Facebook is the new email

[pmcd9]

Remember back in the day when your inbox was constantly being bombarded by silly emails that would say in effect that if you forwarded the email to a certain number of people you would get an amazing surprise in the next 2 minutes.  What was it that was going to happen? I don't exactly remember.  A special pop up?  A call from the president?

And remember back in the day when you would get emails telling you that Bill Gates is testing some new email software or something like that and you would receive $500 dollars for each person you forwarded it to?

Yeah, I think that is starting to happen on Facebook.  I think this and this are two examples very much akin to those old email days.

It's a bit frightening that there are over 90 thousand people who have signed up for these things so far without wondering how FB is going to send out these items when they aren't asking for a mailing address.

In a perfect world this would be a litmus test and anyone gullible enough to sign up would have their account deleted.  Send 'em back to email where they belong.

[AugustWest]

Critical thinking is not a common skill in humans, especially when we really want to believe something is true.

[Asherdan]

Ahhhhh, just platform hop to googly plus to stay ahead of the wave of donkins is what's best I s'pose.

This stupidity goes back to chain letters (you're old, you remember) and before then people probably got pissed when they moved the clan into a new cave and found a chain-etching already busted all up in the walls.

But seriously, there's something in the human condition that calls out for this kind of mystic/greedy/roll-the-dice stuff. I mean, Barnum spelled it out nicely. But I do think a lot of the participation is of the "oh ha ha ha look at this thing I'm going to go with, what ironical fun!"

[i do wish it would go away, but wishes and nuts, candy and butts and all that, right?]

[edit]goddamit, aw was all pithy and shit while i had to write some stupid tome that isn't all that funny on the re-read.[/edit]

[side_show]

Oh man, anyone remember the silly sock chain letter thing?  Where you had to buy a bunch of socks and mail them to the person at the top of the list, then move the next person in line up to the top and add yourself to the bottom... I don't remember the details, but I do remember my mom buying a whole bunch of socks and then mailing them, and then me patiently waiting for my cool socks to arrive.  They never did though.  I'd still like to get seven cool socks in the mail.  Sigh.

[AugustWest]

[edit]goddamit, aw was all pithy and shit while i had to write some stupid tome that isn't all that funny on the re-read.[/edit]

Untrue!  Untrue!

[Asherdan]

Untrue!  Untrue!

No dude, I am pretty sure that was pithy.

[jay-ell]

Dear Guy Who Inexplicably Knows Everyone,

I don't know what kind of brain damage you have, but it is seriously irritating that you post the exact same status update to Facebook and your Google Plus "extended Circles" within minutes of each other. Especially since a quick glance tells me that there's nobody on G+ who isn't also on your Facebook friends list.

What's even more irritating is that every one of your double-posts this week has been a quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Every. Single. One.

But the most irritating thing, the most frustrating of all, is that if I unfriend you, you'll not only notice, you'll be offended, and probably talk about me behind my back to people I happen to like.

Since I'm clearly hoping to avoid cutting you out of my virtual life, could you please stop doing everything annoying you can think of and just act like a normal 35 year old father of 2?

Thanks.

 -- JayElle

[Asherdan]

I hope you guys don't cut me for posting massive amounts of vacation photos over the next few days.

[jay-ell]

I don't mind 1,000 vacation photos in a single album on Facebook. I just get irritated at one or two photos a day, every day, of random shit around the poster's house or neighborhood.

The "365" Albums, where the person's supposed to post a pic a day for a whole year, those are irritating. Especially if you've got 4 different teenagers all doing it & commenting on each others' results.

[littlefallsmets]

I've long wanted to do a deconstruction of those 365 things called "365 Hats" where I take a picture of myself with a slightly different hat every day.

Sort of both a commentary on how much of the internet is vanity projects and, also, a celebration of how weird the idea of a hat is.

I mean, it's shaped fabric you put on your head for some reason! That's really kind of absurd when you come down to it.

When you come down to hats.

[wombat]

I feel fortunate I have never seen anyone doing one of those. Probably anyone who'd do such a thing is already blocked from my feed.

[Doc]

I approve of people who take a photo of themselves everyday and then string it together into a 1 minute youtube clip. That fascinatingly illustrates little changes over time. I think actually seeing the album day by day wouldn't be as good.

[jaydub]

You could get a Mets hat and turn it 1 degree each day. Full rotation after a year.

I've long wanted to do a deconstruction of those 365 things called "365 Hats" where I take a picture of myself with a slightly different hat every day.

Sort of both a commentary on how much of the internet is vanity projects and, also, a celebration of how weird the idea of a hat is.

I mean, it's shaped fabric you put on your head for some reason! That's really kind of absurd when you come down to it.

When you come down to hats.

[Nabubrush]

Oh man, anyone remember the silly sock chain letter thing?  Where you had to buy a bunch of socks and mail them to the person at the top of the list, then move the next person in line up to the top and add yourself to the bottom... I don't remember the details, but I do remember my mom buying a whole bunch of socks and then mailing them, and then me patiently waiting for my cool socks to arrive.  They never did though.  I'd still like to get seven cool socks in the mail.  Sigh.

I was just discussing a CD exchange with someone and they told me their mother or other older female relatives do a dish towel pyramid thing where you send out 6 dishtowels and are supposed to end up with like 30? How do adults think that would work? Why does anyone fall for that?

[side_show]

Yeah, at least my mom had the excuse of being mentally ill.  As for any other adults involved, WTF? 

And tea towels?  Really?  There's something sad about a world where a lady won't just buy herself all the tea towels she needs rather than hoping they'll come to her via a pyramid scheme.