my sometimes-skeptical social commentary

Archive for the ‘community’ Category

I was one of the first grown-ups I know to start using FaceBook. I encouraged a lot of people to sign up, because I wanted to use it to (a) keep in touch with them, (b) play them in Scrabble, and (c) it’s just plain entertaining. Lots of my friends use their status update to say something very funny.

I’ve become re-acquainted with long-lost friends from grammar school and summer camps …where I haven’t been in a couple decades. I’ve played Scrabble against my mom, against geographically distant friends, and even against my girlfriend Valerie, because, even though we have been dating seriously for months, there are plenty of evenings when our schedules don’t allow us to play in person. So facebook has its value, right?

And yet, I have withdrawn from facebook again. I’ve withdrawn from facebook several times in the past, mainly because I find that it frustrates me more than it entertains me.

I have two close friends who still don’t use it, despite my many urgings that they just give in and “get on the facebook” like everyone else. I wonder if the frustration:entertainment ratio is something that my two hold-out friends have taken into consideration as they avoid joining the throngs of their friends and family who are on facebook.

There’s a good chance that anyone reading this post is a facebook user (there are more facebook users than there are Americans). So, you might be wondering, What are these frustrations?

To start with:

1. No filters.
2. No context.
3. False sense of community.

These problems are not exclusive to facebook, because there are other web sites that have the same problems. But facebook is so ubiquitous that these problems are exacerbated, in my opinion.

So let me explain:

1. Let’s start with No filters.

   No, I don’t mean that facebook should be censored. I mean that people don’t use their own built-in filters, and write a lot of junk that is just too much information (TMI). I suppose TMI is a terribly subjective qualification, isn’t it. Well, I think we all know TMI when we see it. The problem with facebook is that, once I am someone’s friend, I get their status updates, TMI and all (unless and until I hide their updates from my update stream, but then it’s too late, you can’t un-ring that bell).

2. No context is a problem, because what someone says in a Wall post or comment or status update can mean something completely different than what is intended.

   The nature of the internet is pictures, video, and short sentences. Non sentences. Smilies and non-word TXTs. Most people reading for entertainment won’t get this far into an article online. (But not you, because you just read this!) But, real life is complex, and what we say requires context in order for its real value to be implicit. What we “say” in facebook posts is not like “saying” at all, because 80% of the meaning we convey in conversation is communicated through body language and facial expressions.

3. The no context problem is related to the problem of facebook’s False sense of community.

   We don’t really know each other through our status updates and wall posts. How could we, when they say 80% of communication is through body language? Of course we know the facebook friends who are our real-life friends, but that’s what fraction of our social network?

   Another problem is caused by how easy it is to post something or post a comment on someone else’s post. No, I’m not arguing that we should go back to writing letters on paper and mailing them in envelopes (anyone have any stamps?), but there is an intentionality in letter-writing that is skipped–deleted–in the process that facebook and other Web 2.0 web sites employ to make it easier to use their sites. Is easier better? Is the movie better than the classic novel?

For example, to use a recent issue that’s still in the news, two different views on health insurance reform are going to come head-to-head in the short bursts of status updates and Wall posts. The perspective of an uninsured family who has a sick parent is not the perspective of the small business owner who has to decide on whether to expand the business or provide health insurance for existing employees. Because there’s no context, the false sense of community betrays us when our different points of view turn into flame-wars (personal attacks) or regress into ideological parroting.

So, what am I expecting from a technology? Nothing. It’s a tool, just like any other tool we have at our disposal. Remember when they said email would kill off letter-writing? When wikipedia was considered a threat to truth? When there was fear that Google would kill off research? Well, the TV has already killed off a great hunk of community and electronic media is working over public discourse…what’s left?

I’m suggesting that we should be more intentional in the way that we use web sites like facebook. I don’t know the full answer, and that’s why I’m taking a break from facebook, but I’m sure that I know people who have an idea–people who are already engaged in real community–and might have some helpful suggestions that they could post here as comments.

Will I go back on facebook? Sure, it’s just a question of when. Before I start logging in again, I want to have a better sense of why I’m there, a plan. I need to have more in mind than just “play Scrabble and find old friends” in order for there to be more value than frustration.

Timothy loves to play Othello, so we play just about every time he is at my house. I decided to create a video of a game, so here it is.

The music is from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. The video is made up of 61 different photos taken with a digital camera mounted on a tripod, which I had aimed directly down at the game board.

Today’s Buffalo News has an editorial encouraging readers to make a comment on the latest stage of the planning process of a new Peace Bridge. I’m commenting on the Peace Bridge web site, but I’m also encouraging people to consider the following.

I’m still waiting for someone to explain why Buffalo would want a new Peace Bridge. The reasons that I’ve heard so far are unconvincing. Here are a few:

1. More traffic. Buffalo will benefit from having more trucks drive through it.
2. More tourists. Buffalo needs another architectural feature to draw people to its West Side.
3. More jobs. Buffalo needs the jobs that would be created for construction workers.

Let’s start with the last one, jobs. Who gets these jobs, residents of Buffalo? I don’t think so. Bridge construction is a specialized field, so the men and women working on a new bridge won’t be from Buffalo. And won’t half of the workers be Canadians?

Next up, tourists. From what I’ve seen of the plans, a new bridge will only be able to be seen from the highway–the already chopped up Front Park will lose even more of its space. There won’t be any place to park near it and take photos. Also, let’s say that there were a nice place to stand and take photos of the bridge. Can anyone point out how that would be a positive impact, economically? Are they seriously expecting a huge increase in postcard sales?

Lastly, more traffic? Seriously, who thinks that would be a good idea? More trucks means more pollution. More asthma for the residents of that neighborhood. More accidents. More noise. Fewer homes. I’ve heard people say that those trucks will stop and buy stuff as they pass through Buffalo. How can people really think that? A trucker who just spent a couple hours waiting to get through customs is not going to find the nearest coffee shop and take a break. Not going to gas up, either. Show me the statistics of how many truckers are currently stopping for gas or coffee once they cross the Peace Bridge.

So, WHY is a new Peace Bridge needed?

A friend of mine emailed this link to me, after I sent a link to this article to him.

It’s easy not to think of the poor around the world, isn’t it?

Go ahead, click on GlobalRichList.org and find out how your wealth compares to the rest of the world’s poverty.

I’m making every effort NOT to be paralyzed by guilt and stuck on the idea that ‘There’s nothing I can do about it.‘ There’s got to be something.

The boys and I went sledding at Chestnut Ridge Park yesterday, where we saw a sign that says the toboggan chutes are opening soon. I read in today’s paper (well, I read it on the newspaper’s web site) that the toboggan chutes will be open next week. I can’t wait to take the boys on that ride!

I was surprised to learn that the toboggan chutes have been closed for four years. It has been that long since we were there last? I am pretty sure my oldest son went down the chute with me, but that would have been five winters ago, and I am pretty sure he was too young back then.

Sledding with the boys is a lot of fun. I’m still young enough to go with them, and they’re not old to want to go without me, so it works out great. We crashed a few times (that’s part of the fun), and I managed to avoid landing on my bad shoulder. You know you’re old when you are thinking, as you fall from your sled, ‘I need to make sure I don’t land on my bad shoulder.’

We were dressed for cold and wind. My face mask stayed put, but the boys were wearing a different style of face mask, with a larger opening for the face, instead of the eye- and mouth-holes my hat has. They didn’t look scary at all.

Sledding at Chestnut Ridge Park reminds me of the sledding hill where we went when I was a kid. We used to walk through several fields and hedgerows to get to the back fairway of the golf course, then walk through half the golf course to the hill. It seemed like miles. But the hill was so huge it was worth it. The boys asked me if the hill at the golf course was bigger than the hill at Chestnut Ridge, but I wasn’t sure. I haven’t been past that hill in many years, and I know that our memories of things from our childhood always make things seem larger than they are.

To shoot the video below, I held my camera phone in my right hand, leaving only my left hand to hold on to the sled. The problem I had with only one hand on the sled was NOT that I almost fell out of the sled, but that I couldn’t steer. As I went down the hill, I had to steer by dragging my feet in the snow to avoid running over other sledders.

At least I didn’t drop the phone in the snow.