• LAVA Moderator: Shinji Ikari

Facebook

That is the other thing I love about facebook, it allows me to chat with all my BL friends who live on literally the opposite side of the planet, without having to spend thousands of dollars in phone calls.

I don't talk to bluelighters on Facebook. My husband and kids don't even know I frequent this site or take various substances. They know I smoke weed. But even that is something most of my FB friends aren't into at all. It's mostly family and old friends from high school, none of whom take drugs. I would not want BL people to be on my friends list and say something that would cause a wrinkle in my cover. If I do talk to anyone from here on FB I will have had to have met that person first and make sure they understand that I don't air all my dirty laundry on FB. It's way too public and I know people who are friends of friends who log into other friends accounts to check up on people they know who refuse to add them. Its happening to me even now.
 
^^ I see your point hun, but from my experience, most of us BLers are in the exact same boat with family and other friends being on our facebook. I don't recall any of my BL friends ever saying inappropriate/drug-related things on my fb wall or photo comments etc :)
 
^^ I see your point hun, but from my experience, most of us BLers are in the exact same boat with family and other friends being on our facebook. I don't recall any of my BL friends ever saying inappropriate/drug-related things on my fb wall or photo comments etc :)

When I meet someone who really wants to be friends irl, I might add them to my FB. Most people are quite far away. And I can talk to people on here about drugs where I try NOT to make any mention of anything personal. That is one thing I love about BL. People here talk about real life nitty gritty down in the dirt type stuff. FB updates all remind me of Christmas letters I get from far away friends about how their year was wonderful and Johnny graduated with flying colors blah blah. People in BL lay all their cards on the table and I am a lot more comfortable talking to any of you than anyone in my FB friends list.
 
I honestly know nothing about Twitter, and have seen seizure-inducing nightmares under the title "myspace" and therefore avoided that like the plague (so I've never been one to defend social networking sites in the first place).

So naturally, when facebook came out I took no notice to it. Then, during my stay in Japan, a friend showed me how useful it is for keeping contacts with other people on the move. It was so very convenient... instead of worrying about dots and dashes in email addresses (I can't stand emails and emailing), you have all your contacts listed conveniently with the option to contact them right there on the same page.

To me, facebook was nothing more than an internet-compatible addressbook, which comes with the convenience of sharing photos with friends - the photos themselves being a very interesting alternative way of keeping in touch as they readily give conversation topics. I never put or said anything on facebook that I would not flash to random people in the street, and therefore never had to worry about privacy. I never encountered any drama but then again I generally gravitate toward friends who have more important things to do than tell me that they just took a dump.

The bottom line is, IMO, in agreement with N3O's and others here is that facebook is as bad as you make it (the ancient computer adage "GIGO" applies here).

I took a break last year from pretty much all human contact due to depression. (This was the same time I disappeared from BL). Now that I'm back, facebook is tremendously helping me reconnect with people I had not talked to for a good part of a year.

So all in all, facebook had been a very useful tool for me.

What DOES bother the shit out of me is the very, very obvious shift in the site's entire infrastructure: it used to be a shool-centred social networking site, and now it is very obviously a global-scale marketing databank that uses the above as its testing ground. Is it not obvious that "like"s are a fantastic gauge of trends? I'm glad that one of the things I like is "anaesthesia". Maybe this will coax happy capitalists to start selling interesting drugs :P.

I've been checking on a project called "diaspora" that seems to be a promising return to simple social networking. It is open-source, so no one will use it to figure out how to trick people into buying useless shit. Apparently it will go live sometime early next year, and if it is as good as the impression I get of it, then it is most definitely bye bye corporatebook.
 
i am also oblivious to "facebook drama" just as i am now to bl drama. never even clicked on twitter once.

it's just the webs... you know, meh.

It's funny...I deleted my Myspace account without a second thought, but I shiver at the thought of giving up my Facebook account, despite the fact that I spend *maybe* five minutes total on it a day, checking messages and status updates.

i kept my myspace just to see how long www.myspace.com/irapemyspaceusers can last. it's still there. :D

impimp on fb, add me bel. i'd like to know you more.
 
I remember being really excited in Summer 2005 when I got my college email and could finally sign up...I liked it being a smaller closed network, it's getting kinda creepy at this point.

Also, I can't stand the way your 'likes' are now linked. Thinking about deleted my info from the page all together.

What DOES bother the shit out of me is the very, very obvious shift in the site's entire infrastructure: it used to be a shool-centred social networking site, and now it is very obviously a global-scale marketing databank that uses the above as its testing ground.
These are my three (well, two?) biggest peeves with Facebook.

I had my share of Facebook drama "back in the day." Had two friends in real life who were talking about me on Facebook in code... They knew I'd see it, they knew I'd know who they were talking about, yet they both denied it. *Shrug* I let it go and they both eventually let me go (for reasons unrelated to the Facebook drama--Came out to the one, he dropped me from his life... Was still into drugs when the other got clean--She dropped me for NA)...
 
The bottom line is, IMO, in agreement with N3O's and others here is that facebook is as bad as you make it.

I think i would agree with you here; after having deleted it.. and considering remaking it, i struggled to think of who i would even add as friends.. most people on my list were 'acquaintances' that added me after meeting me a few times, truth was i never had a conversation with these people longer then half a minute.

I also hit a point in my life where i wanted a fresh start with everything, and facebook was harboring the last 3 years of my life on display 24/7. Maybe one day again in time.. but i think first i need to organize my life and sort out who and what's important, otherwise it'll become a drag on me again.

I've been checking on a project called "diaspora" that seems to be a promising return to simple social networking. It is open-source, so no one will use it to figure out how to trick people into buying useless shit. Apparently it will go live sometime early next year, and if it is as good as the impression I get of it, then it is most definitely bye bye corporatebook.

Oh this sounds interesting, i will have to keep an eye on that.

Thanks again Malakaix <3

Your Welcome :)
 
What DOES bother the shit out of me is the very, very obvious shift in the site's entire infrastructure: it used to be a shool-centred social networking site, and now it is very obviously a global-scale marketing databank that uses the above as its testing ground.

Yeah. Not to mention facebook is basically taking over the entire internet. I hate how anywhere you go has the "post this to facebook or twitter" button on it. Facebook is linked to practically every other site I've ever been to. It's like this parasite that is reaching it's claws out through the rest of the interwebs.
 
Is an interconnected community really a bad thing? I mean isn't that the direction technology has been taking us for the past couple decades?
 
^yes it has.
i really don't get bothered by the ads, if they are offensive or retarded, there's a quick report button, and it vanishes. sure the links are everywhere, and it is pretty ridiculous, but that alone is hardly a point to not use the service if it is useful. anti-fashion is still fashion, so to speak.

these things are tools, nothing more. use it or it uses you (even if you boycot it in spite).
 
I've been checking on a project called "diaspora" that seems to be a promising return to simple social networking. It is open-source, so no one will use it to figure out how to trick people into buying useless shit. Apparently it will go live sometime early next year, and if it is as good as the impression I get of it, then it is most definitely bye bye corporatebook.

i just recently read that Mark Zuckerberg donated an "undisclosed" amount to Diaspora. pretty interesting...
 
my x-gf and a friend of hers make fake people on facebook to get like there boyfriends or ex boyfriends jealous or some stupid shit like that. just from watching her on facebook ive been thinking about deleting mine, too much lying and drama
 
^^ I see your point hun, but from my experience, most of us BLers are in the exact same boat with family and other friends being on our facebook. I don't recall any of my BL friends ever saying inappropriate/drug-related things on my fb wall or photo comments etc :)

This has been my experience as well.
 
^^ mine too.

my x-gf and a friend of hers make fake people on facebook to get like there boyfriends or ex boyfriends jealous or some stupid shit like that. just from watching her on facebook ive been thinking about deleting mine, too much lying and drama

why do you even care? seriously, those girls are being so silly and immature. instead of deleting your page, why don't you delete them from yours? further, if she's your ex, it'd probably help you to stop watching her page. wounds never heal when you're continually reopening them.
 
In my opinion the real problem with Facebook is its massive contribution to the custom marketing database infrastructure being created by companies like Axiom. The reason for it all is because selling personal info is one of the few ways to even make money with most online services that's been proven to really work. Read "Niche Envy" and "Republic 2.0" if you want an in depth breakdown of how it all works, but basically it's this: by gathering evermore extensive demographic (esp. financial) information about everyone marketers discriminate against the the 80 percent of people who don't have the disposable income they're after.

The well off get better offers and deals on all goods and services, which further contributes to the income gap. Custom marketing rewards being a predictable consumer with a generic personality that's easy to sell to, and over time creates an ever expanding positive feedback loop of consumer culture content (that is, evermore targeted and and discriminatory selling and marketing practices and ads) that, bluntly, makes it extremely profitable to be a high spending, clueless, zero attention span, douche bag and ever more difficult not to be (this also effects mobile content as well as TV -- or will very soon). It creates increasingly extreme economic and "consumer personality" stratification. Your online environment becomes more and more different from your friends' and neighbors, and geographic space and physical contact becomes less and less central to sociality, and traditionally functioning democracy becomes increasingly difficult to conduct.

Simply spending money online is really all it takes. You give away your rights when you click those little boxes you never read and couldn't understand fully if you did. Facebook is just the worst offender. Whether you participate or not until there's a massive legal overhaul there's no way out of it.

This isn't conspiracy talk at all by the way, it's just not well disseminated. Hell, Cass Sunstein, author of Republic 2.0 is a likely future Supreme Court justice.
 
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I've had my facebook account for 3 years and I've never had any drama. I use it mainly for photos and for socialising with my immediate friends. I've met friends-of-friends because of facebook but I probably would've met them anyway if it wasn't for fb.

I have never ever had ANY drama occur on or because of facebook whatsoever. I dunno if it's just that I don't attract drama, or I subconciously don't associate with people who create drama, or maybe a combination of factors. I dunno :)
ditto
im not sure what face book drama is.
All i use it for is to stay in touch with friends and keep photos.


Its a means to manipulate and control people. Its a source of information for local/regional PD, CIA, FBI, etc. I do not like my information in the hands of these people. I am private with where I live (only my close friends/family know where my home is), what I do with my time/money, and what I plan to do with my life (travel, marriage, work, etc).

I certainly am not going to let some new world order shit into my life.

you are really on and off with that shit.
Deep down you want one and really wish you could be like the cool kids.:p

and how the F is the CIA keeping track if you dont use your real name
and why are they keeping track

i find a message board very similar to face book.
Its a tool.

If you use it to be brain raped by CIA okay (still not sure what you mean by that). But if you use it to stay in touch with friends from the past it can be a great thing.
 
Yeah. Not to mention facebook is basically taking over the entire internet. I hate how anywhere you go has the "post this to facebook or twitter" button on it. Facebook is linked to practically every other site I've ever been to. It's like this parasite that is reaching it's claws out through the rest of the interwebs.

i dont see anything wrong with wanting to share an interesting video or link with friends and that just makes it more convenient.
 
ditto
im not sure what face book drama is.
All i use it for is to stay in touch with friends and keep photos.




you are really on and off with that shit.
Deep down you want one and really wish you could be like the cool kids.:p

and how the F is the CIA keeping track if you dont use your real name
and why are they keeping track

i find a message board very similar to face book.
Its a tool.

If you use it to be brain raped by CIA okay (still not sure what you mean by that). But if you use it to stay in touch with friends from the past it can be a great thing.
you're the only stoner that wont go along with conspiracy theories :D
 
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