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Targeted Facebook Ads!
Jul. 6th, 2014 10:02 pm
Unfriending FB Friend
Jun. 9th, 2014 08:36 pmSo what caused me to unfriend my former FB friend? They shared a very graphic picture of an abused child that had the text “pray for this child”. It was graphic, horror show stuff, but this was supposed to be real life. This made me angry. I was angry for the right reasons, at the injustice put upon the child, but I was also angry at my former FB friend for abusing their friends. Look, FB is not the place to put graphic pics of society’s ills. Why? IMO it is because of the family nature, who knows who will see it???, and because of the permanence of FB. What if the abuser is brought to justice and the child heals, and I have the displeasure of seeing the horrific picture every time I view my former FB friend’s page? So, I unfriended them.
Is my friend too insensitive or am I too sensitive? It doesn’t matter now because I made a personal choice. The event crossed a line for me. I appreciate there are horrors about, but I am not on FB to see graphic visuals of the world. There are other parts of the internet for that, and I choose not to go there, just like I choose to not watch Animal Planet network. This was an interesting lesson for me, one in which I learned that the open sharing nature of FB was too much for me this time around.
The Doorway of Artistic Expression
May. 24th, 2014 11:44 pmI saw the X-Men movie “X-Men: Days of Future Past” today. It was an awesome movie. Check it out if you an X-Men, Marvel, or just a super-hero movie fan. The credits were rolling, all the technical people were being given credit, and I was struck by the amazing amount of creative expression that went into the creation of the movie.
Creative Expression comes in lots of forms. Four broad categories are Writing, Graphic Arts, Music, and Movement and Dance. I indulge in all of them, though my music pursuits are more private than the rest. Why do I pursue creative expression? Ask.com says that creative expression is “the showing or revealing of a persons emotion and feelings through works of art. These include paintings, writings, theater and music “. Wow, it is about revealing emotions and feelings. Very cool.
I find this cool, that creative expression is about revealing the self, because many years ago I was very against revealing myself. I dreamt of passing away, and nobody attending my funeral. That was something I actually wanted. Now, thank fully, it would be very difficult to pull that off. I've touched a lot of people, largely through my artistic expression. Most come from my artistic expression in photography. Perhaps some were attracted by my weird humor, but most came from the photography.
How do I know that artistic expression has allowed me to reach others? It has not been because of my gift of gab. X-Box friends tend to be accumulated through outright socialization. My lovely wife is the master of this. I suck, with only five or so X-Box friends. Facebook is another deal all together. I have nearly 800 friends on Facebook. There are people who have a lot more, some people have less, but 800 is a bunch bigger number than 5! Most of the 800 come from my artistic expression in photography. Perhaps some were attracted by my weird humor, but most came from the photography.
Today's lesson is that creative expression goes a long way towards meeting new and interesting people. Your creative expression becomes a doorway through which they can enter your life. Pretty neat stuff. The next challenge is to see what you can do with those connections, but those are thoughts for another time.
My April Fools Actions
Apr. 1st, 2014 10:42 pmI announced the following on my Facebook page:
Yesterday I was contacted by the Facebook Social Services (SS) group. They accused me of fraud and of violating the Facebook terms and policies. The new Facebook analytics, Connection Opportunities on Line (COOL), has identified suspicious behavior on my account. COOL measures my potential demographic outreach and compares it to my actual Facebook connections. I'm told that my COOL potential is for less than fifty friends. I instead have over 700 friends, most way outside of my COOL demographic. The extreme difference set off alarm bells with the SS. Because of this I've been ordered to take down all my photos and unfriend all my friends! Why??? It is all because you guys are just too COOL for me.
Facebook says that my Key Indicators Delivery System (KIDS) measurement is impossible. The bottom line is that my COOL KIDS score much lower than my Facebook friend’s COOL KIDS scores. Sigh. Please cooperate with the Facebook SS if they contact you. Thank you!
A flurry of responses followed. Some called me out, others were supporting. At the end of the day I added the following to their comments:
Facebook SS finally contacted me. Good news... I've been given a reprieve.
Mr. Green,
The Facebook Social Services (SS) has reviewed your Connection Opportunities on Line (COOL) score and determined that no further action will be taken at this time. It has been determined that your elevated Deliverable Useful Life Level (DULL) status is not an issue. Your Connection Opportunities on Line Key Indicators Delivery System (COOL KIDS) ranking does cause us concern, and we strongly suggest that you attempt to be as COOL as your Facebook friends, who are have very impressive COOL KIDS rankings. Your COOL score and COOL KIDS ranking will be reviewed at a later date, and you will be quarantined if progress has not been made. That is all. Thank you for your cooperation!
Regards,
Facebook Social Services
I love April Fools!
An Inch of Water
Dec. 4th, 2013 09:51 pmI've blogged about my dislike of memes before... I think I have! I really dislike those cute little pictures with sayings / witticisms. The encouraging ones are OK. It is the political ones that get me going. Why? Is it because I dislike the sayings of groups that are contrary to my political leanings? I'm not keen on those, but I realized that all flavors of political memes have a common issue and I saw one today that illustrated their challenge.
( Read more... )
Back the philosophical aspects of this blog. The meme shares the challenge of offering a statement in short bullet form. At best this is a slogan that rallies the truth. At worst it is a shit bomb thrown into a mixed crowd. Why? A political meme is like taking a bath in an inch of water. There is liquid there, it is bath tub shaped, but there isn't enough to shape a conversation around. There are so shades of gray to really contentious topics and a meme can't do justice to any topic. They instead make Facebook a landscape of strife. I would prefer if people just stated their beliefs instead of turning to the flawed meme.
