Comments for Occam's RazR

Comment on The Facebook control you didn’t know you were missing by Ike

Ike — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 06:49:02 +0000

In reply to David McElroy. Facebook might have even more things shared if people weren’t bracing for the blowback. The alternative is sycophant echo chambers, and we see the effects of that, too.

Comment on The Facebook control you didn’t know you were missing by Ike

Ike — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 06:47:15 +0000

In reply to Gary. YouTube has content that people come back for. The algorithm exists, but isn’t the lifeblood. After all, you’re there to watch videos, so the ads are already there. No need to make the experience more sticky to survive.

Comment on The Facebook control you didn’t know you were missing by David McElroy

David McElroy — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 04:01:14 +0000

I eventually turned off comments entirely on my own site. I found that a lot of the response I got was toxic — by my standards — and what was even worse is that the comments made it clear that many people weren’t reading any more than the headline (or maybe the Facebook introduction to the article). I think this happens because people are faced with a flood of information, so they skim enough to see a few keywords and then they launch into their prepared talking points on the matter, whether that has anything to do with the point you made or not.

I have wished Facebook would allow us to turn off comments, but I agree that it will never happen. You’re right that the idea we were sold in the past was that everybody needed to “join the conversation,” but I think we would be far better off these days if more people were capable of simply reading people with interesting and nuanced thoughts — and keeping their mouths shut while they thought about what they read.

But for many reasons, that’s not going to happen. Social media is now all about spouting opinions, not learning to think about the world in a different way. As you know, I’m quite pessimistic that it can change in a positive way.

Comment on The Facebook control you didn’t know you were missing by Gary

Gary — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 03:41:53 +0000

Yeah, that would be a nice little feature to have. Even on YouTube, you can turn off the comments on videos. Facebook would suck a little less if it had this.

Too bad it never will. 🙁

Comment on The Facebook control you didn’t know you were missing by Ike

Ike — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 03:18:33 +0000

In reply to Dixon Hayes. The worst is when things erupt when you aren’t looking, and now you have friends waiting for you to “pick sides” in their squabble.

Comment on The Facebook control you didn’t know you were missing by Dixon Hayes

Dixon Hayes — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 02:13:37 +0000

I once had to block an anti-vaxxer from my Facebook page then go back and delete all her comments—and they were numerous—where she posted links to an anti-vaxxer page. Boy was that grueling. I thought blocking her would make those posts go away but it didn’t.

Comment on A little less social by Dave Dix

Dave Dix — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 09:31:53 +0000

Hey! I noticed too. Six weeks later. 🙂 Hope all is well.

Comment on A little less social by Ike

Ike — Sun, 27 Nov 2016 22:03:52 +0000

In reply to Tom Webster. It took a lot of work to decouple (including passing the torch for Facebook Pages I manage.) More than most would expect. Eight days later, you are the first to notice that I'm no longer there. Which has been a revelation to me about the need for Presence as Validation.

Comment on A little less social by Tom Webster

Tom Webster — Sun, 27 Nov 2016 19:49:39 +0000

I just tried to tag you on a post (a stupid Rush meme) and, when I couldn’t, discovered that you had done this. I’m sorry Facebook has brought you so much pain. As David Foster Wallace once said, the only thing we can control is how we think about things. I respect that this is part of how you can, in fact, control how you think about things.

Comment on Five Years Talking by Bill Sledzik

Bill Sledzik — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 13:38:21 +0000

Ike: I don’t often see your work for Alabama Power — though I did on that fateful day five years ago. But I have watched your work in social media closely for a long time and have always drawn inspiration from your wit, your ideas and your writing style. So when you talk about “mothballing” the essays, I get a little sad. At the same time, my own blog will hit the 10-year milestone in September, and like you, I’m thinking it’s time to find a suitable archive and to move on to the next thing — which in my case is most likely retirement. Since you were kind enough to take on hosting my blog a few years back, ToughSledding will follow your lead to the mothballs!