Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Category: Social / IM / Chat

  • Feed algorithm unreliability

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    I keep seeing where people will post on social media about an event happening now to within hours, but it doesn’t appear for me until after the event even days later. It’s not that I wasn’t checking. It’s that the algorithm didn’t present it to me until that point. Back when I had the energy,…

  • Facebook cloning

    Someone copying the name of another person on social media is annoying, but I don’t think of it as hacking. Anyone can make an account. Social media companies made verification methods precisely because clones are easy to make and when do so about someone famous, it could lead to a devaluation of a brand. For…

  • Federated social media

    Back in April, I learned about Mastodon. I made an account, but never used it. I made another and started using it. People are leaving Twitter. Many of those to Mastodon, so I will find them. You can find me there as @ezrasf@mas.to , so connect with me. The concept is interesting. There are many…

  • Juggling Social Roles in Social Media

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    Sociology has a concept of us holding multiple social roles. At home, I am both a husband and a father. With relatives, I am a son, nephew, or cousin. At work, I am a supervisee, mentor, subject matter expert, or organization historian. Things get a bit more undefined out in the wider world, but I…

  • Friendship Placebo

    Social media plays with our minds in allowing us to stay connected to old friendships. We feel like we are maintaining the relationship. But, it lacks something. Social media tends to bring out our worst. We portray ourselves at our best. We compare our worst to others’ best. Assumptions, gossip, and negativity abound. It really…

  • The Social Media Evolution

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    The Make Me Smart Podcast episode 96: Do it for the ‘gram had an interesting quip that Instagram was what the Facebook News Feed was before it got corrupted by ads and political arguments: the trivialities of our daily lives. All social networks became popular because of trivialities. “What’s on your mind?” THAT is what…

  • Freelove != Free Love

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    Got an email from Academia.edu saying, Dear Ezra, Alessandra Carneiro uploaded a PDF that mentions the name “Ezra Freelove”. They have a premium service where you can buy access to mentions of your name. I know of only one mention in a VSU paper as a thank you for my work there in IT in…

  • Pseudo-Following

    There are a handful of people who post interesting things, but I cannot stand the 99% of what they post. Is it worth the pain sifting through thousands of crap posts to reach the one gem? I discovered that I have a strategy for this dilemma. Follow someone who reposts the interesting stuff. Let them…

  • Fake News

    There is an article floating around with a title, “Fake news sharing in US is a rightwing thing, says study.” I have not clicked on it because it sounds like fake news. The Guardian typically has clickbait titles. Also, I am annoyed because if I wanted to do a study on how susceptible liberals are…