 people.



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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Erik Toren]

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In Facebook, they can "subscribe" to you newsfeed without being your
friends. In Google +, works similar. A number of bloggers use Google+ since
folks can sub to your feeds, but you don't have to "friend" them nor get
their feeds.

Erik

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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Louis Proyect]

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On 3/3/12 12:28 PM, Erik Toren wrote:

Real easy.  Short answer. Know your friends. Who posts stuff of interest.
And who doesn't. If you want to take the time, Facebook gives you the
option to create a list of friends you follow. Head to that list and have a
shorter stream to read.  If you want something with lower traffic, head to
Google +.



My wife told me about a discussion she had with a fellow professor who 
had the same complaint as me. She recommended keeping them as friends, 
but "unsubscribing" them, which seems utterly pointless to me. Same 
thing as keeping a list of friends to follow. She doesn't have this 
problem because her friends are real friends, family and students and 
faculty members where she teaches.


My problem is that I get FB friend requests about 2 or 3 times a week 
from people who read my blog or see my comments on FB pages. I don't 
want to turn down their requests, since I am basically a nice guy 
despite my obnoxious exterior. But once they are friends, they send 
posts about how bad Rush Limbaugh is, etc. Dear me, what should I do...



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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Erik Toren]

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Real easy.  Short answer. Know your friends. Who posts stuff of interest.
And who doesn't. If you want to take the time, Facebook gives you the
option to create a list of friends you follow. Head to that list and have a
shorter stream to read.  If you want something with lower traffic, head to
Google +.

Erik

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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Tristan Sloughter]

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You have more friends than me on facebook but I'm guess the problem is it
hasn't been able to learn who's posts are most important to you. I believe
it takes into account comments on posts and 'likes' and other variables to
know what you most want to see.

If you don't use it somewhat frequently and do more than simply read the
posts I don't think it'll ever be a useful timeline of things you are
interested in.

As for topics of common knowledge to those up on current events, many of us
have lots of followers who don't follow close enough or even use our
timelines to keep up to date surprisingly. I'm not in your timeline but if
I were there would be plenty of basic current events :)

Oh, and you can remove people from your timeline to make it easier to bring
it down to only interesting things by removing those who don't post
interesting thing.

Tristan

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Re: [Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Marv Gandall]

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On 2012-03-03, at 9:54 AM, Louis Proyect wrote:
> 
> I simply don't understand how comrades with a large number of FB "friends" 
> can wade through all the stuff to find something relevant. I only have 330 
> friends and it takes forever to go through the posts. I know that some people 
> who are really into it have more than a thousand "friends"...Part of the 
> problem is that my FB friends feel the need to convey information that will 
> not be news to anybody on top of current events. For example, I don't need to 
> be informed about Rush Limbaugh's sexist radio commentary. I guess that goes 
> with the territory when you become "friends" with total strangers.

Be thankful for "friends" who at least take an interest in the world around 
them. :)

Facebook for most is just status competition in the digital age:

Facebook as a MMORPG? Playing Pretend Online
By Krystal D'Costa 
Scientific American
March 1, 2012

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/2012/03/01/facebook-as-a-mmorpg-playing-pretend-online/?WT_mc_id=SA_DD_20120302

[…]

Ah, Facebook. A source of tension for so many couples for so many reasons from 
that co-worker you’re friendly with to the old boyfriend or girlfriend who 
wants to reconnect to evidence that you’re not reaching your potential based on 
where your age-mates have traveled, or what they’re driving, or where they’re 
living or that corner office they just snagged. Or how unbelievably, undeniably 
content they are with their lives—with every single excruciating detail of 
their lives whether it’s the pancakes they ate for breakfast or the new belt 
they just bought or the degree of love and affection they have for their 
significant other. The connectivity of Facebook has spawned what I have 
previously called the Hydra Profile—a joint profile that mixes friends, 
interests, and allows couples to monitor each other’s activities closely on the 
social networking site.

It can be too much, sometimes.

And if you don’t feel you match up to the vacations, job promotions, house 
buying, shopping trips, and the otherwise perfect life that everyone seems to 
be living (online), it can make you unhappy. Seriously unhappy, according to a 
recent study.




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[Marxism] Facebook frustration

[Louis Proyect]

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I simply don't understand how comrades with a large number of FB 
"friends" can wade through all the stuff to find something relevant. I 
only have 330 friends and it takes forever to go through the posts. I 
know that some people who are really into it have more than a thousand 
"friends". It is the same kind of complaint I used to hear from people 
who unsubbed from Marxmail because they couldn't deal with the volume. 
That is why I set a 5 post a day maximum. Part of the problem is that my 
FB friends feel the need to convey information that will not be news to 
anybody on top of current events. For example, I don't need to be 
informed about Rush Limbaugh's sexist radio commentary. I guess that 
goes with the territory when you become "friends" with total strangers.



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