(no subject)
Nov. 26th, 2007 04:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabSo, about Facebook. Yes, it's a whole new site that you have to register for, and yes, it certainly has its share of problems regarding policies, but no more than any other internet giant. Here's the thing:
> It's surprisingly easy to set up. Seriously, it's like a fully furnished apartment, and the furniture's, like, basic Ikea stock but perfectly serviceable for a sublet.
> It's also surprisingly easy to customize. It has these little external apps that plug in like widgets, and they're seriously drag-and-drop. And, strangely, turn out to be apps you want to use.
> But, mostly? Remember that kid in third grade, who was kind of a dork but you always secretly thought he was interesting, and that he'd probably grow up to be an architect or something cool? He could totally BE an architect now! He's on Facebook. And you could reconnect, with all that stupid school social grace gone, like grownups, and make new old friends. It's crazypants, I swear. Remember that incredibly hot camp counselor? She is also totally on Facebook, and you can send her a message and within days be playing Scrabble with her on one of your Facebook widget thingies. I'm telling you, crazypants. The possibilities are limitless.
Anyway, I'm not being, like, a commercial for Facebook, despite my current appreciation for the fact that it's a remarkably easy, friendly place, without obtrusive ads or spam, that can be used for a variety of purposes from tracking down college buddies to hooking up with fannish people in a real-name space (awesome!) to meeting random people to bite and turn into zombies.
The vague corporate entity control is still definitely present in some places, with their drop-down boxes for things like religion and sexuality and political affiliation, where I can't type in "Progressive" and am forced to present as "Liberal." And as a poly person it's potentially annoying that, for Facebook values of "relationship," you can't list more than one person as a partner.
There's also the low-lingering talk of privacy violations, some of which are probably true including the one where Facebook's been posting people's online purchases (from off-site vendors, like Amazon) on their Facebook pages. That's not buddies.
But for now, I'm grooving on it.
> It's surprisingly easy to set up. Seriously, it's like a fully furnished apartment, and the furniture's, like, basic Ikea stock but perfectly serviceable for a sublet.
> It's also surprisingly easy to customize. It has these little external apps that plug in like widgets, and they're seriously drag-and-drop. And, strangely, turn out to be apps you want to use.
> But, mostly? Remember that kid in third grade, who was kind of a dork but you always secretly thought he was interesting, and that he'd probably grow up to be an architect or something cool? He could totally BE an architect now! He's on Facebook. And you could reconnect, with all that stupid school social grace gone, like grownups, and make new old friends. It's crazypants, I swear. Remember that incredibly hot camp counselor? She is also totally on Facebook, and you can send her a message and within days be playing Scrabble with her on one of your Facebook widget thingies. I'm telling you, crazypants. The possibilities are limitless.
Anyway, I'm not being, like, a commercial for Facebook, despite my current appreciation for the fact that it's a remarkably easy, friendly place, without obtrusive ads or spam, that can be used for a variety of purposes from tracking down college buddies to hooking up with fannish people in a real-name space (awesome!) to meeting random people to bite and turn into zombies.
The vague corporate entity control is still definitely present in some places, with their drop-down boxes for things like religion and sexuality and political affiliation, where I can't type in "Progressive" and am forced to present as "Liberal." And as a poly person it's potentially annoying that, for Facebook values of "relationship," you can't list more than one person as a partner.
There's also the low-lingering talk of privacy violations, some of which are probably true including the one where Facebook's been posting people's online purchases (from off-site vendors, like Amazon) on their Facebook pages. That's not buddies.
But for now, I'm grooving on it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-26 02:50 pm (UTC)Friend me! I'm there under my real name, and I just blanked on your last name.