Facebook: putting readers ahead of the words

Luce says:

11:12am | 11/01/11

thatmosis, I can’t understand it either, facebook is not the place to display your personal life! Not only is it there for good, it’s also just tacky. I cringe when I log on and see status’s about people’s love lives or some menial drama they’re having a spat over. I have enough spats of my own, I don’t need to see other peoples!

Adam Diver says:

02:49pm | 11/01/11

But anouncing your opinions on an anonymous blog is totally different.

Shifter says:

09:26am | 11/01/11

In the words of the good Pauline: “Why”?

I understand a need not to intrude but surely the parent should be taking some kind of notice of what their child is doing on the internet. Nothing like a bit of innocence as a breeding ground for some social engineering.

Wendy says:

11:12am | 11/01/11

The problem with parents these days is that they don’t parent!!. Parents don’t talk to their children, they don’t care what the child does as long as it doesn’t interfere with what the parent is doing. That’s why they have no idea what their child is doing or saying on Facebook, then they complain when something bad happens. Nana you seem to know more about what your grandchild is doing than her parents I wonder why that is; I expect it’s because she talks to you face to face and not through twitter or facebook?

Nanna says:

01:57pm | 11/01/11

Nanna replies that peer group pressure almost demands IPods and Facebook exposure for high school students. Daughter has shut down the site twice. Granddaughter re-opens. Facebook has no checks and balances to assist concerned parents. Computers are in schools now.

Shifter says:

02:45pm | 11/01/11

Since I’m at work, I don’t have access to the facebook terms and conditions, however I seem to remember when I signed up that there was a clause you had to agree to that stated you were over 18 years of age. This would be an adequate check and balance. Is this no longer the case?

Computers are in schools, and depending on school network policy certain sites are filtered, much like my workplace filters facebook, myspace and a whole lot of other things. The onus also falls on the teacher to maintain the attention of the children.

So Nanna, you’re probably wondering what I’m getting at here. Computers in your home, on your home network should be under your control. There’s plenty of monitoring ‘net-nanny’ style software out there, there is opportunity to situate the computer in an open visible area and if Daughter doesn’t understand or know how these things operate there are many articles and classes (my local TAFE runs one) to assist in the educating of parents in these matters.

Kids can have their phones and ipods and facebook, and keep up with the peer group pressure, but it can be done in a safe and beneficial manner for all family members.

Maddy says:

09:06am | 11/01/11

Excellent point. I’m sick of people reducing social media to ‘taking the dog to the vet’.
The starting point on social networks is ‘what are you doing now’ - as you tend to ask your friends when you call them.

Is it just me, or is it rare to jump straight into conversation about corruption with friends?!

Shifter says:

10:36am | 11/01/11

The online backlash would occur anyway. Since facebook and twitter are ubiquitous it is a lot easier to organise, and gathers a lot more publicity than in days of yore.

But for every “Gerry Harvey is a wanker” on facebook there’s also 20 “this is what I cooked”. For every tweet that #getstheashestotheashes there’s more than enough sheep discussing hairstyles of Glee cast members.

It’s not all banal pap. Just most of it.

Ducks says:

11:08am | 11/01/11

I couldn’t agree more with Jake and Maddy. It is another communication tool. Of course it is a medium for banal pap. Just as the telephone, television and radio can be. When I see or hear programs that are ‘banal crud’ on these mediums, I turn them off, or change the channel. There are certain people I avoid phone conversations with because forty minutes later I am still listening to why their superviser at work is an idiot when I really couldn’t care less. Again,  and example of ‘banal crud’ that is best avoided.
Banal crud exists everywhere. Don’t blame the medium, blame your friends. If certain ‘friends’ are always the same culprits, hide their feeds.

Don’t try to justify your inability to adjust to new technology as the intellectual high ground. It’s just a form of ignorance.

Expat says:

01:01pm | 11/01/11

Sounds like you might have the Net Delusion, Jake.

“EVGENY MOROZOV: I think there was definitely a lot of enthusiasm about the role that Twitter played in facilitating the protests in 2009 when so many people poured into the streets, of Tehran.

If you have ever looked at data a bit more closely, what you see is that Twitter played the greatest role in actually publicising these events and in getting the information out. It was not instrumental in getting people into the streets.

What happened afterwards, I think, however, was completely lost in much of the media coverage. What happened is that the Iranian Government started tracking everything that was supposed to Twitter, to Facebook, they started collecting photos of people who participated in the protests, they started posting them on government sites and asking people to identify who those people were, they started sending threatening Facebook messages to Iranians broad, telling them not to get involved.

And of course all of the Iranians who were careless enough to go online and Tweet and post Facebook messages under their real names got into trouble, eventually, some of them were investigated, some of them were interrogated and so forth.

And this last element of the Government actually using the information published online, that was not actually covered as widely as the Twitter revolution that you know, more or less failed to create any political gains for the Iranian Opposition.”

Social networking is a rope for the gullible to hang themselves with, and it’s sobering to see just how little rope is enough for some.

Pauline H Clayton says:

02:05pm | 11/01/11

Dear Jake, My concern is that the importance of the event is lost in the every increasing babble that circles the globe via these networks. The message appears in an electronic flash and disappears just as quickly.
For example, the attempts by the retail moguls to pressure the federal government to change our tax laws was picked up and debated with strength by main stream media.
But I agree twittering will increase.

Adrian says:

10:33am | 11/01/11

Exactly! Thanks Jane you said what I was thinking.
Facebook is not about 15 mins of fmae for most people, it’s about keeping in touch with friends, sharing links and videos that you find funny or interesting, and posting pictures of drunken nights out for other people to laugh (possibly the best thing about facebook).

If the writer is comparing Shane Warne/Liz Hurley to Cleopatra/Mark Antony (Not Anthony) and expecting some sort of correlation between the two, then I seriously doubt her ability to create full sentances.

Adrian says:

10:34am | 11/01/11

Amen, sir. Amen.

Luce says:

12:45pm | 11/01/11

She has a point, Dave. I’m not old and I do use it and understand it, but that doesn’t mean I place much value on it. Facebook and other social media sites are pretty much all junk.

the Liberal Loafer says:

05:23pm | 11/01/11

the Punch is the most widely read mass circulation newspaper in Nigeria today.

Tim B, Nicole G,the Badger and Shane from Woop Woop are famous people.