Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Etc

Like so many others in the US, I’ve joined Facebook.  I even play Mafia Wars, though I’ve resisted the urge to play Farmville or the other Zynga games.  MW takes up enough of my time as it is and has its own quirks and frustrations.

The first such site I joined was Myspace, back around 2004, at the suggestion of my then-secretary Jennifer, who no longer seems to be there….or on Facebook for that matter (see below).  I never found it to be the jailbait meat market as the cynics claimed, but then again maybe I just wasn’t trying hard enough to use it as a de facto dating site.  Nowadays it seems 99% of the use for it is bands trying to get exposure.  A lot of times I’ll try to find a band’s website only to be directed to their Myspace page.  But I’ve never seen a band relying on that to be an improvement on a well-designed private web site. 

Tagged.   I originally joined this in 2006 at the suggestion of an ex-fiance who then promptly closed her account after a few tags exchanged for a few nanoseconds.  This site allows you to send “tags” (small box-like comments) or full “comments”.  The tags vary from “Happy Birthday”, “Happy Valentine’s” and other holiday-themes, to “showing love” or humorous.  The comments often seem to be an endless string of pictures of flowers, food, etc. or a warning that so-and-so is a scammer.  I ignore most of them.

            I started Mafia Wars on Tagged, then followed it over to Facebook.  I met my current GF on Tagged, as it is.  40% of the “women” on Tagged seem to be faux porn stars (easy to imagine 50 year old fat guy posting porn girl pics), 40% seem to be overweight black women calling themselves “Chocolate Goddess” and similar boastful names, and 10% ….REAL people.  My GF was one of those real people.  She still is.

Facebook.  This site attracts many family-oriented people like my brother who avoided Myspace like the plague.  Among the posts I see are tons of “you know you’re a Mom when” and some comment about vomit or sick kids.   You know who you are.  Please exercise discretion and only post either extremely brilliant or extremely outrageous stuff.  24/7 coverage of your kids’ shenanigans gets old quickly.   My sister has finally learned this.

            The political posts zone me out.  Listen here.  You may be “preaching to the choir.”  Persons converted?  ZERO.  You may be trying to convince Romney voters to support Obama, or vice versa.  Persons converted?  ZERO.   You may be trying to convince people who are only on Facebook to play Zynga games.  Persons converted?  ZERO.  Does anyone know anyone else who changed their vote in 2012 because of a post they saw on Facebook?  Or by 100 posts in the same day by the same person with the same basic message?  I didn’t think so. 

            Memes etc.  I like some of these. 

            “Y U NO”.  My favorite was: “Air Force: Y U NO PT?”  Response: “Army: Y U NO SMART?”

            “One does not simply” Boromir (Sean Bean) explains why [Mordor cannot be entered.]  Note: this is NOT Ned Stark.

            Thoughtful Raptor, Success Baby, Confused Jackie Chan, Smug Willie Wonka (Gene Wilder) are some other good ones.  Again, please exercise discretion.

I resisted the urge to blog about Mafia Wars earlier because it struck me that either you’re already playing it and know enough about it, or don’t play it and don’t give a s**t.  So I’ll keep my comments brief.  It started out with just a New York location, but before I got bored with it, they expanded to Cuba.  Ok, good – completely new jobs, new items, etc.  That kept my interest.  Then they added Moscow, Bangkok, Italy, Chicago, Las Vegas, Brazil, and London.  It’s always changing and adding things, and I like getting new and badder-ass items.  But I agree it can be “a colossal waste of time.”

Linkedin.  This is the serious, professional hookup site, networking for real people and not trolling for underage girls, and it has no games (yet).  The posts tend to be “so-and-so has a new job”.  Very dull, but it’s meant to be.

Off the Grid.   Some people “don’t believe” in Facebook.  It’s a free country, and having a Facebook account is not mandatory.  It can be a complete waste of time – especially Zynga games.  So I can’t say I blame those people who stay away from it.  There are some good reasons.

            However, one reason I don’t buy is this dedication to maintain zero presence on the Net and stay “off the grid”.  When I hear this I picture John Malkovich’s character in “R.E.D.”, the recent Bruce Willis shoot-em-up which was criminally underrated.  If you haven’t seen it already, do it immediately.  You’re welcome.  ANYHOW.  If you’re dumb enough to post pics of yourself committing crimes or advocating the violent overthrow of the US government, maybe you deserve a SWAT team knocking down your door.   But I’ve yet to hear of someone sent to Guantanamo Bay for playing Farmville.