7 Jun
2012
7 Jun
'12
1:18 a.m.
On Jun 6, 2012, at 7:59 PM, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 06/06/2012 10:50 AM, Holm Tiffe wrote:
I can't stand them myself.
Hmm, it seems, that I don't even need
something like IRC..
I do have a phone flaterate, it is much less hassle to call the person on
the phone...
Holm, my friend, this is one area in which you and I must disagree. I
hate phone calls. So disruptive. Our opinions on social media are very much the same,
though. I have a
Facebook account, but mainly to find and keep in touch with people who
haven't figured out "real email" yet; mainly old childhood friends.
Overall, my position is that I'm a busy guy, and I will NEVER have
enough free time for Facebook. It's little other than a huge time sink
for people who don't have anything better to do. :-(
There are other legitimate uses. For example, it's by far the easiest
way I have of sharing pictures of our 9-month-old daughter with family
and friends, and that's something I find valuable. It's also a very
handy way of organizing social events between myself and my friends,
but I'm willing to concede that point as a generational thing; I am,
after all, roughly a generation younger than most people involved in
this conversation. Facebook came out right in the middle of my
college years, so it became the de facto method of communication
between those of us who wanted to stay in touch.
But yeah, it can be a huge time sink if I'm not careful, especially
because I have the attention span of a goldfish. There's a useful
utility for OS X (with spinoffs for several other OSes) which lets
you block certain sites which may prove to be a distraction for a
certain amount of time, with no option to turn it off, called "Self
Control". It just manipulates the firewall to redirect said sites to
localhost, so if you're clever, you can work around it, but it does
break the instinctual "gotta check Facebook every five minutes" habit
quite well. It's a case of locks keeping honest men honest. :-)
- Dave