Off topic: Why is he signing his mail with "Dr" Richard Stallman? His Wikipedia page only mentions a BA.
He has a bunch of honorary doctorates. I guess those confer the right to sign Dr. (?)
Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
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Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#72When I was a kid, my parents sent me to camp, even though all I wanted to do was sit home and write text adventures in BASIC. I hated camp. I hated the kids, and the counselors, and most of all I hated how everyone acted like if you didn't like it, if you weren't having fun, then there was something messed up about you . Facebook = camp. The most oppressive and authoritarian thing about it is, at root, that most peop…
The other oppressive and authoritative thing about it -- completely aside from the whole surveillance and tracking aspect -- is that it obliterates the past. There was a time when, if you just met someone at a bar or some event or while traveling, there was still a bit of mystery to them. You had to interact with them a bit more until you found out about their family, their friends, and where they've been in life. No…
I find this dark, disturbing, and terrifying. As a never-was, non-social-media user... I'm only 31... 5 years ago, I felt like I couldn't understand kids who were a few years younger than me. Now I feel like there's a total rupture between my mode of being and that of almost everyone else. When I give you my attention, I'm giving it to you. Completely. I don't multitask people. And you know I want to talk to you, because you can plainly see me ignoring people I don't want to talk to.
Not only that, but all my relationships are from the "other" time, and I don't think I could deal with trying to develop them online, in some way that's mediated by a giant corporation. Especially one run by one of the all-time least-sexy nerds on earth, whose apparent sense of inadequacy and misunderstanding of the nature of personal relationships are written large across every aspect of that system. (It was probably inevitable that someone like that would end up mediating "friendship" for the rest of the world, but come on).
What you're talking about reminds me of the groups that got together to share memorized books, in Farenheit 451. I'm already a smoker so I know how to cut 75% of the world out of my potential-new-friends & dating pool... cutting out social media users isn't that hard. I don't want to see the preview if it ruins the movie, and I don't want to meet people on Facebook. If I like them in person, I'll like them.
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Facebook is a "heinous violation of your freedom and imposition on your private space". Would you care to elaborate? Which of your freedom(s) is being violated? What of your private space is being imposed upon?
I'm not on FB, so it's not. But if I were... I'd say the first thing to be violated would be my freedom to be left alone. To not know what other people were doing, or have them know what I'm doing. To be able to quietly tune the world out and focus on things. Then, of course, my right to own images of myself, to keep my location private, to register genuine surprise, in person, when I find out one of my friends is en…
> I'm not on FB, so it's not. But if I were... I'd say the first thing to be violated would be my freedom to be left alone
Thats not a freedom, that is a choice. You can have a facebook account and never log in to it.
There may be other privacy concerns, but "freedom to be left alone" is not one of them.
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#74Off topic: Why is he signing his mail with "Dr" Richard Stallman? His Wikipedia page only mentions a BA.
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Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#75Stallman is right.
What Facebook provides is a completely unoriginal set of social networking tools wrapped in a mediocre presentation layer that requires you to surrender some of your most precious human rights in order to access it. Their users are their product. They sell you to advertisers and even more unsavory corporations like Zynga that are looking to lure you into a constant dopamine feedback loop to sucker you into buying virtual goods, so you can get that same dopamine fix faster still. Both corporations are parasites of the worst sort, because you're not only giving up your privacy, freedom, and money, you're doing so for a short term and minimal reward.
There will not be another Facebook, you can no longer be a "social network." Social networking at this point is just a common feature set that countless websites can easily replicate. In the future, social networking should just be a protocol that enables features like sharing photos, anecdotes, and relationships using a decentralized system. Bit torrent with identity. Or without identity if you so choose.
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
I for one think it's a great analogy (having been in a camp I can definitely say that I didn't enjoy it and I was rejected based on that). I silently deleted my facebook account about two years ago because I didn't like losing my time looking at stupid stuff. I found out that falling into the Facebook time vortex was too much of an inconvenience and the only way around that was to delete Facebook. Now when I say that…
To many people, Facebook is the default communication channel. To delete your Facebook account is like to be offered a free iphone + unlimited contract and refuse it; the idea of removing your name from the social phonebook is beyond the comprehension of many people. And subconsciously, you're removing value from other people's valued medium/experience. By not having account, you must have some opposition to somethin…
I think you're correct. I have an elderly relative that has recently turned to using FB on the iPad as her prime means of communicating with her relatives in the Phillipines (while she is in the US).
It's gotten to the point where she just _can't_ understand why people aren't on Facebook. "Why aren't they there? Don't they want to hear from me? What's wrong with them."
Small aside: FB is significantly easier for her to deal with than email as it provides more contextual cues about who she is communicating with (primarily seeing profile pictures next to messages).
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#77Off topic: Why is he signing his mail with "Dr" Richard Stallman? His Wikipedia page only mentions a BA.
He has a bunch of honorary doctorates. I guess those confer the right to sign Dr. (?)
Yes. BTW, he did not finish his PhD, which he began at MIT.
Side note: MIT does not award honorary doctorates at all.
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't understand that comment, either. Was your argument "he's right, but nobody agrees with him, so he's wrong"?
You're being purposefully obtuse at this point. Maybe: "Perhaps someone who has such narrow and specialized communication needs that they need to browse the web via email isn't in the best position to be dictating what communication methods the world at large should use". Boiled down futher: "What's good (and bad) for one person with specific needs isn't the same for everyone else".
Yeah, that's pretty much what I was getting at. Thanks.
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#79When I was a kid, my parents sent me to camp, even though all I wanted to do was sit home and write text adventures in BASIC. I hated camp. I hated the kids, and the counselors, and most of all I hated how everyone acted like if you didn't like it, if you weren't having fun, then there was something messed up about you . Facebook = camp. The most oppressive and authoritarian thing about it is, at root, that most peop…
The other oppressive and authoritative thing about it -- completely aside from the whole surveillance and tracking aspect -- is that it obliterates the past. There was a time when, if you just met someone at a bar or some event or while traveling, there was still a bit of mystery to them. You had to interact with them a bit more until you found out about their family, their friends, and where they've been in life. No…
It is very interesting that very same lack of privacity that is experienced with facebook is very similar to the kind of privacy you "enjoy" on small comunities( you can find recent articles on how is living in the malvines and it is pretty much a facebook live).
Maybe is due to the fact that we are a social species, and group sizes have been mostly small till not so long ago, that you can explain the facebook success( we are in a certain way wired to an unanonymous live). I use facebook and I use it a lot(lots of iddle time that can't be used in a more productive way), but mostly to post "lame" links or videos or pics. There are no personal pics or data in my account. The way the people usually manage their privacy settings and how they share with facebook, is due to the fact that they are not aware of the possible consecuences and how openly that info will be accesed by people who are not friends.
Re: Stallman: "Facebook is an international parasitism project."
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
I for one think it's a great analogy (having been in a camp I can definitely say that I didn't enjoy it and I was rejected based on that). I silently deleted my facebook account about two years ago because I didn't like losing my time looking at stupid stuff. I found out that falling into the Facebook time vortex was too much of an inconvenience and the only way around that was to delete Facebook. Now when I say that…
If your friends judge you for dropping Facebook, it's probably time for new friends. Just sayin'
No, it's not. My friends do all sorts of stupid and annoying shit, but hanging out with them has many orders of magnitude more value to me than their opinion of my opinion of Facebook.