Journal #9

Oh what to say about facebook, well I have become more addicted since this class started. That is probably because I feel like it is okay to be on facebook now; before I was only on to while away the time, and I felt guilty for wasting so much time. But now that it is for a class I could spend all day on and just tell people that I'm doing research for my class, and building my social networth. I even added a little gadget to my vista sidebar so that I don't even have to be on facebook to see updates and wall posts, I don't even have to be on the internet, it's just always there, ready for me to update my status or poke someone. I have a problem, but not so much of a problem that I would start playing Farmville again *cough* GROSS!

Matt Cackley has been on more too, as you might think, and he has been conversating with the people who leave him messages. Just about anything, like where they know him from and such, just the usual everyday Cackley things. That, and he likes to leave mean comments on some people's statuses, but hey Matt Cackley is not a nice character.

Just an update: still getting those mature christian singles ads, not cool.

Journal 8

So the first note of interest I should shine upon has to be this new "Live Feed" link on the facebook homepage.... I haven't exactly understood how this is any way different from the old feed. Still, there are already groups live protesting this new "change", but I don't know just what they are really protesting for. To me, it just seems like someone else is hitting the F5 key for me.

Anyways, to continue this sad blog of my facebook like, it seems like I have begun to avoid it on purpose after this week. Old "friends" have unceasingly become ever so annoying, for I can't say at all that I care about the school I suffered three years at just to never stop hearing about it from my younger friends. Funny how they blocked facebook through the student internet their, yet everyone still wastes their time away on the iPhone and such, my friend has his own method of stealing wifi at just the right position with his laptop from one of the houses near the old academy, but it still doesn't keep him from watching anime 24/7. And neither will those blasted iPhones turn off already.

journal #8

Have you noticed how something as trivial as a text window personally offends us? It's just an automated box with words, tailored to interests we have volunteered.

I should clean up house, as in renovate my profile. I have people friended that I don't even know. I think just under fifty people is the ideal number, then again that's just me.
All this maintenance is pretty comical, as somebody from another century might say it's trivial. It's not like it's needed or required, yet so many people feel they must update the profiles because they are an extension of the person. I find that my profile is behind my actual identity by several months at least. Even the way I approach the profile is different now. I gave up on writing about my favorite music, it's just "anything and everything" now.

It's as if our virtual lives are becoming more important than our actual ones. An intriguing concept, but maybe because it's so much easier than actually pursuing people in real life, the easy way out is often chosen.

The more I attend this class, the more of facebook I stop using. Maybe it'll disappear from my life altogether.

Journal #8

Well, it turns out I'm not going to be deleting my fake Facebook account any time soon. I had started using it to play FarmVille, and I spent this past week becoming addicted to that game. In fact, the only reason I'm writing this journal at 12:30 a.m. is that I'm waiting for my FarmVille pumpkins to finish growing so I can harvest them and plant a new set of seeds before going to bed. It was only a few weeks ago that I thought FarmVille was so stupid and I couldn't understand its appeal at all.... *sigh* Now I've been using my fake account much more than my real one, and I don't see it stopping in the near future. Basically, FarmVille has been my entire Facebook life this week.

On another topic, the new change to Facebook, separating the Live Feed and News Feed, is confusing to me, and I hope someone else can explain it. Although there must be a difference between the two, I can't really tell what it is. To me, it just seems like now half of my updates are viewable under one option, and half are viewable under the other, requiring me to check out both sides. How annoying!

journal #8 October 26

So I’d like to start off this week’s post with a mildly humorous story. This weekend I went home and today (Sunday) I went to see part of my sister’s soccer tournament. Lots of the mom’s there were taking action shots of their kids running around the field. One of the mothers had apparently taken a great photo because a bunch of the moms all started shouting, “you better put that one up on your Facebook”. Oh soccer moms, what would we do without you?

When I went home this weekend I went to check my Facebook on my home computer and the layout was all funky. I thought this was just because I wasn’t used to our PC at home. Sadly it wasn’t the computer Facebook has changed its layout…again. Now everyone had just gotten used to the first layout and is going to complain about the change…again. Really though, why keep changing it if it seems to be functioning fine, why fix what isn’t broken?

Today when I went on Facebook some pictures of my friends showed up in that crazy new-fangled news/live-whatever feed. They were sitting on what looked like that railing outside of foellenger facing the quad. It was a bit washed out so I wasn’t sure if it was the union behind them or not, so I asked if it was the quad and when they were down here. It turns out it was this weekend (they post pictures fast!)And I was home, but now the next time they come down we’re going to hang out. So thank you Facebook for better connecting me with a dairy friend!

Prompt #8

This week on Facebook I discovered the live feed button. There is a lot of Facebook that I completely ignore because I don't have time to dilly dally, lol, and so when I see something new that is actually cool and/or helpful I am surprised. Normally I would just hit the button that says "__# of new posts" or whatever, and it wasn't like that was a big inconvenience or anything, but it's kinda nice to just look at the page and see what's new immediately.

Another thing I was noticing, and forgive me if this isn't new, is the "reconnect with this person" part on the right side of the page. Right now it's telling me that I should reconnect with my old fifth grade teacher. You know what's funny? I've tried!!! I wrote on his wall months ago, "remember me? :) " and he never responded! I felt that that was hateful and sad. So tonight Facebook has made me sad. But I did just learn the thriller dance for Zombie Mob, although I don't know if I'll get to do it on Saturday. So that made me happy. Yay, being happy.

Prompt #8: Give me a break

Hey all,

I just realized that I never put up a prompt for Monday. So in light of the fact that it is bite-sized candy season, I will give you a break, give you a break, break you offa piece of that no-prompt-for-tomorrow. And now I have no other choice than to bring in Kit-Kats tomorrow.

Please make sure to do a journal though!

journal 8

I just realized I will miss halloween candy!! No!!! (I'm stuck at home this week -- I have Swine Flu [really] and McKinley sent me home).

Anyway, what's up with this new news feed v. live feed thing, does anyone know? Whatever it is, I really don't like it. I was fine with the news feed at first, and it's a nice way to see what all my friends are up to online -- for example, being quarantined this weekend I missed a good friend's birthday party *and* swing dance my friends were going to. So I got to look at everyone's facebook pictures, which I guess is something. But the news feed/live feed is distracting. I'm not sure where to look and it's overly cluttered. I liked the news feed because it presented things to me simply.

Journal #8 October 26

Something that is becoming very popular on facebook is social interview. Many people are using social interview and it is very interesting. I feel very special when a question about me is asked. I like hearing the answers. It also makes me feel special that other people, that I barely talk to, are taking the time to consider me and answer a question about me. Once I noticed how common social interview was becoming among my friends, I decided to try it out myself. It was fun answering questions about others. I realized that I had nothing to say for the people I rarely talked to. Therefore, I skipped the questions about my unimportant facebook friends. I enjoyed answering questions about my meat friends especially since I knew that we would get a great laugh out of it. Afterwards, the comments I got from my friends were fun to read. This social interview thing was definitely a very entertaining thing to do on facebook. I felt that it was something friendly, safe, and fun. I would not say that it was an useless application that. That is one interesting thing that I have been doing on facebook.

Otherwise, facebook has been pretty much the same for me. I check it consistently to see what people are doing. I noticed how the format was changed on facebook. The news feed is different and it is quite confusing. I don't understand the point of it. Facebook chat and the group pages are also different. It is just another thing that we all have to get used to.

Journal #8

Oh my oh my that week went by fast, but the prospect of halloween candy in Monday's class is keeping it from seeming like it is moving too fast. I hope it's good candy *wink wink* (I like 3 musketeers!) No no jk jk you don't only have to cater to my needs.

So Matt Cackley and I have been talking and we think it would be best if Matt branched out some more, perhaps atarted commenting on other people's posts and status updates, I mean the worst thing that could happen is that they un-friend them. Unless some really paranoid person was to report Matt Cackley, but it was their fault for adding him in the first place so thats probably not that likely. I think it will be tremendous fun to see people's reactions and what they would say to someone they just barely think they can remember remembering at one point in their life. Matt Cackley thrives on that doubt in people's minds; everyone knows everyone these days, even if you don't. "Oh we went to the same summer camp 40 years ago, LETS BE FRIENDS!" A lot of people just accept anyone who offers to be their friend, they think to themselves, "Oh I must have met them before otherwise they wouldn't be friending me." Tsk tsk tsk, those crazy people, but them again where would Matt be without them, probably home alone making tacos for no one but me. But he makes a mighty fine taco if I do say so myself.

So thats my weekly rant, I hope you enjoyed it, or at least didn't smash your head into a wall because you had to read it. meh.

KT and Matt OUT! (yeah he's here right now)

Journal #8

Facebook is fun and interesting right now. I like the fact that I can get online and just connect with friends that I haven’t seen in a long time, but wait if I haven’t seen them nor talked to them in a long time are they really friends? That is the question I ask myself literally every time I get online. I think that Facebook is also a place where you lose friends and many people go through life meeting and forgetting people. My recent facebook activity has been like that of a time machine. I go back four to six years connecting with “old” friends but now I am making and connecting with new people. I get online thinking about what notifications I have and also who I can talk to. I think that my recent facebook activity is fun and interesting.

Journal #7 October 19

Jason Sherman is becoming well known among his friends. People are also beginning to doubt that he is real. As more fake people are created, some people are close to realizing that something might be going on. Lately, I have been hearing quite a few people talking about how these fake people that we have created and how it is so strange that they are friending everyone. There have been two times when my door was knocked on. I was interrogated about who Caleb Brown, Sara O'Donnell, and Jason Sherman are. The first time, I just said these were people in my classes. The second time I just said that I didn't know and that I just friended them because we had mutual friends. It was quite funny how this happened. It is also entertaining to see these people in confusion and feeling like a mastermind confusing so many people.

Lately, Jason has been making friends quite slowly. There have been probably many people who have denied him. It is fun to have a fake person now because I can explore the hype over farmville. I am normally against creating a farmville account, but now I can see what I am missing out on with Jason. I realized that there is nothing that entertaining about farmville. It is hard to keep up with and frankly not that interesting. It is also interesting to see your own meat friends befriending Jason. Some of my meat friends do not really care about who they have befriended while one of them asked me who Jason is. Also, some people do not seem to care that they are befriending someone they don't know. It will be very interesting to see how this goes. One of the issues I am encountering is finding people for Jason to talk to. He might have some friends, but no cares to write on his wall or comment on his status. Clearly, I don't blame them. Not many people would comment or write on a wall of someone they have never heard of.

journal #7

(brendan m)

It's very hard to masquerade as another person without covering all your tracks. Since I used an email address of one of my friends, I can't friend him or else people might make a connection. It's too much of a risk. I also find that my own personality conflicts with taking advantage of those I know, but at the same time I'm not going to reveal the truth to them. I'll just have to friend random people again.

Managing a separate identity is an impossibility as well, because no matter how you try the actions of the other person will be influenced by your own biases and experiences. I also can't be someone who practices things I know nothing about, so in a way we are the same person no matter how hard I try. It's rather frustrating, but really ties into the online psychologist gender swap story. Pretty sobering stuff.

I'll admit that it was fun living a masquerade, though.

journla 7

I got worried earlier this weekend when I realized I had friended a hs friend who actually knew the guy whose picture I was using. Whoops! So I defriended him...anyway, my fakester made a lot more friends this weekend even though I didn't put that much time into him, proving that the digital social life moves on with or without me. So sad. I received my first event invitation with him! Apparently people just throw those out like candy. I have yet to receive a friend request, though, I think that's a good next step.

Journal # 7

Recently face book (FB) has been like a circus for me. With trying to keep up with my fake friend and trying to maintaining the real me it has been a lot of work. Many people have no idea (besides CMN 199) how hard it is to have a double life. For the past week I have had a lot of funny and unexpected encounters on FB. Many people from my past have been trying to enter back into my life by adding me on face book, I M, and by sending me all types of messages. I like the attention but it gets to be too much after awhile. This weekend I wasn’t really on FB because my better half came to see me all the way from NIU. I just spent my FB time posting various things and my feelings while I was with them doing stuff. I just like FB so much because it gives you an unlimited amount of FREE space to be you and post and chat about how you feel and how someone else can make you feel. For the past few days I have been using FB as a tool to keep people at bay and also close to me. FB is the spot to sit back relax and I M while watching your favorite movie or TV shows with the one you love.

This week I really didn't work with my fakester that often. I uploaded some new pictures of him, which felt weird. None of these pictures are of the same guy. I actually went on devientart.com and just searched “guy” and “boy” and looked for pictures that fit the Caleb’s image in my mind, appeared slightly anonymous (washed out, silhouette, high contrast, awkward angles, etc.), and most importantly so they all looked like the same guy. After becoming friends with over 240 people it’s doesn’t feel any different than having no friends. I don’t want to talk to any of them so as to not alert them that I really don’t exist. The other day two girls from my floor were walking around asking people if they knew Caleb Brown, they even asked me! I just told them no, yes I know, sneaky right? I also had a friend ask me at lunch if in my “Facebook class” we were making fake people to see how willing people were to be friends with others because a bunch of people with newly made profiles. I told her “no, but that’s really weird”, again, sneaky right? So people are already getting suspicious without much meddling in the first place. The most Caleb really does is update his status, and “like” other people’s statuses, and the occasional “happy birthday” message to his closest friends. At the beginning I was really excited to create this fake person, I think to make it more exciting I’d have to not worry about people wondering who I am and just start talking to people, and randomly commenting people’s status updates. Who knows, maybe I’ll try it next week.

Journal #7

This week, I've put more effort into increasing my fake-Sara's friend count, and it probably won't take too much longer to give me more friends than my real account has. One strategy I used was to add a bunch of people from Facebook groups that were created for the specific purpose of finding strangers with which to increase your friend count. However, at least one or two of those people I added have turned out to be weird spammers, based on the messages I received from them. So I probably won't use this method in the future, and instead I'll stick to adding students from U of I.

One slightly annoying fact is that virtually all of my friend suggestions from Facebook are people from Prairie Ridge High School. I don't understand why, since my account is not associated with that network. It would seem more logical for my suggested friends to come from the UIllinois network, or maybe Pekin High School (which Sara's account is linked to). In any case, now I have so, so many friends from PR that the trend will only continue... oh, well.

This evening, for the first time, I actually convinced a girl that I had met her before when really I hadn't. Usually I have sidestepped the question, or answered it somewhat truthfully (e.g., "facebook suggested us based on mutual friends!"), and people accepted that. But this time, I actually asserted that I had met this girl before. And she felt all awful for forgetting me... aaw!

Promt #7: Fake Friend

So I am finding that with my personality, this experiment is a bust. I have been trying to friend people left and right, but that's about all I'm doing. I've been considering it, and the reason why I don't think this experiment is such a success for me, is because I don't play very much on Facebook. The appeal of having a fake facebook seems like it would be to play and creep on people you don't really know but are dumb enough to friend you, and to play games and try to beat your own top score. But I don't have time to do any of that! I don't play games on my own facebook, I get to creep maybe once a month, and I use FB as more of an email type system to keep in touch with people I wouldn't normally get to keep in touch with.

I'm up to 28 friends, which I find is amazing because no body knows me! The funniest thing was when I friend requested my fake person because I got so sick of her being suggested to me. I feel that my fake person will be an excellent tool for me in the future. I have friends that ask other friends to friend people so they can be creepers, and now I don't need a go between! Yay me!

Journal 7

Unfortunately, as the toll of my Midterms had begun to hit me this week, my facebook persona of John Clayman failed to even sign one once this week. Yet John has merely passed his one week hump of "what is this facebook thing all about"..... many things are to await his creeping addiction to facebook.... the only question that remains is how.... just what will begin to fill the news feeds of myself and others. Farmville? Mafia Wars? Bumper Stickers and Care Bear Trading? Only time will tell...

As for me... I need to stop favoriting the weirdest videos on Youtube... the FBI probably has an entire record on me just for all the Everything is Terrible videos I favorited.

Journal #7

Oay, sitting here in the ACES library just checking in on Matt Cackley and I get this mean look from a woman as she walks past, like sitting on facebook in a library is a crime! Well for her information I am doing schoolwork and she can just go away. Not that she will read this or anything but I just thought I would address that issue, I don't think facebook should be so taboo. Like in Rhet on thursday we talked about how facebook is good for social network and buildnig social worth. It is an important thing, sure it is a fun thing but it can be very helpful in life.

But on to Matt Cackley: he is doing great, he hung out with his friends this week, and he made some tacos. Oh how I must live vicariously through Matt. I wanted to hang out with my friends and make tacos, but couldn't. Some people un-friended him and many more continued to ask who he was, except they all ask in messages, they never post anything on his wall, wonder why that is? Otherwise everything is peachy in the land of the Cackley, I really want something big to happen to him though. Like winning the lottery, or an earthquake, but that the kind of thing that might give him away, just like that story: when Joan went into the hospital and everyone started freaking out the ruse was pretty much up. So perhaps I should stay away from big events in Matt's life. snaps

Prompt #7: Identity continued, the story of the electronic lover

The following is an account from Sherry Turkle’s 1999 book entitled, Life on the Screen

The Story of the Electronic Lover

Alex was a male psychiatrist that became an active member on a CompuServe chat line. He chose the screen name “Shrink, Inc” and started calling himself “Joan” after someone he was chatting with assumed he was a female. Alex found that this female was more open with him than were his female patients and female friends in real life. He was stunned by the power and intimacy of the conversation.

Believing that he could use his psychiatry skills to help other women, he began regularly logging on as Joan. Joan was a severely handicapped Manhattan resident who claimed her disfigurement was a prime reason to never meet any of these cyber-friends face to face. Joan’s fighting spirit and ability to surmount her handicaps served as inspiration to many of her cyber-friends. She was even married to a policeman and their relationship gave many other disabled women hope that they too could be loved. Despite her handicaps Joan was described as outgoing, sunny, lusty and hilarious.

The relationships between Joan and her cyber-friends deepened. She engaged in lesbian cybersex with some of these women. She also set up some of her straight cyber-friends with Alex, a trusted psychiatrist and friend.

Eventually Alex decided that the situation was getting out of control. He had to make Joan die. Joan’s “husband” got online and informed the community that Joan was ill and in the hospital. Alex was overwhelmed by the outpouring of sympathy and love for Joan. Joan’s friend told her husband how important Joan was to them. They offered moral support, financial assistance, and names of specialists that could help.

Alex was in a panic, he couldn’t decide if he should kill off Joan because she meant to so many different people. Eventually he had Joan recover. Joan’s husband had been pressed to give the name of the hospital where Joan was staying so that cards and flowers could be sent. Alex gave the name of the hospital where he worked as a psychiatrist. One member of the CompuServe chat group called the hospital to confirm its address and discovered that Joan was no there as a patient.

The ruse began to unravel. Eventually all of the cyber-friends found out that Joan was not real. The story of Alex’s deception led to shock and outrage among all involved.

Questions:
Was the normally reclusive and inhibited Alex only pretending to have the personality of Joan?
What was his real personality?
Did Joan help her many disabled online friends who became more active because of her inspiration?
When and how did Alex cross the line from virtual friend and helper to con artist?

Journal #6 October 12, 2009

I realized how difficult it is to create a fake person. First a good name has to be chosen and a new email account has to be created. Than finding the picture. You also have to think creatively upon creating a person. Since Jason is new to facebook world, he has to gradually add friends and join groups and such to his interests. He needs to join some applications and start making some meat friends. Perhaps the other fakesters can be his meat friends.

On the other hand, my facebook has helped me fall asleep at night. If I stay on there long enough, I tend to feel sleepy. I have to go on it before I go to sleep, or I have trouble falling asleep. Otherwise, nothing really interesting has happened for me on facebook other than the fact that I am a creator of a completely unreal person.

Journal #6

(brendan m)
Making an alternate ego is so WIERD.
I get the same feeling when somebody embarrasses themselves in a movie or on television, I just get the shivers.

Living a lie is not what I'm used to, and in all honesty, I put off the experiment for as long as possible. I was actually having trouble typing for a while there....

It's hard enough managing my own life, with its downs and ups. Mostly downs.

But I digress. Guy Shoulders seems to be a very charismatic guy (haha) who just needs a push in the right direction. I think I will use him to friend people I can't stand, and so he will become a revenge character in a sense. That would be fun. See why I'm afraid of this? I'm getting carried away already.

As Guy gets more friends, he will leech their interests to complement his own, a true symbiotic organism. The individual will unknowingly add to the collective.... Guy Shoulders is a social "borg."

This is a very fun opportunity... but I hope nobody gets found out or hurts someone in the process. I'll have to be extra careful and polish up on the interests of Mr. Shoulders.

Journal #6 October 12th

Well my Facebook experience this week was mostly not my own but my “fakester” Caleb, and boy did he have a great week. In fact he made 231 new friends, only a few of which know his true identity. I found myself more excited to find out how many friends Caleb had acquired then to check my actual profile. But most of my rant about Caleb is responded to in the prompt this week so you’ll just have to go look there for more about him.

Also I have the approximate amount of time I spent on Farmville this past week…. About 60 minutes I rounded up every time too to make sure I wouldn’t undershoot the amount of time, most of the time it was only for 4 or 5 minutes at a time. I don’t think that’s too bad 1 hour out of 168? I know Katie will disagree, for sure.

PICTURES! Last weekend my mom came down for the Penn State game, so this weekend she put up all the pictures she took of my sister and I and my college friends tailgating and goofing off by the alma mater with our coco mero. Also we had a photoclub photo shoot last week and some of the pictures were posted this week. So Facebook was plenty picture-ific this week, which I always enjoy.

All in all though, it actually seemed that I spent a lot less time on Facebook this week, even with Caleb.

Journal # 6

Well FB has been a mess lately. Considering the fact that I haven't been online in a few days, I seriously wonder what could have been if I hadn't gotten online. I hate when people, that are your friends attack each other. And then you get caught up in the situation. That's how it's been for me these past few days. FB WAR GALORE!!! I cant talk to one friend with out the other getting mad. I THOUGHT boys were supposed to act like men and not little girls. My FB life is a muck but all is coming together well. My friend still isn't talking to me but oh well I can't fix that if he doesn't grow up. But yea FB is fun and exciting right now.

Journal #6

This week, as I began playing with my fake Facebook identity, I found it interesting how in some ways, I was less inhibited with my fade identity than I was with my real one. With my fake identity, I felt very cautious about adding people as friends because I didn't want to arouse suspicion. On the other hand, once my friend invites were accepted with my fake identity, I socialized with them much more easily. Because they didn't know who I really was, it wasn't so scary to talk to them. I got to test out another personality, in a way, and it was like being anonymous. It was kind of fun to try to play the part of a much more casual, chatty person.

Another thing I did with my fake Facebook identity was to start using FarmVille for the first time. Unfortunately, I forgot about it so often that I'd often come back to find my crops withered, and that discouraged me--it wasn't fun at all! Now I feel validated in not using FarmVille on my real account.

Finally, a third thing I noticed with my fake account was Facebook's captcha images, which I haven't seen in a long time. (They show up because I refuse to verify my account by providing a cell phone number.) Every single time I add a friend on this account, I have to pass the security check and prove I'm a real person by typing out the warbled words that are presented. I've found that this is quite an addictive behavior, to continually add the friend suggestions and type out the captcha letters. Who knows what crazy word combination will come up next!?

Journal #6

This weekend has been spent studying facebook. I was trying to think of cool things I could do with my fake facebook before I made it. I was analyzing people's pages to find groups and fan pages that my fake person could be a part of. So I was looking at groups like FUN! and the Allen hall page. I found this group named Random and it was created by a guy in London. I thought it was wonderful and I felt a stupid connection with the rest of the world. I totally expected one of my stupid friends to have been the one to have created the Random site, but instead it was someone I've never met or seen before, on a different continent and he just did something totally random. The idea that people all over the world to stupid crap when they're bored made me feel better. It make me think of an emotional de-baulkinization, because I felt very much NOT alone. I felt like I was part of a very large community.

I also had a fun time this week explaining to my roommate what we had learned about baulkinization and how it can be applied to social networking sites. It totally blew her mind and I really enjoyed sharing it. And now I'm off to go mess with my fake facebook some more. So much fun!

Journal #6

Work, work, work, work, work, work, work, that is the agenda for this weekend, so I haven't been able to have much time for facebookin'. So guess what I did, I spent extra long on facebook yesterday to make up for the loss this weekend. Isn't that sad, I'm such a loser. but... not on the topic of me being a loser, I'm going to target this right at Ann! NO FARMVILLE. I have recieved 5 requests for farmville friends in the past two days, this worries me, why are so many people signing up for this terrible terrbile thing, soon they will realize that it is running their lives and become mindless farmville zombies like Ann. Was that too much hate for one sentence? (I don't hate you Ann, I just hate your addiction.)

In other news facebook is becoming even more of an addiction since we started this whole fake person thing, I'm on twice as much, making posts for myself then for someone else, it's intense. But I wont talk about that now I'll save it for the prompt that I will probably be writing very soon, if something better doesn't come up... which it won't.

Facebook ad update, first one to pop up is for e-Harmony, why does facebook think I am so lonely, is it because they know I don't have a dog anymore?

I'm not gonna lie I just got distracted by facebook looking at photos that I have already looked at before. Oh this is depressing, I would take a break from facebook but I can't because I'm in a class about it, thats my excuse and I'm sticking with it!

Prompt #6: The Great Identity Experiment Part I; due 10/12

As I said in class on Monday I want you to create a fake profile on Facebook. Go nuts, completely make someone up, add a fake photo(s), etc. Make sure your fakester is different than you in some way (e.g., gender, race, etc). Interact with people. Get people to friend you. Be as mysterious and wacky as you want to be...nothing illegal please (e.g., no threats to public safety).

When you are done with this please write the prompt about your experience.
Who did you decide to be? Why? What are they all about? What kind of feedback did you receive? Did you feel creepy doing this, why? Etc.

Please note that we will be using your fakester for next week as well, so keep him or her active.

MAKE SURE YOUR NEW FRIEND SENDS ME A FRIEND REQUEST! I need to see the finished product.

Journal numba 6

So, Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Guess how I found out? Facebook.

First thing I saw when I logged on this morning was my friends' status, almost all of which were about Obama winning the prize. From my newsfeed I was able to see the opinions of many of my FB friends as well as find links to articles from all different viewpoints and view the conversations my friends were having with their friends/mutual friends. It was really interesting -- it was like there was such a great diversity of information and opinion that I never would have encountered if not for Facebook, including some of the changes they've made that I initially disliked. Makes me think.

Journal #5 October 5, 2009

This week I noticed a big difference between having a facebook account in high school and one in college. I realized that I care to be on facebook a lot more than I used to. This is because I like to know what people are doing more around here than I would back at home. Like, if I wanted to talk to a friend that goes to U of I, I would go on facebook to check if he or she has any status updates of some sort to see what he or she is up to. I also feel the need to be on facebook while I'm doing my homework. Facebook is a great distraction during homework. It is for sure that I am on facebook a lot more now that I am in college. You can also see if your neighbors are in their room by seeing if they are on Facebook chat. A lot of people go on facebook a lot more now since they are in college. It's addicting, what can I say.

Journal #5

(brendan m)
Out of curiosity (one of my great undoings), I decided to implement various facebook apps that I had steered from in the past. Flair was dumb. Quizzes usually reflect upon the devotion of the author, so they can be very good or very dull. Farmville looked like it could be addicting, but all the suspense is lost if you just look up what can be achieved.

In reflection, I find that facebook is "dangerous" if you are bored. If you have fifteen minutes before a class, that is a good amount of time to check up on people and reply to messages. If it's a Saturday or a long period of time and you have nothing better, then watch out. You should at least randomize wikipedia pages so you learn something.

Many facets of Facebook have already been covered- how it came to be, where it is now, and I additionally posted about where it's going. What still intrigues me is how often I miss something and find out about it months later- the sheer amount of people on facebook seem to keep it fresh all the time.

journal #5 october 5th

So lately my friends have been giving me a lot of crap about Farmville. They think I’m addicted, but I swear I’m not. So I’ve been challenged to write down how much time I waste this week playing Farmville starting today (Sunday). Hopefully I’ll remember to update you all on that next week. As for other face book stuff I feel like not much has happened. The only reason I’ve been on is because of Farmville or I’m just trying to procrastinate a little longer on my creative writing homework. Oh, and I really want to upload some more photos. I took some fun ones at the game of my roommate and I being eaten by mounds of those free pompoms. Facebook should come up with an application that has flash cards so you can study and be on Facebook. You know how some always walks up behind you and says something like “shouldn’t you be working instead of on Facebook” and you could respond “well actually, I am studying. I’m using Flash-study this great new app that helps me ace all my tests”. Ahh, if only.

Journal #5

One problem I've been having with Facebook lately is that it is simply too addictive. You wouldn't believe how many times I compulsively checked my homepage in the middle of writing my answer to the prompt. Checking Facebook interferes with my other homework, too, as well as with any other tasks I might be trying to accomplish. It hasn't even been a particularly interesting week on Facebook, with the vast majority of people's updates (that came to my attention) being merely quiz results or references to things I didn't know about. There's been no real purpose to refreshing the page, but for some reason, I haven't been able to stop. But this is nothing new.

I have been thinking about going through a "friend purge," as it would clear my homepage from all of those irrelevant quiz results and status updates. I think about a few people I know on Facebook, most of whom I met elsewhere online, who have only 40-some friends. In some odd way, I aspire to be like them... but I don't know if I could handle it, especially when I think of our class discussion about the importance of those guac and dairy friends. What if I get lonely with fewer than 100 friends? (Never mind the fact that I rarely have conversations on Facebook, anyway.) What if I lose connections that could help me in networking later on? What if I end up forgetting people I don't want to or shouldn't forget? *sigh* Sometime, I'll have to figure this out.

Journal #5 (To be read with a strong English Accent)

To continue one my “Facebook Experience” for this week, I cannot say it is all but enjoyable, insofar as being actually convenient. Most weeks I can place it as a fine commodity for which I can apply use to in keeping up on old friends and give myself the illusion that they are doing all fine and dandy; yet as for this week, it has just been, dare to say, inconvenient. For instance, I have not updated my profile picture for the last two years, being to the fact that the military school I had attended to receive my high school diploma held certain regulations on the length of a individual’s cadet’s hair. If anyone should look up my older pictures on Facebook ranging back to my freshman year, one should note the appreciation for which I held myself having hair longer than quarter of an inch. So returning to the topic at hand, this week I took the initiative to update my profile picture to something more relevant, a photo taken only a week ago. Unfortunately for myself, I was not properly groomed in the lower-facial regions surrounding my chin and upper lips. Thus comes the ever-annoying wall comment from my father (who’s use of Facebook still frightens and bewilders me) and two other friends, regarding the amount of facial hair I have seemed to grow. Let me remind you, good lads and lasses, the proper revisions of my profile avatar is not an element of my own narcissism or an example of the daily extravagances or shenanigans I continue to experience. No good sirs, it is simply a gift bestowed upon yourselves for the use of recognizing myself in the lack of visual presence we have shared in the time that has passed. Shame on your judgmental and secular socialism of all comrades being completely stripped of their facial extremities. I perchance happen to enjoy a week without touching such an inhumane razor or freezing shaving water and cream. You may retire with your naked faces and common snobbery, and strike F5 sporadically and nervously all throughout the night in hopes that you may find another victim for your common douche-baggery to feed upon, as I enjoy another exceptional cup of the good old Earl Gray with the Majesty Herself, you incompetent wit!

Journal # 5

OMG face book is a huge distraction. I was sitting in my room doing mucho espanol homework and I decide to log on face book to see what’s going on with everyone. So I minimize the window and go back to homework, and before I know it my computer starts making this thump sound like 5 times in a row, and to my surprise there are four different chat windows open. It was probably my fault for getting on and not focusing on homework, but what can you do….ITS COLLEGE. But yeah, face book has been bitter sweet to me for the past three days. I have people all over my page and have unexpected random friend requests. I must say some of the people have been worth adding, but others are more of a, “Do I know you?” Why do people that do not know you just have to have the urge to add you and not talk to you? I think that if you add someone and they don’t know you at least have the courtesy to explain who you are. But I’m lost right now. I need the help of my classmates, do I continue to add these unknown people or should I just decline??