tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6496460488742488789.post3610132022925993304..comments2024-03-18T10:29:46.055+00:00Comments on Ken Armstrong Writing Stuff: Silenced AgainKen Armstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775956557261111127noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6496460488742488789.post-37511279854093681042015-11-07T11:44:51.392+00:002015-11-07T11:44:51.392+00:00Hi Ken, for me Social Media can take or leave it, ...Hi Ken, for me Social Media can take or leave it, think of the initials, SM,reminds me of 'Smiley' Finan's quip, 'Give every masochist a fair crack of the whip'....<br />FB falls into that category for me, obscene, it moulds peoples perceptions of themselves and others for financial gain asking seemingly mundane questions , which in the end reveals a lot about those answering, when all relevant data is collated. I read last year FB was employed<br />to gather tv ratings, in an experimental project in U.S. ,usinf peeps FB details to monitor viewing habits, not realising the can be then used to tailor adverts to specific groups, free market research...<br /><br />I agree people see SM as how the are percieved, everyone elaborates a little on their online personas, but in reality most can read between the lines, but are too polite to say. I have a FB account but never use it Twitter I use, not often mind, I also read of 'buy buttons' being trialled there, which leads me to think market place rather than community, but we'll see, Knowing you as I do your quick wit is far more evident in person than on FB.<br />I recently heard of someone local checking FB pages of prospective employees, trn up a guy <br />sick evey monday, posting pics of night before, When will peeps see what sharing too much info can do <br /><br />take care Ken <br /><br />GH <br />seoirse mac enrinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6496460488742488789.post-10234032388652983772015-11-07T11:44:13.879+00:002015-11-07T11:44:13.879+00:00I learned early on that I'd delegate how I int...I learned early on that I'd delegate how I interacted with FB and not the other way around. Sadly, FB does not play nice and like you, I get weary of not being able to see what I WANT to see from my friends. Mostly FB was for the charity/husband's business, with my "secret page" on the side to keep in touch with friends from Blog World who were spending more time on FB.<br /><br />I had to learn to walk away when the rants start, especially political, or when people start spouting just to hear themselves talk, without thinking first. Sigh.<br /><br />I'll keep doing FB on my terms. While I don't like Twitter, I appreciate YOU. So at least stick your head in the door from time to time so I know you're alive. Then again, I haven't given up my blog either. Not as frequent but that's more of a lack of time thing most days: between my job, keeping books for my husband's business and our charity for soldiers, don't have a lot of "me time".<br /><br />Take heart. YOU are what's important. And I'll take whatever you feel like sharing, even if I'm standing next to you looking at that brick wall. :) <br />Hopehttp://hope-theroadlesstraveled.blogspot.ie/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6496460488742488789.post-37745037020360249592015-11-07T11:42:43.760+00:002015-11-07T11:42:43.760+00:00Facebook, yeah... I have 2469 'friends' at...Facebook, yeah... I have 2469 'friends' at the moment.<br /><br />My initial motive was to use it purely as a publicity machine, so when I have an exhibition opening or have been selected for a show I can be 'delighted' to announce it to the wider art world, maybe acquire a bit of kudos or just maintain the blip on the radar that says 'I'm still here'... But then I, and other people, started 'finding' each other, interacting...<br /><br />First of all, cousins from Poland and Hungary and the UK that I hadn't been in touch with since my teens - via my parents and their mother tongues - began to 'find' me. You can run, but in these digital times, it seems you can't hide... After initial familial rapprochements, we don't now interact any more than previously, but the odd 'like' seems to engender a connection that seems both appropriate and - ok, I admit - kinda nice. (You might have gleaned by now I'm not generally the best 'keeper upper' with people, and typically 'only child' self-contained... It's not that I'm not mindful of people, I just don't tend to distil that into any concrete action.)<br /><br />And then there's the others... people I knew back at college, or even earlier. We seem to have been a disparate bunch, but, weirdly and happily, we mostly seem to be content to reconnect after years of unapologetic neglect and apparent indifference... suddenly we're homies again... Not face to face, sure, but via the keyboard... And yes, that's kinda nice too.<br /><br />And finally there are the new people who I seem to have struck up deeper 'friendships' with... ephemeral , perhaps, but in some sense as meaningful as any face-to-face. We exchange information, opinions, banter and 'maybe more' in a no-strings-attached manner that is quite enriching. I guess when one is not a 'people person', the on-line version of life can be a fairly comforting duvet...<br /><br />Twitter I tried, but somehow it seems to encourage a pithy (glib?) one-liner approach that can seem both swaggery and slightly needy... Ok, I admit, maybe I just never 'got' it...<br /><br />So that's my tuppence worth on the subject. And ironically, I'm telling you this via the keyboard because we never have/make the time for a coffee... <br />Ian Wieczoreknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6496460488742488789.post-86999357185808223612015-11-07T11:25:12.152+00:002015-11-07T11:25:12.152+00:00Before I first started blogging—in a week it’ll be...Before I first started blogging—in a week it’ll be eight years—I spent a long time reading up on the dos and the don’ts of life online. It all seemed very reasonable and worthwhile so I girded up my loins with one hand and took the bull by the horns with the other and jumped in head first only to discover it was a photo of a pond and not a real pond. After the initial shock I started stamping on the photo convinced there was water underneath but, no, it’s only ever been an illusion and, like you, I’m well and truly disillusioned. And I don’t think we’re alone. None of us have had the success we were promised or anything close to it but we have made friends and that’s what’s kept us hanging around, for the sake of our friends. We’re not a part of a worldwide community, we’re a part of a club and we’re deluding ourselves if we believe differently. I was up working this morning on my book—I’m finding I’m most clear-headed between two and six—and I took my regular break at four and watched the BBC New Channel while I had my hot cross bun. There was a segment on Chinese baseball which, apparently, is taking off in a big way and every last one of the players has one goal: to be signed by a big American team. This year a grand total of one was. And that’s all it takes to give the rest of them hope. E.L. James made it. She gets derided all over the place but really we should be deriding her readers. Why are they reading her and not me? Or you? We look for reasons but the answer is not a reasonable one. It’s the one we gave our parents as kids: Because. <br /><br />One of the things those in the know said eight years back was how important social media was and so, dutifully (if a little half-heartedly), I joined up and connected with all my friends whose blogs I was following anyway who posted pictures of cats and reminders to buy their books and read their blogs. I didn’t want to be that person so I hardly posted anything. Some automated thingy tells Facebook when I’ve a new blog (it posts to Twitter too) but I’ve long since forgotten how that works so I couldn’t cancel it if I tried. But bit by bit the blogs I was following started to dry up—you’re one of the last still going—and it seemed that all the writers were hanging out on Facebook. Doing what? There weren’t any meaty discussions or anything. Just crap. Photos of what they had to eat the night before, their new haircut or dress or cat videos. What are we doing here? I’ve heard Facebook compared to the office water cooler and it’s a fair comparison. It reminds us that the people we’ve come to care about who used to write interesting articles on their blogs to which we’d post considered comments were still alive and that’s nice; we care that they’re still alive. But as a tool for promoting ourselves, forget it. Cat videos go viral, not literary articles or poetry books.<br /><br />We’re all tired. We’ve been at this for a while and we’re getting nowhere. We’re like the bloke sitting in front of the slot machine (we called them ‘puggies’) feeding it coin after coin convinced that as time marches odd the odds of a big win improves. Odd don’t improve with time. It’s false logic. Companies who employ people in their production departments usually let them nibble as they work because they’ve learned that within a very short time the employees will sicken themselves of whatever it is they’re handing and never want to look at another whatever until the day they die. That’s a bit how I feel online, like I’m sitting in front of a conveyer belt and there’s nothing on it bar cuddly toys. (You’re ages with me; you see where I’m coming from.)<br /><br />Facebook has its uses but they’re very limited. If I check my daughter’s page sometimes there’s a new photo or two. I like that. I’d love to say I get notified every time you post something and from checking your page I seem to do but it’s watercooler stuff: “Hey, Jim, have you heard this one?” I don’t follow you on Twitter. I don’t get Twitter. I look at Eric Idle’s photos and that’s about it. <br />Jim Murdochhttp://jim-murdoch.blogspot.ie/noreply@blogger.com