I have received many requests
in recent times to ‘like’ things by people on Facebook. I do not actually know most of these people - as in I have never met them in person. Being asked to 'like' something in such a fashion is a bit weird and unpleasant.
I don't like it.
I don't like it at all.
I am a relatively new user of
Facebook and I opted to join it to connect with other people who write and to
see what actually happens there.
I was unprepared for the
madness.
There is a lot of really
weird shit.
My offspring and their
cousins invited me into their Facebook lives. This surprised me and then
shocked me. The publicizing of their shenanigans and allowing me to look at
what they do and who they are connected to is interesting – to say the least.
I am definitely old school. I
have embraced much of the technology that exists today and have a dependence
upon on some of it. I emphasize some of it. I have put the
word some in both italics and bold to
highlight the emphasis.
I just did it again.
I confess that I do get
anxiety when I am traveling for my work and I get disconnected from my emails
and texts and calls. This happens not infrequently when working in some parts
of some countries that my job takes me.
Places like India and China.
Like many people – or indeed
most people in the workforce - my work is email dependent. If I don't respond
to emails they accumulate and then people ring me. The people who ring me are
often the English and they are demanding.
I don't like that.
I agree that I am unnaturally
dependent upon connection with my Blackberry however it is to me a simple work
tool. It is often cursed and occasionally blessed - but it is used mostly for
work and rarely for play.
I purposefully disconnect sometimes
though. I disconnect with intent when I am in distant and remote places where I
sometimes choose to go when I am not working. This is 'Me' time and the
Himalaya is such a place. I disconnect with intent in high mountain villages. I
electronically switch off there and I emotionally switch on to more
important stuff.
These are non cyber or
electronic things.
I put my "Out of Office'
on - my OOO. I embrace the simplicity of life and the lack of devices and I do
without connectivity or instantaneity and it is very nice.
I like that.
I have not though adopted or
accepted things like Instagram or Twitter.
I reject them in fact.
I give enough updates of my
life in this blog. I know that my writing sometimes alarms my Mum.
Sorry Mum - I don't mean any
harm or to cause you worry or anxiety.
I have a Facebook account but
it is a pseudonym and I don’t play with it all that often.
A lot of people I know do
'Play Facebook'. I know this because I watch them.
They are everywhere.
They are mostly the teens and
the twenties and the thirties that do it - the youngsters. I watch my two kids
Totty and Tom do it and their cousins Ben and Georgie as well. All their mates play
Facebook as well.
They 'Check In' by constantly
updating where they are and they take photos of their food and they upload these
photos on their Facebook profiles. They then 'Post' and 'Share' them and wait
for people to 'Like' them.
There is not an 'Unlike'
action but you can take your 'Like' back.
I don't "Like” that.
I understand that people do
this because they can and Technology allows and encourages it. However I
wouldn't do it myself and I don't.
I can't see the point but I
get it though.
If I were a teen or in
my twenties or thirties I would probably do it.
I would 'Play Facebook'.
I know lots of people who are
constant Facebook Users. I have talked to them about this and I sometimes refer
to a few of them as ‘Facebook Animals’. It is not meant to be derogatory.
These are the ones that
constantly provide updates of their lives as to what they are eating and where
they are going and where they have been. They provide updates on who they are
with and they ‘tag’ people in photographs that they post on their Facebook
pages. These are the type who I think of as ‘Facebook Animals’.
They don't like it when I
refer to them as ‘Facebook Animals’.
They get a bit defensive.
Many people tell me they are
Facebook users just because it is convenient to keep in contact with friends
and family who are scattered around the globe. They chat and share events and I
get this and I think that it is a very good and useful tool from that
perspective. I do post photos sometimes but not what I am eating.
The ‘Facebook Animals’
generally don't like it either when I ask them if they are 'Playing Facebook'.
I don’t know why.
Many people are 'on' their
hand-held devices all of the time. They tell me it is just instant
communication and it is socializing and that they are uploading descriptions of
events with images and video and text. They do this instantly and on a massive
scale. They tell me that they are just using the available technology and that
it is easy and it is what is done.
I see the appeal and I get
it.
I just don’t like it.
I understand all of this
however much of the dialogue that is on Facebook seems to occur between
strangers or people who are at best acquaintances. Many people don't actually
know a large number of the people who they are communicating with.
Not properly and often not at
all.
I find this a bit disturbing
and I see the potential sinister in it. The exploitation for bullying and other
devious purposes also worries me. There have been many cases of children
committing suicide because of callous and cruel attacks of Facebook.
I find the whole
"Friending" and "Unfriending" process very strange and
disturbing as well.
I would not like to be
"Unfriended" in either the cyber or real world.
I think it would be very
hurtful.
The data aspect concerns me
too. The data that Facebook must have and that they are accumulating is
staggering. I recall talking to a very interesting super nerd IT geek man once
who was and probably still is designing and building Facebook uber data
centers. He told me some of the very very very big figures of the data that
Facebook was generating and storing and I checked it.
Facebook Servers currently host
more than two hundred and forty billion photo images. That is billion.
I have highlighted this in italics
and bold as well to emphasize once again. That is an enormous
number.
In excess of fifty million
images are uploaded each day.
Facebook have billions of
names and numbers and ISP Server identities as well. They have addresses and
faces all sorts of personal information on us.
They have lots and lots of
photos of food too.
Facebook have mega data on a
large hunk of the population and they are collecting more and more. Every
minute of every day their databases swell with information. Facebook know where
people go and they know who was with whom.
They know what people were eating.
Facebook own and are still
building data centers that can now store exabytes of data.
An exabyte is:
A unit of information
equal to one quintillion (10 18) bytes, or one billion
gigabytes.
You will note that I have
once again 'bold' and 'italicized' this. Facebook own this data.
It is given to them. We gave it freely and we give it constantly. The gifts of
the data ownership of our Facebook data is detailed in the rarely read
conditions of agreement that apply when a Facebook account is created and
activated.
It is estimated that Facebook
run and use in excess of 180,000 Servers.
That is a lot.
There are more than one
billion users and this number is growing.
That is a lot too.
The Facebook data is now so
much that they are even storing it now in Clouds.
I am concerned what
additional effect that the storage of data in clouds will have on the
abomination that is Climate Change that we are - and will continue to
experience.
Climate Change is very real
and it is human-escalated. We chew and spew out carbon and we are choking our
atmospheres.
We must stop or slow down for
our planet is in peril.
The last thing we need is
data spewing down on us from clouds.
The data that Facebook have
on us is immense. What will they do with it? What are they doing with it? What
can they do with it? They are capable of being the Biggest of Big Brothers and
they perhaps already are.
I prefer face-to-face
discussions and conversations over a cup of tea. I like meeting new people and
talking to strangers and I enjoy making new friends. I like to do this in the
real world and not the cyber one though. I like travelling and seeing real
places and meeting people in the flesh.
I like being there.
Using all five senses is
important to me too. Touch and smell are absent in the cyber world and there
are many people and things on Facebook that are not real.
Facebook alarms me quite a
bit.
I suspect that Monsters lurk
within.
Scary ones.
I am on it but it is not the
real me and I don't "Play Facebook'. I am definitely old school and
writing this is more than enough.
Sorry again Mum.
When I look at the Facebook
Pages that I am invited to ‘like’ - I mostly don't like them. There is no
"I don't like it" button so my only option is to ignore them or to 'unfriend'
them.
As I have already mentioned I
think ‘unfriending’ is a bit mean and I don’t really know how I became
‘friends’ with some of these people in the first place.
The social media phenomena is
very strange - and particularly Facebook. It is however fascinating and I am at
times mesmerized by it. I am hypnotized and I find myself being a bit of a
voyeur.
I am peeping Peter.
The word voyeur is French in
origins - obviously so. It is derived from the Latin word "videre"
which means, "to see". The French interpretation is literally "one
who watches".
An alternative for a voyeur
is a scophophiliac. This word is originally Greek and is a "lover of
looking". It has more sexual and pornographic connotations though than
simple voyeurism.
I quite like saying it
though.
I called one of the English
with whom I work a scophophiliac this afternoon - just for the hell of it
and because I like saying it. He of course had no idea what the term
meant and he gave me a confused look and muttered a baffled "Ay
Oop?"
The English to whom I
referred to as a scophophiliac was a Northerner. He is from Lancashire and
it is quite possible that he is a scophophiliac. The Northerner asked
me "Wa's tha' lad?'. This is Northerner and it means "What
does that mean mate?".
I just gave him a wry smile
and walked away.
If he knew what
a scophophiliac was he wouldn't like it.
I watch Facebook sometimes
with morbid fascination as peculiar people post intimate and quite often
incredibly boring details of their lives to their many thousands of 'friends'
and to the world at large. "This is what I am eating". "I am
brushing my teeth now". "My boyfriend is a bastard" - and
on and on it goes.
To my great surprise many people
'like' it.
Millions of them.
Every minute of every day.
The Facebook world is
surreal.
No-one in the real world walks
up to complete strangers and invites them to like them. They do not say 'be my
friend'. Writers should not ask people to ‘like’ what they have written. They should
just write stuff and let people make up their own minds.
It may just be me - but when
I receive an invitation to ‘like’ something on Facebook I will instinctively
not like it. The only available option that exists at present to express this
is to 'like' it then immediately retract my ‘like’.
This is not really
'unliking" it.
The creators of Facebook have
not offered up any other options.
I was so annoyed by the
inundation of requests to 'like' what are not very well-written self-published
books – mostly about vampires and zombies - I posted the following on my
'page':
“OK these
requests from random "Writers" asking me to "Like" their
pages and they will in turn "Like" mine are getting ridiculous. Read
what I write if you want. Or don't. I don't give a fuck either way. I will do the
same with what you publish and if I like what you have written I will
"Like" it. If I don't I won't. I will never ask you to 'like' what I
write or "like" me - that would just be too desperate and demeaning
..... so please stop asking me!?
Bizarrely dozens of people
‘liked” it but it has had no effect.
None at all.
I have since received more
than a dozen requests to 'like' what I believe to be dreadful pieces of
writing. This is only my opinion though – which I am entitled to – and I am
well aware that reading is very subjective and other people may ‘like’ it.
My friend James who is both a
real friend and a Facebook friend 'liked' what I wrote and we exchanged banter.
My son Tom – who lives in Australia weighed in at the tail end of our
conversation the next morning.
Here is some of it:
•
James
What is there not to like???? 23 hours ago via mobile
• Peter Heppo There is much my Irish friend
.....23 hours ago
• James I'll ask Zuckerberg to add a ‘dislike’
button for the whole duality thing. More democratic that way. 23 hours ago via mobile
•
Peter Heppo That would be useful.
The only other viable option is for me to "like" then immediately
"unlike" - and I simply couldn't be bothered. I now just ignore them
and if they continue I quietly ‘unfriend’ them. I feel a bit mean doing this
but they are not real ‘friends’ in most instances anyhow 23 hours ago
• James That would be defeating the
purpose. Would a ‘like’ followed by a ‘dislike’ not just result in nothing?
Also, should you be able to multiple like / dislike for added emphasis? In any
event, I don't really give a fuck. 23 hours ago via mobile
• Peter Heppo Me either. There is much
madness in the world. A lot of it seems to reside here on Facebook. 23 hours ago
•
Peter Heppo Fucker!
"Unlike" that immediately! 23 hours ago
• James You walked into that one.....23 hours ago via mobile
• Peter Heppo I have no option but to 'like'
it back then. Done. Give me 10 minutes and I will remove my ‘like’. I am also
considering 'unfriending' you. Talk to Zuckerberg ......23 hours ago
• Peter Heppo OK James – I have now
'unliked' everything about you 21 hours ago
• James I never liked me either 21 hours ago via mobile
• Peter Heppo My heart bleeds for
you. I have given you a temporary and sympathetic 'like'. It will be
removed in the morning. Going to bed now .....21 hours ago
• Tom I'll just like everything regardless
of my feeling towards the comments made, merely to increase the likes and
subsequently increase those ‘Face Bookers’ egos, Why? Just coz. I do what I
want - this is Facebook.10 hours ago via mobile
• Peter Heppo You are my son Tom - I don't
"like" you. I love you 9 hours ago via mobile
• Tom I “like" that but love you too
papa 9 hours ago via mobile
It is all a bit yucky.
I don't like it.
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