Saturday, January 10, 2009
FACE TO FACEBOOK
America has become so addicted to staying connected that in the past months I have found myself signing up to read messages from people on a whole variety of bizarre message websites.
A couple of years ago I joined a site called Tribe -- kind of the precursor of things to come. It's still there but it isn't well maintained and I don't use it much anymore.
Myspace was one that I joined purely by force: "WE CAN'T BOOK YOU IF WE CAN'T HEAR YOUR MUSIC." So I had to make one of those pages. (I have two, actually. I used to have seven because I couldn't figure out how to make it a music website and when I thought I was starting over I was just making more pages. I am a hopeless nincompoop on the computer. For the record, my two myspace pages are: www.myspace.com/tomtuerffmusic and www.myspace.com/ttuerff just because it's there.)
In the last few months, I have been forced to join a variety of message sites, some just to get ONE FREAKIN' MESSAGE.
Something called Twitter. Another one called...oh hell, I can't remember...
And the list goes on.
Which brings me to Facebook. Initially, this site was supposed to be used entirely by college students to keep in touch with other college students as well as worried parents. You are allowed no long diatribes, merely status updates. I would presume in the "college only" days, those status updates would be used to assuage worries that little Lurlene was in trouble:
"Lurlene is out on a date."
(followed later by:)
"Lurlene is home from her date. Stop worrying, daddy."
Terribly exciting.
Well, as you might imagine, now EVERYBODY uses Facebook to keep in contact with other people. I have an account, but I have to say I REALLY DON'T GET IT. It's hard to use, hard to change and hard to look at.
It does have its upsides: Nobody gets to look at your information unless you say so. (I presume this is to ward off potential date rapers.) It does allow you to find people who you once shared commonalities with, provided you've both mentioned that. (Your high school, for example.)
But what I find really interesting about it is, now that more people are joining, Facebook and Myspace appear to be entangled in an attempt to be EXACTLY LIKE EACH OTHER. Exclusive features to either site are now popping up on both.
For example, you can now have a Facebook MUSIC PAGE. (I'm holding off.)
And on Myspace, suddenly you can see a list of "potential friends" (that is, people who other friends of yours know) that you, too, might want to make your own.
It's gonna get worse. I'm pretty sure that soon, you'll be able to add backgrounds and videos and all that crap to your Facebook account, which has pretty much taken any enjoyment I ever had out of Myspace. Why? Because you people who insist on putting up 93 videos on your Myspace page, over a "custom motif" that merely sucks up memory while trying to load all your FREAKIN' VIDEOS, and makes it impossible to find the only thing I really want on your damn page, which is "Send a letter,"
DRIVES ME UP THE F***ING WALL!
I let my kid put up a "wallpaper" on my NON-music page and while it's apropos, I hate it. I have trouble reading my own page. Unfortunately I don't know how to change it back.
I'm middle aged. We're more important than you young jerks. Quit complicating things. And get outa my yard! Where's my oatmeal?
------
Okay, so last week, I predicted the Cardinals would win. And they did. Well, today, they're back east where they haven't won a SINGLE game this year, and I don't think that's going to change. We'll see. Panthers over the Cards today. I hope I'm wrong...
TT
America has become so addicted to staying connected that in the past months I have found myself signing up to read messages from people on a whole variety of bizarre message websites.
A couple of years ago I joined a site called Tribe -- kind of the precursor of things to come. It's still there but it isn't well maintained and I don't use it much anymore.
Myspace was one that I joined purely by force: "WE CAN'T BOOK YOU IF WE CAN'T HEAR YOUR MUSIC." So I had to make one of those pages. (I have two, actually. I used to have seven because I couldn't figure out how to make it a music website and when I thought I was starting over I was just making more pages. I am a hopeless nincompoop on the computer. For the record, my two myspace pages are: www.myspace.com/tomtuerffmusic and www.myspace.com/ttuerff just because it's there.)
In the last few months, I have been forced to join a variety of message sites, some just to get ONE FREAKIN' MESSAGE.
Something called Twitter. Another one called...oh hell, I can't remember...
And the list goes on.
Which brings me to Facebook. Initially, this site was supposed to be used entirely by college students to keep in touch with other college students as well as worried parents. You are allowed no long diatribes, merely status updates. I would presume in the "college only" days, those status updates would be used to assuage worries that little Lurlene was in trouble:
"Lurlene is out on a date."
(followed later by:)
"Lurlene is home from her date. Stop worrying, daddy."
Terribly exciting.
Well, as you might imagine, now EVERYBODY uses Facebook to keep in contact with other people. I have an account, but I have to say I REALLY DON'T GET IT. It's hard to use, hard to change and hard to look at.
It does have its upsides: Nobody gets to look at your information unless you say so. (I presume this is to ward off potential date rapers.) It does allow you to find people who you once shared commonalities with, provided you've both mentioned that. (Your high school, for example.)
But what I find really interesting about it is, now that more people are joining, Facebook and Myspace appear to be entangled in an attempt to be EXACTLY LIKE EACH OTHER. Exclusive features to either site are now popping up on both.
For example, you can now have a Facebook MUSIC PAGE. (I'm holding off.)
And on Myspace, suddenly you can see a list of "potential friends" (that is, people who other friends of yours know) that you, too, might want to make your own.
It's gonna get worse. I'm pretty sure that soon, you'll be able to add backgrounds and videos and all that crap to your Facebook account, which has pretty much taken any enjoyment I ever had out of Myspace. Why? Because you people who insist on putting up 93 videos on your Myspace page, over a "custom motif" that merely sucks up memory while trying to load all your FREAKIN' VIDEOS, and makes it impossible to find the only thing I really want on your damn page, which is "Send a letter,"
DRIVES ME UP THE F***ING WALL!
I let my kid put up a "wallpaper" on my NON-music page and while it's apropos, I hate it. I have trouble reading my own page. Unfortunately I don't know how to change it back.
I'm middle aged. We're more important than you young jerks. Quit complicating things. And get outa my yard! Where's my oatmeal?
------
Okay, so last week, I predicted the Cardinals would win. And they did. Well, today, they're back east where they haven't won a SINGLE game this year, and I don't think that's going to change. We'll see. Panthers over the Cards today. I hope I'm wrong...
TT
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