Yakoob on 10/4/2015 at 00:39
Quote Posted by bjack
What is most disturbing though about social media is the zombie effect. It seems many under 40 have their faces buried in their smart phones. Conversations are now stilted into quips between Google lookups.
Ugh, one of my best friends does that. We're gonna be hanging out or having dinner and we will actually have to pause our conversation so she can type up a text or check something on the phone every 10 minutes. Really annoys the shit out of me. Is our conversation so boring you have to have 3 other via the internet at the same time?
Yakoob on 10/4/2015 at 07:46
Haha i actually did play that once with a group and it worked realy well. A bit harder when youre one on one tho and the other person is reluctant to do it (cause they know thwyre the only one always on their phone)
faetal on 10/4/2015 at 07:55
Maybe stop extending the invite? If someone can't manage their time well enough to free some up for social interaction, they're likely to be a drag.
My opinion to the overall thing is about management. I use twitter, facebook and here a fair bit. Each have their own niche. A lot of people hate Twitter, but as a slightly livelier alternative to an RSS feed, it actually works pretty well. I get scientific updates, humour, news and media previews via Twitter by carefully selecting what I follow - barely use it for interacting with people I know - that's what facebook is for.
TTLG is a bit like Second Life minus the GUI - people I don't know IRL at all (though that changes subtly over time, particularly with facebook overlap) but who share a keen interest of mine.
When I socialise in real life (doesn't happen much these days as I've moved to France and I don't really know anyone here and making new friends at 35 is pretty slow going), the phone stays in the pocket. I also tend to have my face buried in my phone on public transport, but not because I'm hooked on social media, but because I tend to read most of my books using google books on my phone. Currently engrossed in an 1846 translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (awesome book - I strongly recommend anyone and everyone to read this and Three Musketeers if you haven't - get the earliest translation possible though, as the characters were somewhat sanitised in later ones to be less the charming dicks that they are) - so if you see someone by themselves, lost in the glow of their screen in public - don't be so quick to judge.
bassoferrol on 10/4/2015 at 15:14
I never had a cell phone and I don't know how to use it because I've never used one in my entire life. I'm afraid someday I'll lose my virginity.
Yakoob on 11/4/2015 at 17:40
Quote Posted by faetal
Maybe stop extending the invite? If someone can't manage their time well enough to free some up for social interaction, they're likely to be a drag.
She is actually one of my best friends, dating back to college freshman years. The phone intermissions aside, she's a really awesome person, which is why I forgive her that. I have my fair share of flaws too.
Quote:
My opinion to the overall thing is about management. I use twitter, facebook and here a fair bit. Each have their own niche. A lot of people hate Twitter, but as a slightly livelier alternative to an RSS feed, it actually works pretty well. I get scientific updates, humour, news and media previews via Twitter by carefully selecting what I follow - barely use it for interacting with people I know - that's what facebook is for.
Aye, carefully tailoring whom I'm following on twitter made it much more usable. (
http://koobazaur.com/gamedev/game-programming/tweetulator-futility-of-trying-to-keep-up-with-twitter/) I actually made a small little twitter web calculator that basically shows the futility of trying to keep up with reading too many active twitters. Tho I use it mostly for marketing these days.
I do find FB a bit easier to stay in touch with friends and have more genuine exchanges than twitter, but even so, the relationships I havent met in real life in a while slowly wither away.
Quote:
When I socialise in real life (doesn't happen much these days as I've moved to France and I don't really know anyone here and making new friends at 35 is pretty slow going)
That's one reason why, although i love living in foreign country for maybe up to a year, I'd be reluctant to permanently move to one. Doesn't the loneliness and sense of alienation get to you? Or are you more of a loner?
I've been in the same rut as it's really hard to make genuine friends in LA too. Took me 3 years to really find a good social circle, but even so I still don't feel really "close" to anyone, and it mostly boils down to weekly drinking nights and occasional movie outings.
(Btw my sister was praising Count of Monte Cristo too, I really ought to check that book out!)
Quote Posted by bassoferrol
I never had a cell phone and I don't know how to use it because I've never used one in my entire life. I'm afraid someday I'll lose my virginity.
Careful whom you quote and respond to on TTLG, some people here do not use adequate... protection.
faetal on 11/4/2015 at 17:58
Quote Posted by Yakoob
That's one reason why, although i love living in foreign country for maybe up to a year, I'd be reluctant to permanently move to one. Doesn't the loneliness and sense of alienation get to you? Or are you more of a loner?
No I'm really social and it's been very hard as a result. Luckily, I love my wife and there's a website called meetup.com where you can find groups of people to meet up with. I'm currently meeting up with groups for Enlgish speakers because my French isn't yet up to snuff, plus a group called Franglish for English speakers to brush up on their French. It can't replace my friends, but it scratches the social itch. My friends are kind of spread out too, so it's not like I can be where they all are anyway.
bassoferrol on 11/4/2015 at 23:32
Making friends is the easiest thing you can do in Spain and in Portugal too, I believe.
Not making friends in Spain has no sense. It's like the world had stopped turning.
Tony_Tarantula on 12/4/2015 at 00:43
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Haha i actually did play that once with a group and it worked realy well. A bit harder when youre one on one tho and the other person is reluctant to do it (cause they know thwyre the only one always on their phone)
It also doesn't work if you're in a line of business where "always on call" is the norm.
Also, Twitter is largely bullshit. One of the things you learn about when you talk to the guys in the Brand Management track is that a large portion of the "trending" stories on Twitter are astroturf. One of the "twitterverse" explosions last year consisted of thousands of "twits" that all traced back to about ten different IP's. The trend is true for both viral positive stories and the "outrage" explosions. Not that all of Twitter is fake but it's relatively easy to generate astroturf "trending" stories that appear on the front page and are guaranteed to become self sustaining at that point.
The best description that I've heard of it is "marketers talking to marketers about marketing".
Yakoob on 12/4/2015 at 03:08
Quote Posted by Tony_Tarantula
The best description that I've heard of it is "marketers talking to marketers about marketing".
haha so true. 90% of my followers are bullshit twitterbots that pick up hashtags and auto-retweet, and so other bots pick up on that and retweet. It's like a self-fueling machine. I don't think any human ever actually follows any of them.
