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Is Facebook geared to dullards?

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Re: Is Facebook geared to dullards?

#31

Post by protomyth »

I see studies like this and am prone to think ill of them (or the people reporting the results). The sample is "436 college students". This is not really a statistically sound number or demographic slice given the Facebook's current numbers. Also, it seems to have one of those "1 + 1 = cheese" moments in associating simple, behavior, and dullard (which came first "simplifying Facebook or the dullard?").

law of social networks or events: everything was cool when I first got here, but adding the guy after me screwed it up.

Re: Is Facebook geared to dullards?

#32

Post by brlewis »

joblessjunkie wrote: post #16

Am I alone in feeling that this headline is self-aggrandizing snobbery? Facebook succeeds by providing universal access: it must be a tool that anyone can use. Is a hammer geared to dullards? Is a coffee mug? Just because it is simple enough for everyone to use doesn't equate to being "geared for dullards". I know it's cool to hate on Facebook, but attacking them for one of their key successes is absurd. Now whether…

Facebook is designed to maximize engagement. With that goal in mind, what kind of user is more desirable? One who digs into deep issues, or one who spends all day chatting with friends? Sure, the research doesn't say what Facebook's intent is, but if they're seeking to maximize engagement, we can guess where it will go.

Re: Is Facebook geared to dullards?

#33

Post by michaelochurch »

chadp wrote: post #18
michaelochurch wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost everyone uses it, but I'm guessing that dumb people spend more time on it. Smart people use it to get in touch with people they haven't seen in a while, whereas dumb people spend 25 hours per week throwing sheep.

Or smart people don't use facebook.

I doubt this. A lot of smart people use it, just not very often or for very much of their day. It's at risk of ending up with the same problem as online dating sites: the average user of one of those sites is a decent, normal person... but the defects spend 20 times as much time (and send 50 times as many messages) on them as everyone else.

Re: Is Facebook geared to dullards?

#34

Post by Leynos »

tokenadult wrote: post #17

I have just read the fine blog post, which taught me the term "need for cognition." Having read it, I posted a Facebook link to the blog post visible to my 554 FB friends titled with the question, "The suggestion of one research finding is that people who like to use social networking sites don't like intellectual challenge. Can you think of any counterexamples?" I will see what happens over the next several hours. T…

What struck me as disappointing about Facebook is that, despite my friends being an interesting bunch, I could never seem to provoke any kind of discussion on Facebook. It seems that most of the people I had a connection with view Facebook as a broadcast only medium (or at most, a case of comment once then move on).

It may be wrong to generalize about the people using them, but social networks seem to have the net effect of stifling discourse in my experience. I'm not sure why this is, and I'd rather it wasn't the case.

Re: Is Facebook geared to dullards?

#35

Post by vessenes »

tokenadult wrote: post #17

I have just read the fine blog post, which taught me the term "need for cognition." Having read it, I posted a Facebook link to the blog post visible to my 554 FB friends titled with the question, "The suggestion of one research finding is that people who like to use social networking sites don't like intellectual challenge. Can you think of any counterexamples?" I will see what happens over the next several hours. T…

As I've pruned my friend-list on facebook, I find I have more and more time to get into interesting conversations with my friends.

I haven't checked if those that respond the most have small friendlists, but I bet there's some weak correlation there. Anyway, I enjoy facebook for this sort of discussion, and as a percent of words typed, it consumes a high percentage of my facebook typing.

As a percent of total posts I make, though, those in-depth conversations are a fairly low percentage.

Re: Is Facebook geared to dullards?

#36

Post by pstack »

If I have any social networking anxiety, it's not about friend count. It's anxiety over wasting my life catering to wannabe web personalities trying to build a following via attention-whoring or wasting precious moments of my life scrolling through every mundane update every idiot on my list posts when their new baby farts (or, worse, the ultra sound images and the nine months of constant uninteresting updates that follow).

Am I a snob for not giving a fuck about every single second of your life? Fine. Call me a snob, then. My time is too precious to waste stuffing it full of crap about your life. When you have something really important to say that will mean something significant to me, then you can come tell me. Or call me. Or email me directly. You're not the damn Daily News. You're not so important that you need to broadcast your every thought and action to a legion of followers. You can have direct interactions with me. One on one. And if you can't, then whatever it is probably isn't that important in the first place.

I have the decency not to bother with Facebook or Twitter. Why? Well, I am a writer. I'm also a bit of an entrepreneur. I also value other people's time and don't feel that every thought I have or action I take is worth sharing with the world. Inf act, I feel that very few are. And when I do have something of value to share, I'm not going to do it on Facebook or Twitter. I'll do it on a website, like we've done for fifteen years and it'll have more thought given to it than a 140 character spam of my new startup or a "so drunk lol!" followed by seventy-eight photos of me getting wasted at a bar, like a rookie.

Re: Is Facebook geared to dullards?

#37

Post by jakkinabox »

chegra wrote: post #11

"Are you ashamed that you find Facebook boring?" Why, yes. "Are you angst-ridden by your weak social-networking skills?" My God man, you are reading my mind "Do you look with envy on those whose friend-count dwarfs your own?" Sorry, no, you don't get 3 yes. http://changingminds.org/techniques/resisting/yes_yes_no.htm http://changingminds.org/disciplines/sales/closing/yes-set_c... When I read the first couple sentence…

Weird, I skipped over the part where he was selling the book, even though I read the comments.

Thanks for posting this though. It's always good to know peoples motivations for doing stuff as it naturally introduces a bias.

Re: Is Facebook geared to dullards?

#38

Post by gojomo »

jonmc12 wrote: post #28

It could very well be that the relationship between NFC and certain forms of social interaction in general is very strong and Facebook is simply a reflection of that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_for_cognition cites a few surveys. Here are some facts about NFC: "need for cognition was related weakly and negatively to being closeminded, unrelated to social desirability, and positively correlated with general inte…

Sounds almost like "need for cognition" has a big overlap with simply "introverted".

Re: Is Facebook geared to dullards?

#39

Post by savagejen »

pstack wrote: post #36

If I have any social networking anxiety, it's not about friend count. It's anxiety over wasting my life catering to wannabe web personalities trying to build a following via attention-whoring or wasting precious moments of my life scrolling through every mundane update every idiot on my list posts when their new baby farts (or, worse, the ultra sound images and the nine months of constant uninteresting updates that f…

Yes, you are so clearly concerned with every second of your life that you have time to write this comment.
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