Cracker by Damian Christie

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Cracker: Poke Me, Bite Me, Add Me

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  • kmont,

    I saw the title and immediately got the reference. Not sure how I feel about that. I have been on the facebook crack for a bit now after being pestered by mates in the UK. That newsfeed is the point of difference I guess. I am quite keen to use the ibook stuff (esp after following the other thread here and at the Guardian).

    Well I am off to chuck a book at someone.......

    wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 485 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    I still don’t really see the point of it though. You message someone, then a message goes to your email saying you have a message so you log in and check the message and then respond to it, in turn sending a message to that person’s email to check their message.

    Dude, turn off the notification emails! I was driven crazy by those within a day and turned them all off. Let Facebook be your bitch.

    I find Facebook so much more useful than MySpace.

    MySpace is like going to a crowded party and being stuck in a corner. You know some friends of yours are at the party, but the only people who seem to come over and talk are some models who are probably trying to sell you something.

    Whereas Facebook like is a gathering in a much larger space. Not only are you not stuck in a corner, but you can find your friends much more easily, and you can discover all sorts of connections between your friends. Also, your mum can look at your Facebook profile without worrying.

    2006 Public Address Great Blend panellist Danah Boyd recently wrote her thoughts on the difference between MySpace and Facebook users. It's called Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace and it's an interesting read.

    Now all we need is a Public Address Facebook group.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • Damian Christie,

    Dude, turn off the notification emails! I was driven crazy by those within a day and turned them all off.

    But then how will I know the instant someone sends me a message?

    MySpace is like going to a crowded party and being stuck in a corner. You know some friends of yours are at the party, but the only people who seem to come over and talk are some models

    Yeah I'm sick of those parties too. The ones when I can't find my friends and models keep coming up and talking to me...

    ...God I miss Auckland

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1164 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    But should I actually, finally respond to one of those emails and sign up? I guess I should, if only for research purposes, but I'm still unclear as to how it's going to enhance my life ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Heather Gaye,

    must....take....control.....

    must...spurn...(nggg!)..facebook!!! arrgh!

    Morningside • Since Nov 2006 • 533 posts Report Reply

  • Roho,

    I was assured FB was 'addictive' although I'm still not convinced that's a good thing. There were many 'you've been added as a Friend' emails before I finally buckled - under intense pressure I might add.

    Knowing I signed up to FB before techie luminaries like Damian and Russell though? That's pretty cool. Makes me feel a bit like a 'mid' adopter rather than an early or as I thought, rather late adopter.

    Totally go the FB PA group though.

    Whakatane • Since May 2007 • 5 posts Report Reply

  • Sam F,

    Facebook's transformation has really kicked off because all of those third-party applications are being tossed around.

    I signed up last year and became quite fond of its relative simplicity, but now I'm having to refuse endless requests from friends to sign up to new applications which will just clutter up my profile. As Damian points out, it's so much worse because all that the programs do is require more actions from your friends, who in turn require more actions from you... and the whole thing steams towards the point where people stop using the program because it's so annoying.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1611 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    But should I actually, finally respond to one of those emails and sign up? I guess I should, if only for research purposes, but I'm still unclear as to how it's going to enhance my life ...

    Yes, you should sign up.
    You will find out a way to make it enhance your life.

    What I really like about Facebook is that I can add my blog as a feed to my Facebook profile, so every time I update my blog, each entry will end up being posted as a Facebook "note".

    Facebook recognises that people do stuff on other websites and it lets you tie things together. I can put my Last.FM song list, Flickr photos, all of it together on my Facebook profile.

    So I don't always have to make an effort to update my Facebook profile, and it's not another bloody website to have to worry about.

    And, like Public Address, it's all about real names, which is rather refreshing in a world of AngelXXXs and W@rl0rdz.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • Keith Ng,

    But then how will I know the instant someone sends me a message?

    Put it on your phone. Then you'll never be away from your friends. Ever.

    I don’t know exactly what’s happened, but a number of people I’ve spoken to have noticed it as well – Facebook has gone postal.

    It has in NZ. I think it's actually because New Zealand is poorly connected to this particular social network, and it's taken this long for Facebook to penetrate our borders, seek out our social hubs/hotties and take over their brains. But of course, once all the cool kids were doing it, the rest of us could offer little resistance.

    Behold the power of social networking.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 543 posts Report Reply

  • Damian Christie,

    And as I'm all for neologisms, can anyone tell me whether the process of going through your friend's friends to see if they know anyone hot is called?

    My, er, friend wants to know.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1164 posts Report Reply

  • George Darroch,

    In the last month, and particularly the last week or two things have gone mad...

    It seeped into New Zealand through the international students, and for a while all I could find on there were fellow procrastinators.

    I'm actually finding it pretty useful for keeping up with the folk back home, for the moment anyway...

    WLG • Since Nov 2006 • 2264 posts Report Reply

  • Nobody Important,

    Nice piece on Dawn Raid last nite Damian. Although they fudged on how you run a "multi-million dollar" enterprise but forget to pay the IRD.
    Was this of any help, or were you already on it?

    expat • Since Mar 2007 • 319 posts Report Reply

  • Damian Christie,

    Thank NI, I was pretty happy with it, particularly the editing work.

    To be fair, they answered that question but in trying to fit the rise/fall/rise into a 5 minute story, there was only so much I could say about the fall...

    But from what they said to me (on camera, but not in the final cut) it was that when the tax bill came due, the downturn (and a couple of things not going as they should have) meant the money they'd expected to be there for the bill, wasn't. I don't think they exactly 'forgot', although perhaps the IRD wasn't as high up the priority list as it should've been.

    I found them both very open, and I'm happy enough to take them at their word on all that. I'd like to think that the fact that their artists and distributor labels have largely stuck with them, and that they had a decent amount of investor interest post-liquidation suggests they had done something right.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1164 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    From the lnked article:
    MySpace is the primary way that young (US) soldiers communicate with their peers

    which implies that young Russian kids, who joined the FSB (successor to the KGB) hoping for a life of James Bond style intrigue are stuck in a windowless office somewhere trawling through MySpace looking for clues to the US armies order of battle.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Keith Ng,

    Damian, I believe it's called stalking. Or, if you want to get technical, Facebook stalking.

    You got any hot friends?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 543 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    And look - Joanna "Blonde at the Bar" Hunkin's blog for today is on this newfangled Facebook thing.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • Andrew Dubber,

    I resisted Facebook for three years. Finally it reached the point where people whose opinion I respect were inviting me daily, so I succumbed. It has one major drawback for me, and one distinct advantage.

    The Drawback:
    It turns out that everyone I know is an idiot. Like 8 year-olds hyped up on sugar and food colouring on Halloween night, they're all manically running around dressed up as zombies and vampires, playing a pointless game of bitey tag. I refuse to be 'it' and I want them to be grownups again please.

    The Advantage:
    I can now find my students. Not in class? Oh -- Debbie is recovering from a massive binge drinking session and is accidentally in Nottingham. I see.

    Umeå, Sweden • Since Nov 2006 • 23 posts Report Reply

  • Ben Austin,

    Social networking invites pretty much go straight in the bin, I spend too much time on the internet as it is without adding another thing. Besides, I don't like living in other people's pockets.

    The Encyclopedia of Stupid speaks for me on this issue. Its thoughts on MySpace and Facebook are not safe for work, well, most works, certainly not the kind where you need to fill in an incident report for your supervisor]

    London • Since Nov 2006 • 1027 posts Report Reply

  • Tze Ming Mok,

    Oh hell dude, I just had no idea how to use or alter the personal profile page to display less information rather than more! Jetlagged in London.

    SarfBank, Lunnin' • Since Nov 2006 • 154 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    I can't decide whether I'm too old school or new school but either way, I don't have the time or the energy. I am deeply suspicious of things that nag me, allegedly on behalf of people I don't know that well, and may spam me later.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    That's another side effect of Facebook - when trying to display less personal information ends up making all your friends and family think you've broken up with your honey.

    Journalist Thomas Crampton and his fiancee were recently troubled by this: "How Facebook Ended My Marriage"

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    Oh, two more things to add. This might be extreme peer pressure, but I recently advised an online friend with this: "Seriously, if you do not sign up to Facebook, you will be like some crazy old man who refuses to get a tele-phone machine."

    And over at Slate, 50-something Emily Yoffe writes about her experiences using Facebook as both a late-ish adaptor and an older user.

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • Sue,

    as a personal user I like facebook more than myspace
    and i like how neatly it integrates my twitter and flickr and well a lot of other things, that said the whole going through adding friend all over again :/

    why can't everyone use OpenID


    but the site i like more than facebook is VIRB http://virb.com/
    it's way more acessible, even slicker it's just better, but it's still in development so the kinks are obvious but it's waay more open than facebook, which has the air of the closed community AOL used to be.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 527 posts Report Reply

  • Joanna,

    I can totally see the theoretical benefit of using Facebook to notify people that you've ended a relationship/quit a job/lost your puppy. Who wants to go over horrible news again and again and again? Why not put the message out to all your friends at once?

    I've always found that when I'm in the middle of a depressive episode it's easier to write about it on my journal than to get in contact with all of my friends individually and say "oh hi, I don't really feel like talking to any of you right now, and I'm sorry if that's a problem for you, but rest assured that I am taking care of myself and I will come out of this in a couple of days".

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 746 posts Report Reply

  • Jimmy Hayes,

    You can call it stalking (admittedly that seems like the dominant term) but my posse of seedy, covert shiftyeyes call it 'trawling'.

    Justifies it. Kinda.

    Since Apr 2007 • 35 posts Report Reply

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