Professional Trolls On Facebook

[Stormkhan]

Every time I think, hmm, maybe I should start using "Like" buttons (on here or elsewhere), stuff like this makes me feart.

Don't worry. Just use personal judgement.
The vast majority click on buttons because a) it costs them nothing to do so, b) they don't understand about analytics and such, c) they actually do understand and wish to help. It's a matter of ... well ... informed action.
There's several You Tube channels where I like the presenters, I like the videos and I have considered where they are coming from. I will click "Like" because I like the video. I click "Subscribe" because I wish to support said channel. I comment because I have something to say, even if it's a lighthearted quip. But I won't watch a video, be interested, then - well - invest any more attention until I know further.

 

[escargot]

Caution: Bruce Willis is dead all along

Caution: Woman turns out to be a man

Too soon?

You were safer when your specs were down the back of your mate's settee.

 

[Peripart]

You were safer when your specs were down the back of your mate's settee.

Have I missed something?

 

[escargot]

Caution: Bruce Willis is dead all along

Caution: Woman turns out to be a man

Too soon?

Caution: It sinks.
Caution: Too many of them.
Caution: He's not real.
Caution: They're all dead.
Caution: It's a cult.
etc

 

[GNC]

Don't worry. Just use personal judgement.
The vast majority click on buttons because a) it costs them nothing to do so, b) they don't understand about analytics and such, c) they actually do understand and wish to help. It's a matter of ... well ... informed action.
There's several You Tube channels where I like the presenters, I like the videos and I have considered where they are coming from. I will click "Like" because I like the video. I click "Subscribe" because I wish to support said channel. I comment because I have something to say, even if it's a lighthearted quip. But I won't watch a video, be interested, then - well - invest any more attention until I know further.

I don't watch that many YouTube videos, I must admit. However, if clicking like produced a cash reward, I might reconsider it. In fact, how about cash incentives for likes on here?

 

[catseye]

Caution: Bruce Willis is dead all along

Caution: Woman turns out to be a man

Too soon?

To be fair, these are 'spoilers' rather than trigger warnings. Unless you've taken out a contract on Bruce Willis recently, in which case...

 

[catseye]

I don't watch that many YouTube videos, I must admit. However, if clicking like produced a cash reward, I might reconsider it. In fact, how about cash incentives for likes on here?

(quickly checks number of 'likes' recently received)...What a great idea!

 

[Peripart]

To be fair, these are 'spoilers' rather than trigger warnings. Unless you've taken out a contract on Bruce Willis recently, in which case...

True, although at some level, I was trying to make a point about the small but annoying number of people who seem to get "triggered" by anything that doesn't sit with their worldview, and by reductio ad absurdam, anything surprising. Hence my joke about any sort of twist needing a warning.

If I needed to explain that, it probably wasn't as funny as I had hoped!

 

[escargot]

My introduction to fb was when a high school friend now living abroad suggested we we start a group for the high school class so we could talk. Good. Then several people I had nothing to do with in HS friended me and I didn't know enough to ignore them and to disable notices. The day after, one of them in Colorado posted that she was settling in on the couch watching a movie. Partially good. Then she talked about the movie. Not good. Then she posted about how she loved hot chocolate and I found the unfriend button. And then I remembered what she does for a living - she's a nuclear physicist.

Nuclear physicists deserve downtime too.

 

[Lb8535]

Nuclear physicists deserve downtime too.

More than many others. But they are not engaging their significant brains if they assume that anyone but their mom cares enough how they like their hot chocolate to spend time reading about it..

 

[catseye]

More than many others. But they are not engaging their significant brains if they assume that anyone but their mom cares enough how they like their hot chocolate to spend time reading about it..

I have a wonderful friend who lectures in women's studies. She had a baby. Guess what her entire Facebook feed is full of now...

 

[Lb8535]

I have a wonderful friend who lectures in women's studies. She had a baby. Guess what her entire Facebook feed is full of now...

I get it. At that point having sent congratulations and my standard baby present (a package with a big soft stuffed animal and a good bottle of wine) I would ignore her for a while. I tried knitting a baby blanket once a long time ago and she went into labor six weeks prematurely and you know what I did for the next two days, got callouses.

 

[escargot]

More than many others. But they are not engaging their significant brains if they assume that anyone but their mom cares enough how they like their hot chocolate to spend time reading about it..

That's how Facebook friend groups are, light relief. People chat about trivia.
She'd probably invite you to her nuclear physicists group if she knew how clever you are.

 

[catseye]

That's how Facebook friend groups are, light relief. People chat about trivia.
She'd probably invite you to her nuclear physicists group if she knew how clever you are.

There's trivia and there's EVERY SINGLE BLOODY POST BEING ABOUT A BABY YOU DO NOT KNOW AND HAVE NEVER MET! Nobody but mum and dad (and possibly the grandparents) really care how cute little Sally is whilst eating spaghetti and tomato sauce.

My friend used to post about post feminist doctrines. Now it's all how many teeth little Sally has got and every 'cute' mispronunciation she comes out with.

 

[escargot]

There's trivia and there's EVERY SINGLE BLOODY POST BEING ABOUT A BABY YOU DO NOT KNOW AND HAVE NEVER MET! Nobody but mum and dad (and possibly the grandparents) really care how cute little Sally is whilst eating spaghetti and tomato sauce.

My friend used to post about post feminist doctrines. Now it's all how many teeth little Sally has got and every 'cute' mispronunciation she comes out with.

When you meet new parents in person they're usually full of the same stuff so you'd expect them to do it online too.

 

[Lb8535]

That's how Facebook friend groups are, light relief. People chat about trivia.
She'd probably invite you to her nuclear physicists group if she knew how clever you are.

i don't need fb to find me light relief, and there is a more serious issue underlying. Because communications are 24 hours and international, we are no longer allowed to not care or not be interested. This is not a crime or even a sign that we are bad people. I don't care except in the most philosophic terms about anything that a high school classmate who didn't even know me in high school is doing, let alone minute by minute. If she feels that close to me, where has she been for the last 50 years? Please don't expect that because I can hear about you (that's you in the general sense, not you) 24 hours a day no matter where you are, I want to. And I will afford you the same courtesy. We use these disconnected and distant communications as a substitute for spending real time really communicating with and caring about people. Instagram vacation photos to people you barely know, automatic notices to everyone in your computer about where you had lunch? I just made a gift in memory of someone who helped me enormously when I was in my 20's whom I hadn't seen for 40 years. When I finished on line the charity asked me did I want to share on facebook. Why?

 

[escargot]

i don't need fb to find me light relief, and there is a more serious issue underlying. Because communications are 24 hours and international, we are no longer allowed to not care or not be interested. This is not a crime or even a sign that we are bad people. I don't care except in the most philosophic terms about anything that a high school classmate who didn't even know me in high school is doing, let alone minute by minute. If she feels that close to me, where has she been for the last 50 years? Please don't expect that because I can hear about you (that's you in the general sense, not you) 24 hours a day no matter where you are, I want to. And I will afford you the same courtesy. We use these disconnected and distant communications as a substitute for spending real time really communicating with and caring about people. Instagram vacation photos to people you barely know, automatic notices to everyone in your computer about where you had lunch? I just made a gift in memory of someone who helped me enormously when I was in my 20's whom I hadn't seen for 40 years. When I finished on line the charity asked me did I want to share on facebook. Why?

u OK hun?

 

[Lb8535]

u OK hun?

I'm about as dandy as the rest of us, and I really object to people thinking that I want to see twitty stuff. I understand that new parents can't control it. It's chemical. But really, do you want me to describe to you what I'm eating tonight? Or do you want to talk about something that, you know, means something? Like how are you dealing in a different way now with uncertainty. And if it's serious, we could even make eye contact albeit these days on skype. But please please don't send me so-called communications about how you like your hot chocolate. Or even where you had lunch. Because there's so much I can be doing rather than opening and reading those messages.