Sunday, July 26, 2009

I'm not sure I'm up to it.

The reason I liked FB was that there was no commitment. It was someone else's party. I could show up, say stuff, and leave -- without the setup and clean up.

I'm sure the nice young billionaires at Google have similar good intentions - but I've been hurt before. What if, in the end, free software ends up being worth what you pay for -- they'll stunt you and threaten you even if you're a pretty good FB citizen -- try never to scare people, encourage people to use it, increase linking, commenting and connecting.

You consciously actually try to make the people who link to you want to USE the damn thing. And then suddenly, there are the arbitrary cut offs with no explanation. Which leads some people to defriend you because they think your lack of commentary means you are no longer their friend.

And then finally the insulting "you must type the Ticketmaster sobriety test" to be sure you actually really want to post an article you're trying to post it. It keeps happening until they Actually. Tell. You. To. Stop. Posting.

It's not life an death: It's an article. Or a joke. Or a viral video.

It's not supposed to intrude on anyone who does what they should already be doing in life and online - -managing their settings.

I know it's stupid to take it personally -- it's just poorly thought out software that is designed to control everyone as if everyone is equally interesting to everyone else.

There's nothing personal about that. Which was the original strength of the whole damn thing.

We'll see if I can stick with this. It just feels a little BIG and GROWNUP to me. Maybe a small step if you ran an active FB page, but my 7 little quips a day about other people's hard work and huge mistakes didn't feel like a huge impact. So it is sort of strange that FB's censor software felt it was having one.

Heather Havrilesky explains why reality TV looks more real. It's all rather depressing.

In contrast to "More to Love," "Dance Your Ass Off" (9 p.m. Mondays on Oxygen) at least aims to be a feisty festival of empowerment for big men and women, but it often ends up making a spectacle of its stars along the way. You deserve to strut your stuff! They tell their contestants. Now put on this enormous sequined frock and get out there on the dance floor and make America laugh its mean-spirited ass off.

Lonely men in Japan cuddle stuffed dolls

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26FOB-2DLove-t.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=all

MoDo writes something relevant and helpful.