semilog
curmudgeonly optimist
Apparently you have different friends on FB, and use it for vastly different purposes, than I do.
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semilog
curmudgeonly optimist
Oddly enough most of my friends on FB post news about their kids, music, politics, food, family victories and occasional tragedies, and things they found funny or sad or beautiful. The things that friends chat about.
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pakeha
Well-known
Exposure, basic business 101. Friend of mine picked up 4 wedding bookings via her FB page in one week early July. 800 x 4 = food on the table and mortage paid.
Digital of course
regards
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SciAggie
Well-known
Exactly! +1
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Exposure, basic business 101. Friend of mine picked up 4 wedding bookings via her FB page in one week early July. 800 x 4 = food on the table and mortage paid.
Digital of course
regards
Yes, well, I have a problem with the phrase '101', too, as all too often it means 'I don't have to present any evidence, I'm just parroting what everyone believes, from the most basic source possible'. Why do you never get 202? Or 707? After all, you don't rely exclusively on the 'orbiting planets' model of the atom when you work at CERN.
Now, I can well believe that a wedding photographer might find Facebook useful, so you have indeed presented some evidence. Possibly hairdressers may find it useful too: I'll have to ask a friend who owns a couple of salons. But equally, not all businesses are the same.
Cheers,
R.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
dave lackey
Veteran
Sorry, but I have to chime in here. Roger is getting a lot of flak for his opinion. If we all gave fellow photographers, artists flak for their work then where is the acceptance we all so dearly discuss? A bit hypocritical IMO.
Now, if you want to discuss actual usage and benefit of social media, fine.
At the behest of a fine member here on RFF, I tried Facebook for a year. It was a horrible waste of time. If you are not already "socially connected" and "entertain" your friends regularly, then FB is a joke. Some of us have priorities in life that do not allow for friendly "chat" and spending hours reading through the daily lives of the people posting. Linkedin was better only because there was no threat of viruses leaking through or the inane babble most people post on FB. Nor are there the childish games and nonsense.
Twitter? Tried it for two years and the ONLY good thing that came of it was keeping up with Lance Armstrong through his training and participation in the Tour de France. Cancelled it after a woman was stalking me, the same woman who hit my car from the rear end and tried to get out of turning the accident report in to her husband's insurance company. I won that battle.
If you folks want to give up privacy, go through all the childish babble on social media, then fine, knock yourself out.
Having tried FB, Linkedin, Twitter for a good while, I found NO jobs, NO reason to continue to waste time on those media.
Given time, maybe the media community will grow up. Then, I might try again, but the negatives far outweigh the advantages (which number zero for me). Until then, I will keep my private daily information close to the vest and if someone wants to know when I am out of town, they will have to find out when to break in my house another way.
Now, if you want to discuss actual usage and benefit of social media, fine.
At the behest of a fine member here on RFF, I tried Facebook for a year. It was a horrible waste of time. If you are not already "socially connected" and "entertain" your friends regularly, then FB is a joke. Some of us have priorities in life that do not allow for friendly "chat" and spending hours reading through the daily lives of the people posting. Linkedin was better only because there was no threat of viruses leaking through or the inane babble most people post on FB. Nor are there the childish games and nonsense.
Twitter? Tried it for two years and the ONLY good thing that came of it was keeping up with Lance Armstrong through his training and participation in the Tour de France. Cancelled it after a woman was stalking me, the same woman who hit my car from the rear end and tried to get out of turning the accident report in to her husband's insurance company. I won that battle.
If you folks want to give up privacy, go through all the childish babble on social media, then fine, knock yourself out.
Having tried FB, Linkedin, Twitter for a good while, I found NO jobs, NO reason to continue to waste time on those media.
Given time, maybe the media community will grow up. Then, I might try again, but the negatives far outweigh the advantages (which number zero for me). Until then, I will keep my private daily information close to the vest and if someone wants to know when I am out of town, they will have to find out when to break in my house another way.
dave lackey
Veteran
Oh, btw, I am thinking of starting a thread about the contemporary use of words these days and how they skew our lives and make meaningful relationships almost a thing of the past. The old "boiling the frog" situation where people undergo these changes with realizing what is happening.
Until then, consider the following:
1. Chat-as in shallow talk (superficial)
2. Entertain (as entertaining our friends at our home rather than spending time with our friends and family discussing in-depth the things that are important. The word "entertain" implies a one-way relationship IMO and my son, and his family, are a great example of how shallow this is.)
3. Tweet (as in Twitter where a whole generation is growing up unable to "write" or spell words more than a few dozen characters at a time)
4. Connected (as in electronic leash rather than face-to-face interaction)
Technology is a wonderful thing. Don't get me wrong. There is, however, a price to pay for it and I would prefer that we all educate ourselves as to the impoications of technology rather than embracing it as a "god" in our lives with no questions asked.
There are others that should be included for discussion as life in our complex world gets more shallow and impersonal every year. Just my opinion and the opinion of other "experts". YMMV.
Until then, consider the following:
1. Chat-as in shallow talk (superficial)
2. Entertain (as entertaining our friends at our home rather than spending time with our friends and family discussing in-depth the things that are important. The word "entertain" implies a one-way relationship IMO and my son, and his family, are a great example of how shallow this is.)
3. Tweet (as in Twitter where a whole generation is growing up unable to "write" or spell words more than a few dozen characters at a time)
4. Connected (as in electronic leash rather than face-to-face interaction)
Technology is a wonderful thing. Don't get me wrong. There is, however, a price to pay for it and I would prefer that we all educate ourselves as to the impoications of technology rather than embracing it as a "god" in our lives with no questions asked.
There are others that should be included for discussion as life in our complex world gets more shallow and impersonal every year. Just my opinion and the opinion of other "experts". YMMV.
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Colin Corneau
Colin Corneau
So, for those keeping score: one person can't make social media work for their business interests.
Err...that's it.
Err...that's it.
dave lackey
Veteran
Okay, if we are going to s***ty responses, then we can discuss this either off-line or I will ask the mods to stop this childish behavior. I am no mood for this crap.
f6andBthere
Well-known
Since when has social networking/media had the sole rights to childish babble ... you don't get out much then?
back alley
IMAGES
so many haters...
social media is here to stay folks wheather you use it or not. it is a great tool for staying in touch with loved ones who live far away or down the block. it spreads information like wild fire and it can aid in cultural revolutions...
just because you may not have a use for it is no reason to go all playground bully on us.
i love facebook...it got me in touch with my son...after 30 years!
social media is here to stay folks wheather you use it or not. it is a great tool for staying in touch with loved ones who live far away or down the block. it spreads information like wild fire and it can aid in cultural revolutions...
just because you may not have a use for it is no reason to go all playground bully on us.
i love facebook...it got me in touch with my son...after 30 years!
back alley
IMAGES
Okay, if we are going to s***ty responses, then we can discuss this either off-line or I will ask the mods to stop this childish behavior. I am no mood for this crap.
then walk away dave...no one is forcing you to add your 2 cents.
f6andBthere
Well-known
zauhar
Veteran
Oh, btw, I am thinking of starting a thread about the contemporary use of words these days and how they skew our lives and make meaningful relationships almost a thing of the past. The old "boiling the frog" situation where people undergo these changes with realizing what is happening.
Until then, consider the following:
1. Chat-as in shallow talk (superficial)
2. Entertain (as entertaining our friends at our home rather than spending time with our friends and family discussing in-depth the things that are important. The word "entertain" implies a one-way relationship IMO and my son, and his family, are a great example of how shallow this is.)
3. Tweet (as in Twitter where a whole generation is growing up unable to "write" or spell words more than a few dozen characters at a time)
4. Connected (as in electronic leash rather than face-to-face interaction)
Technology is a wonderful thing. Don't get me wrong. There is, however, a price to pay for it and I would prefer that we all educate ourselves as to the impoications of technology rather than embracing it as a "god" in our lives with no questions asked.
There are others that should be included for discussion as life in our complex world gets more shallow and impersonal every year. Just my opinion and the opinion of other "experts". YMMV.
Speaking as someone who has been in computing for thirty years, and as been on the net pretty much since its inception, I think you make snarky or dismissive responses to Dave's reasoned analysis at your peril.
For someone who is mature and has some level of self-possession, ANY technological bauble is a modest threat. Yeah, I can check up on an old college friend via facebook. There is little chance I will get sucked into playing Farmville (I think that's what it's called).
But look at younger people, who have no outside point of reference. They never knew the world before social media. That was a time when I saw fellow college students at my blue-collar state university reading books on the bus - which were not even assigned in class! When social contact meant hanging out at the bar in face-to-face conversations, and where an insulting remark could get you a punch in the face.
Two kinds of human interaction have been obliterated by social media - direct interaction with our fellow humans, and interaction through space and time via books. A published book, on paper, even if the product of a less-than-brilliant author, reflects a significant economic investment and a heartfelt effort on the part of the writer (and their editor). The process of making printed books presented an automatic filter against at least some of the stupidest sh-t that people can spew out.
The result of social media has been an acceleration of the coarsening of our society. The lack of direct human contact means that you are always conversing over a wire with a straw man. If you have some level of maturity (probably the case with most RFFers) you can "read" the person on the other side, and have some semblance of a human conversation. If you have been largely isolated from bonafide human contact, that straw man is either a reflection of yourself, or a cartoon enemy, or some other fanciful projection.
If you want to say "err whatever", or "-1" to that, feel free.
Randy
back alley
IMAGES
why does it always have to be one way or the other...no middle ground. you are doing what you are accusing the youth of today of doing...
just because there is social media does not mean that kids today have no real time social skills or interaction with real people.
but that is the responsibility of their parents and not the fault of social media.
zauhar
Veteran
One thing I have come to realize in the last few years - there is a subset of the population (people like me, and I guess Dave too) who are sensitive to what is happening to people and society, and have an almost desperate sense of panic. It's like "Invasion of the bodysnatchers", you see people gradually being assimilated, and changing in ways they don't realize.
When people say vapid things about how "change has always been with us", or even worse make some snarky dismissal, you want to punch them. It's not hate at all, it's fear, and the recognition that they have an urgent need to have their head extracted from their ass.
Randy
back alley
IMAGES
a pessimistic view of the world...that i don't share...they feared elvis and sinatra too...change has always been a source of fear but it's people that change and not necessarily just from tech changes.
my dad was a bully but his iron fist dealt with his wild step son...we have become a very permissive society and that has more negative impact than facebook ever will.
my dad was a bully but his iron fist dealt with his wild step son...we have become a very permissive society and that has more negative impact than facebook ever will.
zauhar
Veteran
Because nowadays the "middle ground" does not represent the reasoned place of fifty years ago. The "middle ground" today is like Obama's "centrism", a complete giving in to the other side so as not to be seen as "unreasonable". As Dave mentioned, it's the boiling frog scenerio, where what was once unthinkable becomes the comfortable norm. If you had told me when I was a teenager that the US would some day legalize torture, I would have thought you nuts.
And is not all the parents fault - that is another idea that has crept in since I was a kid, and which represents the increasing isolation of people. If a youngster has had less-than-adequate parents (and who didn't?) there should be a legion of role models to look to, from leaders in society, to their teacher in school, to the men and women at work in their neighborhood (and I am not excluding college teachers like me). How many kids with sh-tty or absent parents have been saved by a teacher or coach who took an interest in them?
As a society, we are failing, and we are in danger of throwing away the things that our ancestors struggled 100,000 years to build.
Randy
Traut
Well-known
I see FB as a bag of tools. I can keep in touch on a meaningful way with my sons without being seen as intrusive. Promote and develop political and social comment without overstepping. Flirt, joke and laugh with friends too far or too close to avoid being annoying.
One can: Learn. Expand. Teach. Enlighten. Enjoy. Communicate. Promote.
Recall how the telephone stopped face to face meetings but expanded communication simultaneously?
Use it if you want. Diss it if you wish. It is the beginning of a revolution though. By the way I'm over sixty years old.
One can: Learn. Expand. Teach. Enlighten. Enjoy. Communicate. Promote.
Recall how the telephone stopped face to face meetings but expanded communication simultaneously?
Use it if you want. Diss it if you wish. It is the beginning of a revolution though. By the way I'm over sixty years old.
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