So today let's talk about facebook. I'm not really surprised that it's taken off in the way that it has. I first used it in 2006, when it was still exclusive to universities - it had just expanded internationally. A friend who had been doing exchange in Italy was telling me all about it. I was using hi5 at the time, which sucked, so I was happy to be on facebook. The interface was good, and it couldn't really be customised to allow for garish pages, unlike hi5 or myspace. I realised the jig was up when they released fb to the public and overnight millions of people just jumped on to the site. It was a bit of a jump the shark moment. It also resulted in some interesting changes to the site. When I was first on, all profiles were public and you just added people at will (you didn't need to accept or reject friend requests). It was actually much more jovial than it is now - with hidden profiles, privacy settings, blocking people and what not. People didn't have hundreds upon hundreds of friends. You only added people you actually knew.
But what interests me about facebook is that in my time using it, I've seen its slowdown in terms of people in the 25+ demographic. It's probably because we've been on the site for 6+ years, and we have seen each major update to the site progressively take things backwards in terms of user interface and fun. This data mining stuff, advertising, people using it to stalk others and all that jazz. People would post so much of their lives on there, and people would interact. But with the introduction of stuff like the like button, people can just click something to acknowledge it, without having to actually engage. What a perfect metaphor for 21st century youth. What I also find interesting is how women interact with facebook. Everything is about oneupmanship in terms of likes, comments, exhibitionist behaviour and what not. But we all know where facebook came from. Mark Zuckerberg created the first iteration of facebook (facesmash) in Harvard after his girlfriend dumped him and he got drunk and pissed off and coded the site. That iteration was basically a 'hot or not' site compiled from pictures he had raided from Harvard's database. And you know what? Nothing's changed. It allows people to give in to their voyeuristic tendencies with people they know, as well as strangers. Is there no irony in this?! What about feminists who use facebook as a platform to decry male patriarchy and what not? The very platform they are using was built by a lying, sexist, misogynist, white, privileged male! Ahh the hypocrisy. And that's why ways of changing how people think will never work, because nobody has any principles. And going back to a plotline from The Social Network (a fictionalised account of the founding of facebook), about how Zuckerberg sent his ex girlfriend a friend request and kept hitting refresh to see when she accepted. Hahaha, what a load of shit! Their relationship ended acrimoniously and he badmouthed her on his blog - surely she would have found out. If this was now, she would have blocked his ass and he would be none the wiser. Unless she was a frivolous bitch and added him just cause he was famous. Who knows?
Oh man, it's really only Tuesday! Feels like Wednesday. This isn't good. The week isn't going by fast enough. And how sad is that? All we do, or seem to be doing is wishing our lives away. And why? Because of work. Trapped in jobs we don't like for way too long, for not much pay to do the things we actually want. There's no reward, there's no gratification, only emptiness. Then death. Wow, that was uplifting, haha!
Well I'm getting traction on some stuff, so I'm very happy with my progress. Let's see how much I can actually get done today. I'm having a good time. Although the tiredness has hit me out of nowhere. Like a truck! And it's not even 2pm. Still a good 3 more hours of this stuff to get through. I had the weirdest thought last night. I was envisioning something like google glasses, but it was more of an implant, whereby you could access the internet from your own eyes. The user interface was generated by thought, and I had the picture of uploading this blog. Strange, right?! I imagined seeing the blog and adding to a post just by thinking about it. So it worked more like a diary. Well putting aside the obvious ethical considerations (not to mention privacy), it was pretty handy and I was able to blog like I've always intended to.
The problem with applying for any roles anywhere is that typically human resources act as the gatekeeper. That's a massive problem because they don't hold the expertise in the field they are recruiting in, so how can they be best placed to shortlist candidates? I think recruiting should be left to areas that need the staff, and let HR deal with internal company issues. They don't have the skills or experience to be doing that sort of job. On another point, it's a bit annoying that the private sector has no set of principles when it comes to hiring. The issue is that public sector places have to respond to you, and most of the time they will offer you feedback on your application. Private sector places don't even have to contact you. Time just disappears and you have no idea what's happened!
Anyway, this has been a monster post and I'm happy, so I'll leave it there and continue on with my tasks. Day is almost up and I gotta hurry! Let's not make the same mistakes.
Take care, folks!
Joaquin out.
