We made our guest room a play room for Henry. It has a couch (sleeper sofa), foam rubber files covering the majority of the floor, and Henry’s toys. I think the crawling is the result of the extra real estate he now has in this room. Henry probably would have crawled sooner, but he didn’t have the space. The two dogs relegated to the first story made these floors off-limits. Are we too careful about germs?
Speaking of germs, this swine flu is a bit scary. And the scratch in my throat is not making me feel any better about it. Probably just my allergies.
So I am on Facebook nearly every day. I think I’m a little too attached to it. Then again, it makes me feel good to have some social contact with people I like. I would say at least half of my Facebook friends are legit. One thing I do worry about regarding Facebook is the fact that I post a fair amount to my profile, around 6-12 items a week. This in itself is not unusual, but most of my posts are related to interactive design. A lot of my Facebook friends are designers, so I don’t feel that there isn’t an audience for my interests. But the nature of my posts does make me wonder how many of my non-designer Facebook friends are uninterested or annoyed by my posts. Never thought I would be one for having a soapbox, but Facebook makes it too easy to broadcast oneself to people, whether they want to hear what you have to say, or not. Which is a good thing, because Facebook without posts and status updates would not be Facebook—it would be MySpace. I just wish I could know how many people have set me to “ignore”. I guess my real friends will put up with my shit no matter how uninteresting. In other words, it would be nice to know who my real friends are on Facebook.
On a related note, I’m not a fan of the “dislike” functionality that people are asking for on Facebook. The impact of this piece of functionality would be significant. Currently, Facebook is place where people are more or less friendly and positive to each other. People police themselves from saying anything too negative or controversial because it’s a public place. It’s rare to see real arguments between Facebook friends. People tend not to be negative out of a desire to keep things friendly. There is also the fear of being reported to the Facebook moderator. So responses to a post are either thoughtful and measured, or short and inconsequential, and most would rather say nothing than say something unkind.
With the option for “dislike”, it will be extremely easy to reject a friend’s post. This small rejection has very little impact on its own. But the ease by which people can post a rejection will result in multiple dislikes for unpopular posts. The psychological effect for the recipient of these small rejections will likely be cumulative, and this kind of mass rejection will feel like alienation.”Dislike” will promote self-editing, which kind of destroys the positive vibe of Facebook. It’s all good on Facebook.
