Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Is Facebook just for "feel good" stuff?

Is Facebook just for "feel good" stuff?

Yeah, we post pictures of our cute kids and grandkids, and Easter and Christmas, and birthdays and baptisms and Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs and just old fashioned get-togethers with friends. Our witticisms and our friends' repartees. Oh, I'm so happy. I'm so sad. Hoping you're doing okay. I'm making cookies. Blah, blah, blah.

Now granted there is a time and a place for all this "feel good" stuff. But life is not always a bowl of chocolate covered cherries. There is some serious shit going on out there. Today I came across this article regarding Governor Palin's nomination of Wayne Anthony Ross for attorney general. Ross, a colorful lawyer and longtime Palin ally who sports his initials, W.A.R., on his Hummer’s vanity plates, allegedly declared during a speech before a 1991 gathering of the “father’s rights” group Dads Against Discrimination, “If a guy can’t rape his wife, who’s he gonna rape?”

Mr. Ross responded with a letter to legislative members. Excerpt:

If I recall correctly, the only time I ever addressed this group, if indeed I ever did address them, was at a Denny’s restaurant on either Benson and Denali or on Dimond and the Seward Highway. To my best recollection the only time I have been in the Denny’s on Benson and DeBarr was to attend meetings of the Armed Services YMCA...

"If I recall correctly...". "If indeed I ever...". "...either Benson and Denali or on Dimond and the Seward Highway." "To the best of my recollection...". "The only time...". Zeez, Mr. Ross, which is it? You're starting to sound like Alberto Gonzalez.

But, back to my original question: "Is Facebook just for "feel good" stuff?"

I've only been using Facebook for a few weeks but I like the ability to quickly post pictures and thoughts, and make comments, and just generally socialize. When I discovered the Facebook Share option I thought I'd died and gone to heaven (figuratively, of course). A nice little icon. A nice little description. Space for a comment (but not THAT much space). One click and you've linked a post to your profile.

Since I have a small circle of friends that periodically email each other articles we think may be of interest, I thought that Facebook would be the perfect way to share this stuff. No sending of emails and clogging up everyone's inbox. Friends receive notifications of your post. Friends can choose when to look at your posts. They can even turn off (hide) your posts. Fast. Convenient. Perfect.

Well, almost perfect. For starters I just discovered there is some kind of limit to the number of characters you can put in a comment. No warning. No explanation. You just can't type any more. Or, more to the point, you can type all you want but the next letter just replace the previous. Nice.

Also, no formatting allowed. No bold. No italic. No identation. No nuttin'.

Am I soured?

Yes, indeed.

Am I giving up?

Not completely.

I guess I'll do the big stuff here and just link to it on FB. We'll see how it goes...

Good luck, Sarah.

5 comments:

Gene said...

I had doubts about facebook for a while. I posted on my doubts.

But, for what it does, it does it pretty well.

I see that it doesn't do debate well.

The anonymity of email verses the public wall of facebook is not a place most people are willing to leap out and take credit or discredit for their opinions founded well or otherwise.

What matters to me on facebook is I am in communication with several people who's mindset is much like my own. They encourage me. They tell me I am not alone. They inspire me.

For that reason, I like it for what it is.

And, yes, I too have turned off people who's posts I don't want to see. I don't mind a contrary opinion as long as it's civil. A few that I allowed as "Friends" were determined to be uncivil.

DELETE.

If life were only that easy to control.

HA.

BUT, I didn't delete YOU. I saw this post didn't I. As long as we are all civil.

And, don't worry about Sarah. She'll be just fine. That scares the heck out of Liberals. They know that.

No one YET has captured the spirit of the age as well as Sarah Palin. I have the Palin Bumper Stickers on the back of my Pickup Truck. Proud to be a Palin Supporter.

I heard she ran for something with some guy. I wish he would have won. FOR HER.

you know who, don't you said...

the only spirit of the age that b&^#% has captured is white oppressed(excuse me, submissive) false-feminist ambitious power grabbing anti-nature self-promoting . . . oh, dang i forgot where i was going with this. she will more than self-destruct before 2012 and some unknown will run while obama is reelected and she will be long forgotten by the time someone real has to run against obama's successor. the conservatives have been taken over by the religious pretend-to-be-right and most real conservatives would rather vote liberal or not vote at all before they will put another religious nut in office.
facebook sucks. it has all the maturity and potential for crap that the halls of junior high school has. who the hell cares about the results of what quiz you took today or that you wasted your time taking online quizes. i used to take those quizes in seventeen magazine and then i grew up.
oh i AM and angry b%^#$ today, aren't i?

Gene said...

MMMMM,

Somebody's been in the drug cabinet again.

Yikes.

Chuckles said...

Gene - So who, exactly, is this "you know who, don't you" person? Anyone we know?

I'm afraid Governor Palin is like an old battered and bruised football gathering dust in a corner of the closet. It had its moments of glory, spinning through the air into the sure hands of a receiver. Plunging through the line, shedding tacklers left and right. But now slowly deflating and diminishing into a flattened piece of old leather.

Time will tell...

Gene said...

"Time will tell..."

YEP

And as the old Rolling Stone song says, Ti-i-i-ime is on my (her) side, yes it is....

I have never seen so much fear of ONE little gal from the left in my life. IF she didn't matter, if she was no count, do you think she would get the intense anal examination she does? Google her name in Google News. Why the high resolution microscope if she is old and worn out?

Then just for the heck of it, Google say, OH, I don't know. Pick one. No one else gets the exam she does. No one kicks a dead dog.

She represents a component of the culture that I am part of, it's not insignificant except to those who decide to hide their head in the sand.

Sarah's going to be just fine. For that I am glad.