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Jumping ship was easy for me. I catch-up with my local friends in person at a local bar or cafe. I catch-up with my remote friends by traveling to their city an

Jumping ship was easy for me. I catch-up with my local friends in person at a local bar or cafe. I catch-up with my remote friends by traveling to their city and going to a bar or cafe there. Or they come visit me. It's infinity more satisfying and relaxing that consuming status updates containing skewed and filtered representations of someone's life.

thesis 14y ago
As far as visiting all my remote friends or them visiting me (somewhat often)... that's easier said then done for me and I bet most people.
- pinkbucket 14y ago
  Yeah, it's difficult enough when you are neighbours! (Sad but true.) That's not to say that we can't try harder.
- spaghetti 14y ago
  You're right it's not always easy. I often wonder about how the perceived convenience of visiting someone varies with the strength of the friendship. I think they vary directly. For example I have no problem fighting through rush hour traffic when I'm on my way to seeing a friend who I'm looking forward to seeing.
Evbn 14y ago
How is a conversation at a bar less skewed or filtered than a status post?
theorique 14y ago
consuming status updates containing skewed and filtered representations of someone's life. I much prefer skewed and filtered representations of my friends. It's much easier to interact with a caricatured, mean-field average of my 900 or so Facebook friends (aka "the audience") than to do it (shudder) one-on-one.
- wahnfrieden 14y ago
  Is it not preferable to have more meaningful, personal interactions with a smaller group of people?
  - spaghetti 14y ago
    Good point. When you're dreading interacting with someone one-on-one they're probably not a true friend. So perhaps fb is good for maintaining acquaintances rather than actual friendships.
  - theorique 14y ago
    Yes, I was attempting (perhaps unsuccessfully) to be ironic.
ben1040 14y ago
Same here. It occurred to me at some point that while I had a fairly large group of "friends" on Facebook, there were only 10-15 people that I really actually cared about. And those are people that I communicate with on a regular basis outside of Facebook, either by hanging out with them in person, or phone/email for the ones who have moved away. So there's no love lost with them by ditching Facebook. That leaves the group of people that I knew from college and high school, but had nothing else in common so we lost touch until Facebook came around. I graduated from college 5 years before joining Facebook, and looking back I don't feel like my life was any worse off in those intervening years because I didn't have those people on an e-friends list.

thesis 14y ago

As far as visiting all my remote friends or them visiting me (somewhat often)... that's easier said then done for me and I bet most people.

pinkbucket 14y ago
Yeah, it's difficult enough when you are neighbours! (Sad but true.) That's not to say that we can't try harder.
spaghetti 14y ago
You're right it's not always easy. I often wonder about how the perceived convenience of visiting someone varies with the strength of the friendship. I think they vary directly. For example I have no problem fighting through rush hour traffic when I'm on my way to seeing a friend who I'm looking forward to seeing.

Evbn 14y ago

How is a conversation at a bar less skewed or filtered than a status post?

theorique 14y ago

consuming status updates containing skewed and filtered representations of someone's life. I much prefer skewed and filtered representations of my friends. It's much easier to interact with a caricatured, mean-field average of my 900 or so Facebook friends (aka "the audience") than to do it (shudder) one-on-one.

wahnfrieden 14y ago
Is it not preferable to have more meaningful, personal interactions with a smaller group of people?
- spaghetti 14y ago
  Good point. When you're dreading interacting with someone one-on-one they're probably not a true friend. So perhaps fb is good for maintaining acquaintances rather than actual friendships.
- theorique 14y ago
  Yes, I was attempting (perhaps unsuccessfully) to be ironic.

ben1040 14y ago

Same here. It occurred to me at some point that while I had a fairly large group of "friends" on Facebook, there were only 10-15 people that I really actually cared about. And those are people that I communicate with on a regular basis outside of Facebook, either by hanging out with them in person, or phone/email for the ones who have moved away. So there's no love lost with them by ditching Facebook. That leaves the group of people that I knew from college and high school, but had nothing else in common so we lost touch until Facebook came around. I graduated from college 5 years before joining Facebook, and looking back I don't feel like my life was any worse off in those intervening years because I didn't have those people on an e-friends list.