One thing I hated about Facebook was that sort of obligation to add people who wanted to add you. There was nothing to say you had to but there felt like there was an expectation, that you would offend if you did not. This was partly why I deleted my account there then later re-added myself with privacy on full. I think that raises the barrier and makes the person who would request think a little more about the “relationship”. I think it also changes expectation levels. It feels like more control is kept by me. I hardly use it these days though but the point is there.
Twitter. Similar thing here. You have to follow certain people, there is an expectation that you will listen to someone you know simply because you know them. There is a world of difference though between a chat down the pub and what is traded online as we know. But you can’t unfollow them because they’ll wonder why. Again it’s this expectation, this etiquette thing. Maybe it’s just me?
And the other thing which really annoys me about Twitter is the repeat #tags about events. #uksnow was fine, #iphone was not, #meme and others never will be. In fact it’s not just tags, it’s @famousperson. Like Stephen Fry will reply? I have no idea what that Kutcher bloke does apart from exchange bodily fluids with Bruce’s ex. I don’t want to see all that because it looks like the equivalent of the person on stage at Glastonbury yelling out “Who want to come up here with me” and being faced with a sea of screaming jumping wild lunatics. I’m sure these @famouspeople simply use twitter to boost their fragile egos and give their days meaning. Irritating.
While I’m on the subject … I quite like twitter. Love it for news though sometimes it feels like overload when coupled with everything else I stare at and it’s always the first app to be closed (Tweetdeck with multiple columns depending on news type) and it’s good for people too. But I have never liked the unfiltered approach. And although I like it I continue to think that the whole service is utterly disposable. 140 characters does not distill, it’s just 140 characters. No idea how many times I have tweeted and I don’t care. Take them all away and I wouldn’t even get annoyed. Would not care. Why would I? If someone said “Ah, but at 17:16 on November 12 you tweeted that…” like I’d give a damn. Wouldn’t know why, wouldn’t be bothered to find out. If these smidges of conversation matter so much why not record what you actually say 24/7? That would make more sense wouldn’t it? Anyway….
Kiwi is a mac twitter client and it has some good rules for highlighting and hiding messages (it does regular expressions if you understand those). It doesn’t do lists yet but I can move all my lists stuff to another ID anyway. But what is best is that I can ignore a whole person. I’m testing it now and test hiding 2 people. I say hiding but it’s actually just coloring them orange so I can check I don’t catch anything wrongly. And I need to check replies/dm’s.
So I can exclude all mac-related tweets when Apple do their fangasm presentations, can exclude the annoying @famouspeople and can ignore those people who I really should just unfollow but feel obliged in some way to keep on the sidebar.
It’s come to the point where I’ve been thinking about deleting my FB account, mainly because of the time I waste generally doing nothing.
It’s been good chatting to a few folk I knew years ago, but adding ‘friends’ from school that I haven’t spoken to since they’ve been added seems a waste of time.
I often have these odd thoughts about who is reading things I put on or who is looking at pictures that didn’t then know me that much, and won’t ever really know me that much now.
I found a guy who had the adjacent room at the Polytechnic Halls of Residence. We’ve not yet met up but we both want to meet again.
Found an old schoolfriend which was really good. But otherwise no-one before around 2000.
FB is weird. Maybe it’s because I’m too old. I post pictures of the girls to Smugmug and they are Private there. The girls grab them and post them to FB. At an age where it doesn’t matter for them and maybe it never will.
I don’t care what people I have never met and will never interact with in any way think. They will feel the same to me. I do care what some people think and that depends on the relationship. But that’s a post which has been brewing for some time here..