Tag Archives: Facebook

Top Ten Tuesday! The Top Ten Reasons to Hate Social Media

Posted on June 24, 2014 | 14 comments
Picture credit: thesocialskinny.com

Picture credit: thesocialskinny.com

10. Bloggers: Ugh. We all think we’re funny, or smart or interesting. Sometimes we are and often times we’re not.This doesn’t apply to me of course, and you guys are all great, really. Shhh…it’s the other bloggers I’m talking about.

9. Twitter snobs: “Oh, you just don’t understand Twitter.” Have you heard this? Really? Sorry, I didn’t realize that Twitter was so complicated. I thought it was just a bunch of dolts making jokes. How could I have been so wrong? So far I haven’t heard of anyone on Twitter curing cancer or splitting the atom. I love my Twitter, but some people think they’re worthy of deity status because of how many followers they have or how many retweets they’ve gotten. Being popular on Twitter is about as impressive as being popular in prison.

Picture credit: themetapicture.com

Picture credit: themetapicture.com

8. Pinterest: Holy crap! I seriously do not care that you pinned a new recipe on your board. What the hell? Why couldn’t you just stick it on Facebook? That’s where all the old people are anyway.

7. Facebook winners: These people think Facebook is a contest to see who has the most fabulous life. If your life is that great why don’t you go live it instead of spending all your time on Facebook?

6. Facebook whiners: Look, sharing some personal stuff is fine. It’s what bonds us together sometimes. But all the time? Hello, boundaries! Guess what? We’re not all here to be your therapist and this isn’t group therapy. Suck it up and pay a professional.

5. The selfie: Truth be told, I’ve taken a few selfies in my time, but in general you just look desperate for attention.

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4. Social media insecurity: Do I have enough followers? Did I get enough likes and comments? I don’t remember, how did we measure our self-worth before social media? That’s right, we didn’t. We just lived our lives and tried to buy a better car than our friends.

3. Time: We all had more of it before social media. Before social media, man went to the moon and found a cure for polio. What have we done since social media? Mostly stupid stuff like drones delivering pizza and inventing the selfie. Seriously though, how cool would a selfie on the moon be? You could have the Earth over your shoulder…Neil Armstrong was a moron for missing that opportunity. He’d probably be more remembered for inventing the selfie.

2. I have to network on LinkedIn: Up until about 5 years ago I had my job, I did it and if I didn’t like it I sent a resume’ somewhere. Now it’s all about networking! Who do you know? Where do you know them from? Who am I connected with? Who are my friends connected with? Who will endorse me? Jeez, work has become work outside of work.

1. Somebody said something mean about…my blog post, my Facebook update, my picture, my political opinion that I voiced, blah, blah, blah, wah, wah, wah. Everyone has an opinion and now they get to broadcast it. There’s people I used to like in real life, and then I became privy to their opinions on everything through social media.

What are your pet peeves about social media?

Ironically, if you enjoy #ThePhilFactor please share it by Facebook, Twitter or reblogging. Have a great Tuesday! ~Phil

 

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Posted in Humor, pop culture, Social Media, Top Ten, Twitter

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The Anti-Social Network: Let’s Fix Facebook, If Only for a Day

Posted on March 8, 2014 | 6 comments

Last year I started the Facebook National No Re-Post Day and in spite of my much smaller number of readers the idea caught on and was shared across the interwebs. Like the Groundhog, it’s time for it’s annual appearance. Read the rest and share.

Facebook

Just last weekend I noticed it. I looked at my Facebook page and I thought, Facebook is broken. This isn’t the Facebook I signed up for. When I joined Facebook I wanted to talk to people. I wanted to share with family and friends. I wanted to know how many kids you have and if they made honor roll.  Is junior in the school play or did Susie make the soccer team. I wanted to see your vacation pictures. I wanted to know what everyone else is doing this weekend or if you saw that movie and liked it.

What I did learn when I looked at my Facebook last week was that Alan likes Tough Mudder. I also found out from Joni’s  your-ecard  that sometimes she takes baths because it’s harder to drink wine in the shower. I also learned from Facebook that there are a lot of kooky pictures in favor of gun ownership. I discovered that Larry is really good at Candy Crush.  Apparently Samantha has a gambling problem because she goes to the Facebook casino almost every day.  I also had no idea Michael was a farmer that needed me to buy him a pig. Apparently George Takei has a lot more friends than I do. Whether I wanted to know or not, I now know that three of my friends like Dick’s…. Sporting Goods.  Occasionally you may even see stuff about a friend being an indie author and posting the link to his blog all the time.

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Facebook used to be the social network. We would actually post things about our lives and comment on or ask questions about the pictures and stories our friends and family posted. Now when I visit Facebook all I seem to see is an endless string of  re-posts and advertisements my friends have signed up for.  I’m as guilty as anyone. Some days I want to join in the Facebook fun but I don’t have anything new going on in my life so I’ll gladly borrow a bit of brilliance from Sulu or an e-card and re-post it on my wall hoping to get a laugh or a like.

In my title I suggested that we fix Facebook if only for a day. My idea is the Facebook National No Re-Post Day on Facebook. It will be a day when we as the citizens of Facebook get back to our roots. Let’s take one day, on a weekend, when we do most of our online communicating, and spend the day not re-posting or liking ads but sharing on Facebook. Let’s post pictures of ourselves and our kids. Let’s talk about memories of high school. Let’s tell everyone where we’re going on vacation. Maybe we could even share our mood using words instead of a emoticons.  This year the date is Saturday March 22nd as National No Re-Post Day. 

Irony of all ironies though, if we’re going to make this work we’re going to have to re-post this a lot. Enough to get a viral thing going in two weeks. I will personally take responsibility to post this to George Takei, because if he’s on board it’s a done deal.  I need all of you to do the rest. Below this hit the Facebook Share button and encourage your friends. If you’re on WordPress hit the re-blog button. If you’re on Twitter please re-tweet. Follow me on Facebook or follow my blog for reminders leading up to the big day. I’ve also created an event on Facebook that you can join. Just click here to join the Facebook National No Re-Post Day. With a few clicks we can all take back Facebook on Saturday March 22nd. (Yeah, I’m completely serious. Let’s do this)

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Posted in Current Events, pop culture

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You Down with EBB? (Everything BUT Bieber)

Posted on January 25, 2014 | 5 comments

Hey everybody, guess what? Other stuff happened in the world this week besides Justin Bieber’s arrest. No, seriously, the rest of the world kept going and did their own thing. I know, shocking, right? It’s probably also a shock to the Biebs that the world didn’t stop for him.

President Obama Endorses Marijuana?

obama-weed

In what I consider a colossal lack of good judgement, President Barack Obama seemed to support the legalization of recreational marijuana. “I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol,” the President told The New Yorker’s David Remnick in a lengthy profile published on Sunday. President Obama went on to admit openly to his use when he was younger and said that it’s “a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life”.

Idiot! I’m not saying whether I agree or disagree with him. I am saying that he just undermined himself as a parent and undermined law enforcement and judges across the nation. Good luck trying to ground your daughters for smoking pot in the West Wing now.

The Stoner Bowl

super bowl

Seattle and Denver will play in the Super Bowl next Sunday. The largest cities in the two states that have legalized recreational marijuana use.  Thank God the game isn’t being played in either one of those states. Can you imagine the enormous cloud of pot smoke over that stadium? I’m pretty sure that if somebody were to measure the Dorito consumption rates by state next Sunday those two would lead the survey by a mile. In Denver I guess the legalization gives new meaning to the phrase “Mile High City.”

Facebook is for “Old” People

oldfacebook

Above the picture I put the word ‘old’ in quotes to make it seem like the old part is being exaggerated by all these news articles saying that kids are leaving Facebook because it’s too full of their parents and their parents friends and relatives.  Of course the kids are leaving Facebook! Every parent I know of demands that their kid “friend” them on Facebook or let them have their password so they can spy on them. Guess what adults who don’t want the NSA reading your texts and e-mails? Yup, you’ve become the NSA to your kids. Jeez! If anyone was that intrusive into any part of our lives we would hide from them too. If you’ve got Facebook stock I recommend selling immediately because the next generation is going to grow up not using Facebook much. Where are the kids going?  Well, don’t tell them I told you, but I’ve been doing some spying and the cool kids are hanging out on Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram. Instagram is starting to get a lot of “old” people creeping in there too, so the kids are probably moving on. BTW, if you’re the parent of a teenager, they’re using Snapchat to send naked pictures to each other, so get that app off their phone, although I’m sure Barack Obama would say it’s ok.

In the links in the previous paragraph please click on the NSA. It’s really their site and I’m sure they love when I link my blog to it. Also, the Twitter link takes you to my Twitter, so feel free to follow me. If you’re not familiar with Snapchat, the link is to an article about it.

As always, you know that sharing is caring, so if you enjoyed #ThePhilFactor please share by hitting the Facebook, Twitter or other social media button below. Have a great weekend! ~Phil

picture credits: http://www.6minutez.com, http://www.alphamaletribe.com and http://www.techcrunch.com

5 Comments

Posted in Current Events, Humor

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Twitter People vs. Facebook People

Posted on November 2, 2013 | 21 comments

FBvsTw

Since 2004 Facebook is the brand name associated with social media. Twitter has been something of a much maligned younger sibling in the social media world since it stumbled home drunk two years later.  That is the difference between Facebook people and Twitter people.

On Facebook everyone is a polished, Cosby Show/Brady Bunch version of themselves. On Twitter everyone seems to be the sarcastic, hungover,  Jackass version of themselves.

There’s a chance Mark Zuckerberg will sue me for using the word Facebook 800 times in this blog post. Twitter will buy me a shot and retweet the link to this 800 times.

If Facebook and Twitter were movies, Facebook would be The Little Mermaid and Twitter would be The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

On Facebook you can follow all manner of celebrity but you’re still held back by a velvet rope. It’s a one way street of communication. On Twitter, if @AmandaBynes says she just set a fire in her driveway I can suggest she throw water on it and she might even thank me.

Twitter-vs-Facebook1

@shaylamaddox: Twitter makes me like people I’ve never met and Facebook makes me hate people I know in real life

On Facebook if George Takei posts a hilarious picture of Spock and Captain Kirk engaged in relations I can’t ask George where he got it or if William Shatner would mind if I posted it. Doing research for this I used Twitter to contact the artist, Kiersten Essenpreis,  of the cartoon above and the person Shayla Maddox, another artist, who actually tweeted the caption inspiring the cartoon. That’s Twitter, where everyone gets down in the mud and wrestles with everyone else. Click their names to check out Shayla and Kiersten’s websites. They’re both very talented artists.

On Facebook I post pictures of all my festive holiday ties. On Twitter I wear a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off to show off my tattoo.

Typical Facebook status by me: Only 8 hours until I’m on vacation!

Typical Tweet by @FunkyFresh_79: I just saw a pancake in a tutu outside of IHOP and I’m not sure if aroused is a strong enough word for what I’m feeling right now.

Don’t get me wrong. like a parent with two kids, I love both Twitter and Facebook equally, but in different ways. On Facebook you find old friends and on Twitter you make new friends. Facebook is a class reunion while Twitter is the first day, or maybe night, staying in a college dorm. You have to be invited to the Facebook party while on Twitter party crashing is encouraged.

SquirrelArmy Tornado @Mikecanrant: Stuffing a bag of live chickens in the microwave for 3 minutes does NOT make popcorn chicken. In fact, it makes a mess. A horrible mess.

Before you get the wrong impression about my thoughts on Twitter and Facebook, let me tell you how I got sucked in. A year and a half ago I set up a Twitter account but rarely used it. Then I tuned into Twitter during the Super Bowl and it was like a great big conversation about the game; like you’d have in a bar talking with friendly strangers.  A few months after that I was on a business trip to Florida when suddenly I felt a little buzz in my pocket. A Twitter notification? I had never gotten one before! I only had 34 followers at the time. @GregoryGAllen, an author and HuffPo columnist whom I had never heard of, was tweeting out to his over 3,000 followers that he was reading my novel White Picket Prisons. I was stunned and amazed. I had no idea how he found me. I messaged him to ask and it turns out that a blog post of mine had gained some viral traction and had been shared by one of his Facebook friends. In that instance, without any crude jokes, Twitter and Facebook came together to make something amazing happen.

This is a perfect example of Twitter:

Chris Sherk @TheIronSherk: All of my life has led to this moment, trying to write the perfect Meatloaf tweet Once I do, everything else will be gravy.

That’s Twitter for you. Not everyone will get the joke, but the right people will.

As always, if you enjoyed #ThePhilFactor please hit the Facebook and Twitter share buttons below and feel free to follow me on both as well. Have a great weekend!

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Posted in Current Events, Humor

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The Facebook Funeral

Posted on September 14, 2013 | 14 comments

facebookgrave

“Technology is the opiate of the asses” I thought I was clever when I wrote this back in 2006. Now I’d like to admit that I was wrong. As many of you remember, I attended my high school class reunion about six weeks ago. I had a great time reconnecting with old friends, catching up, reliving old memories, and talking about our families. One moment however jarred me emotionally a bit.

Over to the left side on a table by the wall there was a large sheet cake with a celebratory greeting to our graduating class. The cake looked delicious and full of the promise of sugary butter creme frosting. I was looking forward to getting a piece later. Then I noticed a piece of plain white paper sitting unobtrusively on the tablecloth beneath the cake. Typed upon it were eleven names. The single, simple sentence at the top of the page calmly explained that these were classmates who had passed away since high school.

A couple were friends with whom I had spent significant time with in high school and who I had looked unsuccessfully for on Facebook over the last few years. I was sad. I was sad for two reasons. First I was sad about the loss for me, the family and other friends of those that passed away. Then I was sad that I had missed their passing. Sad that I didn’t know. Sad that I couldn’t have touched base with others to share our sorrow. I was sad that I hadn’t been able to share a word of condolence with their families and to tell them of my fond memories of their loved one.

This past week another member of my graduating class passed away. Sara had a bubbly personality and a smile that lit up everything and everyone around her. A large majority of our graduating class is connected on Facebook and there has been an outpouring of both sorrow, condolences, and a sharing of stories and pictures.  People have written on her page and those of her family members to express thoughts and share memories. The best part is the pictures. Not everyone could, would, or should go to her wake, but Facebook has been filled with pictures of Sara happy and celebrating life. Pictures of Sara as we will always remember her, smiling. Chances are that those pictures on Facebook have brought many of us some smiles through the tears this week.

Earlier this week a friend from high school messaged me on Facebook to ask if I would write something on The Phil Factor related to our classmates passing. I replied that although I knew her and was friendly with her I didn’t consider myself a close friend and that I might not be the appropriate person to write sort of an online eulogy. He replied that he didn’t want me to write a eulogy, but that he wanted to hear my perspective on life and death.

I may not be a great philosopher, but here is what I learned this week: Technology may still be the opiate of the asses, but in some instances it has made the world a smaller and closer place for us all and for that, I am grateful. If I ever die, or more likely when I fake my death, I hope you all enjoy my Facebook Funeral. In fact, I may have to fake my death so some people on Facebook will stop asking me for Candy Crush lives.

As always, if you enjoy what you read on #ThePhilFactor please hit the Facebook and Twitter share buttons.

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Posted in Humor

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The Anti-Social Network: Let’s Fix Facebook, if Only For a Day

Posted on April 13, 2013 | 21 comments

Facebook

Just last weekend I noticed it. I looked at my Facebook page and I thought, Facebook is broken. This isn’t the Facebook I signed up for. When I signed up for Facebook I wanted to talk to people. I wanted to share with family and friends. I wanted to know how many kids you have and if they made honor roll.  Is junior in the school play or did Susie make the soccer team. I wanted to see your vacation pictures. I wanted to know what everyone else is doing this weekend or if you saw that movie and liked it.

What I did learn when I looked at my Facebook last week was that Alan likes Tough Mudder. I also found out from Joni’s  your-ecard  that sometimes she takes baths because it’s harder to drink wine in the shower. I also learned from Facebook that there are a lot of kooky pictures in favor of gun ownership. I discovered that Larry is really good at Song Pop.  Apparently Samantha has a gambling problem because she goes to the Facebook casino almost every day.  I also had no idea Michael was a farmer that needed me to buy him a pig. Apparently George Takei has a lot more friends than I do. Occasionally you may even see stuff about a friend being a half-assed author and posting the link to his blog all the time.

Facebook used to be the social network. We would actually post things about our lives and comment on or ask questions about the pictures and stories our friends and family posted. Now when I visit Facebook all I seem to see is an endless string of  re-posts and advertisements my friends have signed up for.  I’m as guilty as anyone. Some days I want to join in the Facebook fun but I don’t have anything new going on in my life so I’ll gladly borrow a bit of brilliance from Sulu and re-post it on my wall hoping to get a laugh or a like.

In my title I suggested that we fix Facebook if only for a day. My idea is that there should be a National No Re-Post Day on Facebook. It will be a day when we as the citizens of Facebook get back to our roots. Let’s take one day, on a weekend, when we do most of our online communicating, and spend the day not re-posting or liking ads but sharing on Facebook. Let’s post pictures of ourselves and our kids. Let’s talk about memories of high school. Let’s tell everyone where we’re going on vacation. Maybe we could even share our mood using words instead of a re-posted picture.  I choose Saturday May 4th as National No Re-Post Day. 

Irony of all ironies though, if we’re going to make this work we’re going to have to re-post this a lot. Enough to get a viral thing going in three weeks. I will personally take responsibility to post this to George Takei, because if he’s on board it’s a done deal.  I need all of you to do the rest. Below this hit the Facebook Share button and if you’re on WordPress hit the re-blog button. If you’re on Twitter please re-tweet. Follow me on Facebook or follow my blog for reminders leading up to the big day. I’ve also created an event on Facebook that you can join. Just click here for Facebook National No Re-Post Day. With a few clicks we can all take back Facebook on Saturday May 4th. (Yeah, I’m completely serious. Let’s do this)

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Posted in Current Events, Humor, Relationships, Uncategorized

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