Jul 24 08
The Facebook Experiment: Part 2 (Possibly Final)
By Dave Imperiale
It’s been three months since I joined the Facebook and I’m now mostly just annoyed with it. Every morning when I get up I do two things: I check the temperature/forecast on New York 1 and I check the Yankee score/standings (in season). Now I have to click on one more bookmarked page every morning. I don’t want to. I find no real pleasure in it. I won’t compare it to drugs or booze because it’s not as good. I don’t know why I do it. I’m not sure what I think will happen or who I’m waiting for. I’m already friends with everyone I know on there. Yet more keep finding me.
That leads me back to my first Facebook posting, with my big complaint being the lack of communication. Time has explained why no one writes notes when they request a friend. We have nothing to say to each other. That’s true whether it’s someone we haven’t talked to in awhile or someone we just met. Of course there are rare instances where you have an intriguing two-day catch up session on the Facebook email. But that’s it. After that conversation fizzles you really think you’re ever going to talk to that person again?
You won’t see them. But you’ll look at their pictures. I’ll admit that I look at peoples’ pictures to see how they turned out. And I’m sure they’re all looking at my prematurely white hair and fat neck. So I’ll confess and repent because every time I’m looking at pictures I’m petrified that person is watching me look at them on their page. I don’t know if that’s possible but you won’t convince me otherwise. I trust no communication on that thing.
I have a friend with a somewhat demoralizing nickname. It’s not widely publicized and not everyone knows about it. Well this fellow’s wife was having a conversation with another friend of ours where they were using this nickname on their public wall. And not only was it on the public wall, the newsfeed feature updated every single person she’s friends with displaying the content of that discussion. User error can be a problem.
As for users, as far as I can tell only about 5% of the people I’m Facebook friends with are actively engaged with the community and the applications. For the sake of the experiment, I did try. I played a movie quiz. I played Scrabble a couple of times. I became a fan of Cold War Kids and my university. I loaded the Yankee Faithful application.
I was designated at the lowest level of Yankee fandom: a batboy. In order to improve my social standing in this community, I was told to post cheers. Public cheers. If I posted a bunch I would raise to a rookie. That’s it. Basically the people who do this are the same people who make signs and bring them to the stadium. I don’t think whoever designed that application has ever been to Yankee Stadium. They’re running out of time.
So I think as Yankee Stadium moves across the street, I’m going to try to move on to another community. Offline. .I.
I have the same weird feeling about facebook: I don’t know why I’m there or what I’m looking for, but I end up getting lost in other peoples’ fun and pictures.
I think the applications have really messed up the experience of it and has really cheapened it.
That’s what happened to MySpace… they kept expanding until it just lost its punch and quality. And now I never use it because its full of junk mail and hacked profiles.
Maybe the wall is the key to liking facebook more, instead of using the applications.