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Abraham wrote:Yes, I know, I've touched a nerve with those who find FB to their liking.

As observed by others, if that's what you like, go for it...don't concern yourself with any further thought.

It's all good...

I'm not sure about your point here. FB is here whether you and I "like" it or not (pun intended). I actually give FB a reasonable amount of thought, both in what I read and what I post or comment about. If it doesn't trip your trigger, don't use it. I prefer to try to at least understand the current trends, even if I don't like them.

Gangum style is a cult musical item. I don't like it. I'm a classically trained musician and don't find any value in it. The rapper responsible has a history of anti-American comments. If you do a little research, you find out that the rapper has been over the top and has had at least one of his albums banned in Korea for its content and that the intended tone of the piece is a sarcastic comment on a suburb of Seoul. Less than 10% of the billions who have listened to it on Youtube understand any of that. At the same time, the music video that goes with it is funny and the tune, minus the lyrics is kind of catchy. There have been enough types of parody on the video worldwide to make it somewhat amusing. At the end of the day, it is no more stimulating than Jersey Shore, which to me also has no redeeming social value but it certainly has captured national attention. I'm always curious about the "why" of such situations. I've listened to Gangnum style audio and watched the video several times. It is cheesy. The rapper admitted on the TV that at least the dance is cheesy. I'm amazed at the instant success, including a Super Bowl add based on it. Would I trade it for a Mahler symphony? Not on your life but that doesn't mean that I'm going to ignore it. I'm fascinated about the fact that such a shallow piece of "art" has such world wide appeal. At least Snookie had some redeeming characteristics.

Abraham wrote:ryouiki,

Bingo, but FBers will squirm with your perspective, most likely with a "yeah, but..." response.

Another perspective I find disturbing is the whole "friends" thing. It's has a weird, cult like vibe.

I guess the equivalent is "followers" when it comes to (gag) tweeting...

It is a better solution than "reply all" like happens on e-mail. Friends are nothing more than an RSS feed. You become a friend and then get the RSS feed like data about what they post on FB. I can scroll past it all much more quickly than I can if I get individual e-mail messages every time.

I'm trying to stay current on the technology. I never got into the smartphone messaging because I wasn't willing to pay the monthly costs. I don't have Twitter figured out completely yet either but I have an account and am working with it. I'm comfortable with FB and find that it can serve some useful purposes. To me, it is somewhat like a gun. If you get careless with it, you can hurt yourself. If you use it as intended, use caution about how you handle it and don't get carried away, it can be beneficial and fun. My wife has an extended family across the country and no other way of sharing information has worked as well for that group.

Like others, I use my FB account for political purposes and find that it serves me just fine. I get to "like" and comment on things which then get shared with others who might delete the same information if I sent it to them as an e-mail. I'm not viewed as obnoxious for doing those as much as I would be for the e-mail. There are a lot of people who see my pro-2a stuff that would not likely have seen it any other way. I view that as a good thing.