I have a new article up on the Hot Wild Free website. This week, in a departure from talking about graduate-related things, I talk about something that is totally unrelated to students. Facebook (*cough*). You can read Has liking culture robbed us of our ability to express ourselves? now on the Hot Wild Free website. Go on, it’s good…
Oh, and don’t worry. I’m perfectly happy with people ‘liking’ my blog posts, even if you want to be clever and ‘like’ ironically after reading the article.
Follow me on Twitter @RewanTremethick.
Got a question? Want to request a post? Got a topic you’d like my take on? thehypertellerATgmailDOTcom.
That exclamation point remark really hit home for me. I really dislike having to punctuate my comments with that over-enthusiastic vertical dash and dot — for pity’s sake, the quip didn’t excite me *that* much! — but sans facial cues and variance of tone, there’s little room left for subtlety. It’s “!!!” all over the place, or I come across like Eeyore (or at least that’s how it looks from my end of the screen; I can’t really know what others may pick up…which kinda reminds me of talking in person, but *more so*…).
I look forward to the day when the computer/phone/whatever scans an image of my face and uploads the portrait as an emoticon. Of course, if by then I’ve trained my facial muscles to pull a perfect (: and ^-^ and XP, I guess it’ll be a moot point.
Yeah, there’s a quote somewhere that using an exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke, which I’d always thought anyway, but as you say, otherwise it just comes across as depressing, no matter how light your tone. (Although I am now imaging you huddled under a rubbish tent-shaped house of sticks in the rain with your laptop
). I think some interns for a computer company invented Sartalics, which is a font you can use to show you are being sarcastic. The only problem is they also need to add drolltalics, ironicalics, enthusiatalics, and a whole bunch of others. In other words, I think keyboards will need to be twice as big to accomodate all our emotions…
The ‘like’ button thing had me chuckling because tonight on my facebook page someone posted a status about how their beloved family pet died. It was so sad but yet several people ‘liked’ it. I think that is just odd.
My young cousins use the ‘like’ button for games such as “Like this status for a paragraph.” or “Like this status and ask me anything. I can not lie for one hour.”
I find twitter hard sometimes because I am someone who has a lot to say. I don’t tweet much for conversation because I do not like the confines of the short space. I use it mainly to lead people to my blog where I invite them to comment more liberally but I must admit from time to time, I wish twitter had a ‘like’ button.
I guess I have a love hate relationship with social media and the odd cultural things it creates.
I know, right! It’s utterly strange. I think I first noticed it when someone had posted something about someone they knew dying and people had liked it. I know (well, optimistically assume), that they are liking the part of the status where it says ‘we’ll miss you’ or something like that, but you’d think people would pause before hitting the button and go ‘Hang on, how is this going to look?’
I have the same feeling about Twitter as you. As I say in the article, why have a social platform that actively limits interaction. I find even Facebook’s email to be a pain, so as soon as I get talking to someone properly, we swap emails addresses. You just can’t have a proper, meaningful conversation on Twitter, but it is useful for introducing yourself to exciting new people, and for leading them to other forums, as you say, so you can interact fully.
Plus I hate Facebook. I just have a hate relationship with it
Pingback: “Social Media” or “The Post I Drafted After 7 Straight Hours on Facebook” « Ever On Word