I'm trying to clear my tabs.

[silverflight8]

smallfandomfest has closed prompting and is accepting claims/writers are posting already! Here is the post for claiming, though you're not obliged to claim in order to fill.

For this round I put up a bunch of wildly different prompts (I can never remember what I wanted when it's time to prompt!) they're visible under "Kushiel's Legacy (Jacqueline Carey) here.

Review of Freakonomics is delayed because I need to read this paper first: "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime". It's accessible here. Levitt's idea about the landmark Roe v. Wade decision affecting the drop in crime rates in America during the 1990's is one of his biggest, most important statistical analyses. They have been thrown into doubt by two economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (C. L. Foote and C. F. Goetz), but I haven't read the paper yet. Reserving judgement.

From dreamwidth_meta is this post on "Why Google+ is still not working for humans", a fascinating look into social media and how we interact with it. He writes about how Google+ is just not designed for people to be comfortable with, and expands outwards into social media in general.

There is a high entropy factor in social networks. New groups are forming all the time, and old groups die out. Creating a group or adding people to a group is driven by a positive emotion. I care about my new friend, or my new Guys Night Out group, so it feels appropriate to spend the energy it takes to create the group or add the person to my friend list. But then later – when the person is not my friend, or the Guys Night Out plan has run its course – I no longer care about it. And because I don’t care, I don’t want to spend any energy on it - not even the energy to remove it. In fact, spending the energy to delete the group might inadvertently make the other group members think I cared about it, and make them feel bad for letting the group die, etc.


This is why social networking sites tend to decay over time. Because I never remove people, my Friendster or MySpace or Facebook account has a smaller and smaller percentage of meaningful relationships in it, and as a result it becomes less relevant over time. This is also why a new social network always feels somehow better than the last one. It has smarter people, more relevant conversations, etc. It is all because your social network in the new space has not had time to decay.

He touches on a lot of different subjects; I think it's well worth a read, even though the post was made several years ago when Google+ launched. The point he raised about like vs +1 makes me wonder about LJ's "friends" and DW's "subscribe/give access". This was a deliberate decision to remove the emotional connotations, but honestly, social media networks are called social for a reason. What's the phrase? Skin in the game. You don't make friend without putting some skin in the game. DW's method is more like a feed of someone's blog; I just absorb their stuff invisibly.

Comments

[spiralsheep]

Interesting.

LJ's "friends" and DW's "subscribe/give access". This was a deliberate decision to remove the emotional connotations, but honestly, social media networks are called social for a reason. What's the phrase? Skin in the game. You don't make friend without putting some skin in the game. DW's method is more like a feed of someone's blog; I just absorb their stuff invisibly.

Ironically, dw's split makes it feel more fraught to me because it involves two decisions instead of one. And, while I agree with you about the social consequences of the tech, I think it was tumblr that made reading a flist-equivalent without comment-interaction a normative model. /imo

I also think facebook, by making it normative to smoosh up all-the-meatspace acquaintances (friends/family/work), reinforced both the real-ppl/online-ppl psychological split AND the life-as-public-parade aspects that favour the most shallow of exchanges.

/DEEP THORTZ

[silverflight8]

Yes, precisely--now, do I give this person the subtle "I don't know you/am afraid of giving you information" (subscribe only) or full "let's be friends!!!" with both subscribe and access? Or the unnerving "give access only" which leaves the other party wondering if it's a pointed request to look at their stuff or something. To me there are 3 options (well four, mathematically, but "do nothing" isn't really relevant):

1: subscribe
2: give access
3: subscribe & give access.

And yeah. Oof.

You make a good point with tumblr! I wonder if Facebook influenced the pass-on-without-commenting model, just liking? I don't have an account on either (I am dinosaur) so I'm just speculating.

That makes sense. It's honestly the unholy mess of ALL MY RELATIONSHIPS COLLIDING that makes me wary of Facebook. I'm okay with keeping in touch with, say, the high school classmates that I've maintained friendship with (via phone or email or face-to-face). I'm okay with not being in touch with others. THAT'S OKAY.

[pipisafoat]

oh thank you for meta

also that some of his points about g+ are things that ... really work for me. i would be So Irritated with non-perfect circles! i actually much prefer the +1 to the like, possibly because my internets history and my high school environment were both conducive to "+1" becoming a part of my vocabulary to mean basically "me too" or "i am calling attention to this" or even sometimes just "i am paying attention and have related thoughts but can't be arsed to word them right now" (which all seems close enough to what g+ was aiming for), and i feel super-gross when i want to "like" a horrible thing on facebook to get more views.

Did you know that someone with an IQ of 55 is capable of doing repetitive tasks like housework, mowing lawns, laundry, etc., but would have a hard time doing critical reasoning tasks like working on a farm, harvesting crops, fixing fences, etc.? It is interesting. For someone with an average IQ, both of these types of tasks seem trivially easy so it is very hard to keep these distinctions in mind when designing things.
okay I can't do any of those farm things! it's a difference of my knowledge base. and someone who has been raised on a farm, even with an IQ of 55, might be perfectly capable of it because they've been doing it long enough that it's repetitive for them. so pardon me while i take issue with that.

and that the social entropy problem mentioned: that's every site, not just g+. i often don't remove friends from dw; i just don't interact as much, or i stop watching our common communities, or we wander off to different sites, or whatever. i take them out of my default subscription filter.
so i just don't see using that as an argument. you can move people on g+ to different groups as your relationship changes, i'm assuming you can also delete and/or secretly mute their posts or whatever, it's all just whatever.

in conclusion, i guess i am not human, according to this guy, because my actual only problem with g+ was the naming thing; g+ didn't have enough going for it to overcome that. similarly, facebook: i only joined when the [potential] professional benefits outweighed the ick factor of names and the herd mentality of Friend All The Things and the forced-gendering and the disgusting gendered ads (though i block all of those so whatever).

(side note: people totally make facebook accounts for deities and fictional characters and famous people. and that's been happening at least as long as that post's been up, so idk what he's talking about. most of my facebook friends have also friended god and/or jesus.)

[silverflight8]

From a design (like as in "eyeballs perceiving light" I mean) perspective I like the symmetrical circles.

Yeah, he branches out from G+ specifically when talking about entropy--each one is shinier than your present one, because everyone's active on the next one. I actually agree with his equation regarding energy and emotional connection; I know there are inactive people on my flist, probably lots, and I can't muster the energy and inclination to prune. Which ones are abandoned long enough to get rid of? I mean, they haven't deleted their journal... What if they come back? I don't have the energy to deal with hurt feelings. So they kind of moulder.

I think re: farm work that it's the difference between the two groups. Both sets of tasks would take knowledge and training, and I can't do the second either. But I think the difference is that the second requires making a decision? Like there are tasks that need to be done and you can learn to do them, but you also need to know when and to what degree to do it. Now that I look at it, it's not very well spelled out. "Working on a farm" is really kind of broad and I don't know what he's specifically talking about. Also I will stop talking about this, because I don't have nearly enough knowledge. (Earnest.)

Hm, no, well Facebook stops you from using fictional names. Or so I tried; to help with Support (the cross posting thing broke down ALL THE TIME) I once had an account. I tried to name it Livia Drusilla, but it rejected it.

Sorry, naming thing??

I can see a spot on the horizon when I will also be forced to make a Facebook account because of career reasons, but in the meantime, I'm resisting as hard as I can.

[pipisafoat]

tbh I am pretty horrid at laundry because I just don't get it? if you can't wash it in Pretty Much Any Water with Pretty Much Any Detergent, then don't let it anywhere near me. if it can't go in the dryer, i am guaranteed to pull out something that can and proceed to ruin the one that can't by forgetting it. i have burned holes in things ironing. and i'm not sure how to keep clothing from all turning the same color in the end.

also i'm pretty neurotic about my clothes-folding. especially shirts. i disallowed my mother folding my clothing when i was 8 because it wasn't good enough. (also because she folds underwear into a square. really? i'd rather just smush underwear in a drawer and then be like "ooooh i can wear green underwear today!" instead of like "let me pull on this square to cover my crotch")
(idk)

anyway idk.

running off to do things instead of replying more fully: acknowledged & happening anyway

[silverflight8]

Ironing *moans* *forcibly reminded of cadets*

HAHAHA YES. My old roommate (we did the laundry at once, to save tokens) would actually fold her underwear into these neat little balls. But I mean I just stuff mine away! All my underwear is basically the same so it doesn't really matter. I just reach in and grab one.

Well comments (thank god) aren't obligation so you don't have to :D

[twilightthief.livejournal.com]

I read parts of Freakonomics! I really enjoyed it :)

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

It's a really engaging book! With nonfiction I feel compelled to, you know, think about how accurate it is. And unlike other subjects, I actually have tools to do so, so now I'm trying to absorb that article.

[sherrilina.livejournal.com]

I read this article the other day--it was definitely interesting, thanks for sharing! Although I disagree with his analysis of FB--because while I do have a shit ton of friends there that I don't really know anymore or in some cases even remember how I know them, I also still add new friends all the time, so there are still meaningful people and interactions going on. And even with the random people, they will sometimes like a status or post anyway, like on politics...

In any case, I still have no idea what Google+ is all about, lol--or why anyone would use it. I hate that you do have to use a real name, I don't want my fandom account associated with RL people and my name like that...

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

Friends cuts are hard though. *avoids thinking about it* But yeah, I think if you're active on a platform you'll be adding people when you want to, it'll change too.

I'm so terrible at remembering where I met my friends. Oh, high school, but what year, no idea.

Crossing the streams, yeaaaaaah. Royal pain.

[sherrilina.livejournal.com]

Lol, I generally don't do friends cuts just because every now and then someone I haven't had comments from or spoken to in months will randomly comment on a post and make me reconsider the idea.

And heh, I didn't have a FB in high school (it was only just becoming a thing and was invite-only), so pretty much everyone I didn't friend from there I knew in senior year nor throughout HS. It's more college or people I met during like study abroad nor at random events or internships that are a bit fuzzy...and actually I have one FB friend that I don't even know personally, but who I knew through the Kushiel's Legacy group on FB (back when using FB for fandom was a thing, lol)--he friended me and I just did limited profile, but he generally likes my political posts, etc, so w/e. (Otherwise though I keep it only to people I have met in RL).

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

True! See, I'm always afraid they'll come back and then I'll have to make sure they know that I really meant to only cut them because I thought their account was never being used, and not that I hated their guts or anything.

Ah, that sounds sensible! I admit I've resisted having a Facebook profile up till now. I think I will probably be pressured into it when I start really earnestly looking for work, but for now, I'm happy not to. I really feel okay with not being in contact with all my high school classmates; they were generally pretty lovely, but I'm okay with not really having contact. Too many people!

There was a Kushiel's Legacy group on Facebook?! To me, Facebook sounds like Real Life Place so the presence of fandom there always takes me by surprise, haha.

[sherrilina.livejournal.com]

Oh well I use FB more for communicating with current friends and acquaintances more than high school people! FB messenger is very convenient, you can message people without needing to remember their email addresses. I often use it as a primary method of making plans with people (with the app I can do the messages without even visiting the main site). And I use FB to communicate with my former grad school classmates--we started a group at the beginning and used it to plan events and get-togethers and ask about assignments, and now we share news and museum tidbits with each other. So it is definitely useful for more than just nostalgia! And I learn a lot from the links and news people post...

Yep, before it all went public (and all group comments were Google searchable, lol), groups used to be a thing, and there was actually a lot of activity on the Kushiel group! People would start discussions about the latest books (the Imriel books were still coming out, bless, and the LOTR-like duology) and post photos of casting possibilities and talk about which RL equivalents of the countries in the book they've been too, etc. It was a lot of fun.

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

It definitely does seem very convenient (which is probably why so many people are on it!)

That's neat! Oh, google. Man. Then again, a lot of authors have Facebook pages to promote their stuff, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised!