It's really crazy how attached you become to your "web 2.0" possessions. The other day Facebook was having issues, and when I logged in I watched in horror how my friends list displayed "You have 0 friends". All I was able to see was whatever I had posted in the last few days, which of course wasn't fun at all. I am one of those people who takes pictures of everybody except myself. Why would I want a picture of me... I see my photo everyday in my twitter and Facebook account.
Well, I don't go around asking for people to be friends, so I would say 90% of my 220 'friends' requested me to add them, and I know 99% of the people on that list. I guess we latinos, and specially ecuadorians, use Facebook not to meet new friends, but to get in touch with long lost friends and family. And just going to the trouble of finding them all again was not something I wanted to do.
So when that happened I sent a status update from Twitter to FB, saying that, I was now going to be able to study because my Facebook friends had dissapeared. I had some funny comments like: "yeah right!" (somebody who knows me well), and some sweet ones saying "I am your friend whatever Facebook says"... They all came back the day after.
But anyway, the point I am trying to make is how used to get to things you didn't have a year ago. And how communication and interaction has changed... now you
* remember everybody's birthday
* don't bother calling or writing an email to congratulate them, you write on their wall
* find out if relationships started or ended almost immediately
* realize how old you are when you see your friend's kids growing up
* worry when someone dis activates his/hers account
We'll see where all of this takes us... But it's been a crazy year...
Read more!
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Shaking off addictions...
Yeah right... a hundred and forty characters are not enough for me... but it seems I never use any characters at all to update this blog, or the one in Spanish. I have many things going through my mind all the time that I want to post here, but never take the time. Who cares anyway? Haha..
Twitter is about three years old but I think this year it has changed the way we communicate. If we are, for example watching an award show, like the famous (or infamous) MTV awards, you go there first to get reactions from the search timeline or share what you think. It's as if you were watching it along with a huge group of people... But it is also as if you were talking to deaf people... or as if everybody was talking at the same time... It lacks feedback, you don't know who is reading or anything.
An exception was what I felt when I was watching the famous (or infamous) Juanes concert in Cuba.. the nice thing was that there were people from many latin-american countries, united for a cause: peace, and if felt great.
This pop culture communication thingy is really time-consuming and addictive. I had to take my CPA exam early October, and the weeks before, I had to literally use all my will power to avoid checking out Facebook or Twitter. In fact, the week before I didn't log in at all, which was a victory for me. Lately I try to log in briefly once or twice a day.
Every other day I hear from my mom back in Ecuador about all the emails regarding the dangers with Facebook accounts, who knows, maybe they are right. I only add people I know, or that at least I have gotten to know in one point in time. So far I have to say that thanks to Facebook, I had the most fun mini-reunion early September with my school friends from Ecuador that now live in the States. We met in Miami and had a blast.. I've also had reunions with cousins and relatives I hadn't seen in years. The point is that if you don't spend that much time in Facebook, and you get actual 'physical' reunions or phone calls, it mustn't be that bad...
The other day I posted two photos of my sister's sixth grade class, and tagged two or three of her classmates that I have in my 'friends' list. They in turn started tagging everybody else, and in two days there were around a hundred comments below that picture. I didn't really mind having my e-mail account full of comments, because I enjoyed them too. I was just two years younger than them and had very similar experiences. The fact is, they got in touch with classmates that they hadn't seen since Elementary School, and organized a reunion in Guayaquil close to Christmas... Isn't that awesome? I invited myself to the celebration and offered to be the photographer.. haha
Speaking about my sister and Facebook, she lives in Brazil and when she got those scary emails, deleted everything from her account, although she still has it open. She never comments or anything. The other day I called her, we hadn't talked for a month, but she knew everything I was up to. It seems as if she even reads comment number 15 in some of my status updates. (I don't normally get that many comments, but when I do, it seems she reads them all.)
Twitter is a whole different story; most people use it to follow famous people, artists, etc. At least that is what I do. And although it's a lot of fun, it's also hmmm yeah.. shallow and senseless. I am one of those ridiculous middle aged Taylor Swift fans.. and had a lot of fun just reading all the reactions after the MTV event. The week she didn't write after the Kanye issue, was one of the longest in history (haha) I used to check the @taylorswift13 timeline, and read how her fans begged her to write because they were so used to knowing what she was doing every day.. Isn't that crazy? But true, I missed her tweets also. (Guess it's 'crazier' to waste my time reading other people's reactions). Then they started following her band members, who are really talented, and fun, just to be able to know what she was up to. (Yeah I was already following them before that happened).
Oh and I know there are thousands of middle aged Taylor Swift fans because I have been to two of her concerts. The first in March in Houston and the other one in Dallas in late September (I somehow enjoyed the first a lot more, no stages and costumes but it was better). It sounded funny when the other day I was talking on the phone with a cousin who lives in Ecuador. It was her birthday (which I remembered thanks to Facebook) and I told her that I had gone to the Dallas concert with my cousin and my 5 year old niece, and that we both liked her. She laughed.. an artist that you and your niece like??? Well... Yeah...
Even though I still enjoy country and TS's music, I am in a detox period now, listening to a lot of Latin Pop, Alternative (the poppy ones, I think that is my favorite genre of music, but I mean it, not the heavy ones), rock, etc. It's a lot of fun... It's exciting that some of my favorite Latin artists are releasing their albums soon (Shakira, Juanes, Alejandro Sanz) and Nelly Furtado released an album, which I love, entirely in Spanish!. And now I need to go, I have another exam ahead, hopefully I'll do better this time at shaking off addictions.
Read more!
Twitter is about three years old but I think this year it has changed the way we communicate. If we are, for example watching an award show, like the famous (or infamous) MTV awards, you go there first to get reactions from the search timeline or share what you think. It's as if you were watching it along with a huge group of people... But it is also as if you were talking to deaf people... or as if everybody was talking at the same time... It lacks feedback, you don't know who is reading or anything.
An exception was what I felt when I was watching the famous (or infamous) Juanes concert in Cuba.. the nice thing was that there were people from many latin-american countries, united for a cause: peace, and if felt great.
This pop culture communication thingy is really time-consuming and addictive. I had to take my CPA exam early October, and the weeks before, I had to literally use all my will power to avoid checking out Facebook or Twitter. In fact, the week before I didn't log in at all, which was a victory for me. Lately I try to log in briefly once or twice a day.
Every other day I hear from my mom back in Ecuador about all the emails regarding the dangers with Facebook accounts, who knows, maybe they are right. I only add people I know, or that at least I have gotten to know in one point in time. So far I have to say that thanks to Facebook, I had the most fun mini-reunion early September with my school friends from Ecuador that now live in the States. We met in Miami and had a blast.. I've also had reunions with cousins and relatives I hadn't seen in years. The point is that if you don't spend that much time in Facebook, and you get actual 'physical' reunions or phone calls, it mustn't be that bad...
The other day I posted two photos of my sister's sixth grade class, and tagged two or three of her classmates that I have in my 'friends' list. They in turn started tagging everybody else, and in two days there were around a hundred comments below that picture. I didn't really mind having my e-mail account full of comments, because I enjoyed them too. I was just two years younger than them and had very similar experiences. The fact is, they got in touch with classmates that they hadn't seen since Elementary School, and organized a reunion in Guayaquil close to Christmas... Isn't that awesome? I invited myself to the celebration and offered to be the photographer.. haha
Speaking about my sister and Facebook, she lives in Brazil and when she got those scary emails, deleted everything from her account, although she still has it open. She never comments or anything. The other day I called her, we hadn't talked for a month, but she knew everything I was up to. It seems as if she even reads comment number 15 in some of my status updates. (I don't normally get that many comments, but when I do, it seems she reads them all.)
Twitter is a whole different story; most people use it to follow famous people, artists, etc. At least that is what I do. And although it's a lot of fun, it's also hmmm yeah.. shallow and senseless. I am one of those ridiculous middle aged Taylor Swift fans.. and had a lot of fun just reading all the reactions after the MTV event. The week she didn't write after the Kanye issue, was one of the longest in history (haha) I used to check the @taylorswift13 timeline, and read how her fans begged her to write because they were so used to knowing what she was doing every day.. Isn't that crazy? But true, I missed her tweets also. (Guess it's 'crazier' to waste my time reading other people's reactions). Then they started following her band members, who are really talented, and fun, just to be able to know what she was up to. (Yeah I was already following them before that happened).
Oh and I know there are thousands of middle aged Taylor Swift fans because I have been to two of her concerts. The first in March in Houston and the other one in Dallas in late September (I somehow enjoyed the first a lot more, no stages and costumes but it was better). It sounded funny when the other day I was talking on the phone with a cousin who lives in Ecuador. It was her birthday (which I remembered thanks to Facebook) and I told her that I had gone to the Dallas concert with my cousin and my 5 year old niece, and that we both liked her. She laughed.. an artist that you and your niece like??? Well... Yeah...
Even though I still enjoy country and TS's music, I am in a detox period now, listening to a lot of Latin Pop, Alternative (the poppy ones, I think that is my favorite genre of music, but I mean it, not the heavy ones), rock, etc. It's a lot of fun... It's exciting that some of my favorite Latin artists are releasing their albums soon (Shakira, Juanes, Alejandro Sanz) and Nelly Furtado released an album, which I love, entirely in Spanish!. And now I need to go, I have another exam ahead, hopefully I'll do better this time at shaking off addictions.
Read more!
Monday, June 29, 2009
New Facebook-Life realities
The other day I sent a picture to my Facebook profile, and later got an e-mail saying a good friend had made a comment. When I wanted to answer her, realized the comment was not there, and when I searched for her... she was gone from my Facebook contacts. So, are there Facebook ghosts???
I got a little worried because she is going through a divorce and went back to Ecuador to sell some things, etc. and I didn't have her e-mail address, because I contacted her through Facebook. I thought, well, I hope she is doing Ok, I'm going to pray for her.
Then today I got a call from another friend, who usually takes Facebook breaks. She has two really active toddlers and thinks that sometimes she uses too much of her time to be on-line and in FB. She told me she had briefly connected to Facebook and she didn't find our friend either, and that she was worried... That made too of us.
The strange thing is we haven't seen our friend in who knows 5 years? but when we contacted her on FB we started following her life, and we miss that. I think that with Twitter and FB our relationships are changing a little bit.. we are following people's lives, and when we don't have updates, we feel strange.
I for example am a little frustrated that my best friend back in Ecuador won't consider getting a Facebook account or a Blackberry, and since we both have too many things on our hands we never e-mail... Now we look for instant gratification and instant communication... Good thing that when we meet we have the best conversations, that won't replace FB or Twitter updates.. it will always be better.
Read more!
I got a little worried because she is going through a divorce and went back to Ecuador to sell some things, etc. and I didn't have her e-mail address, because I contacted her through Facebook. I thought, well, I hope she is doing Ok, I'm going to pray for her.
Then today I got a call from another friend, who usually takes Facebook breaks. She has two really active toddlers and thinks that sometimes she uses too much of her time to be on-line and in FB. She told me she had briefly connected to Facebook and she didn't find our friend either, and that she was worried... That made too of us.
The strange thing is we haven't seen our friend in who knows 5 years? but when we contacted her on FB we started following her life, and we miss that. I think that with Twitter and FB our relationships are changing a little bit.. we are following people's lives, and when we don't have updates, we feel strange.
I for example am a little frustrated that my best friend back in Ecuador won't consider getting a Facebook account or a Blackberry, and since we both have too many things on our hands we never e-mail... Now we look for instant gratification and instant communication... Good thing that when we meet we have the best conversations, that won't replace FB or Twitter updates.. it will always be better.
Read more!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
What are you thinking?
As expected, I din't pass my third CPA Exam (FAR). The fact is, I didn't study much, or cover all that I had to study. I can put the blame on my Twitter addiction but I am to blame, really.
The funny thing for me was, that although everyone kept asking me via Facebook wall or comments, If I had passed (they took a month to give the results), I wasn't brave enough to put it on my Facebook status. Of course, the story would have been different if I had passed, I would have used all the exclamation marks after the words "I passed".
Anyway, I sent a good old email to all my close friends, and it was nice to get their words of wisdom and good vibes saying I will pass next time. The best reply I got was from my old college mate: Hey! "Are you learning from me? Remember when you used to say I was really lazy?" (she slept on the couch while the rest of us studied)"But we love you anyway"... (Smile)
Read more!
The funny thing for me was, that although everyone kept asking me via Facebook wall or comments, If I had passed (they took a month to give the results), I wasn't brave enough to put it on my Facebook status. Of course, the story would have been different if I had passed, I would have used all the exclamation marks after the words "I passed".
Anyway, I sent a good old email to all my close friends, and it was nice to get their words of wisdom and good vibes saying I will pass next time. The best reply I got was from my old college mate: Hey! "Are you learning from me? Remember when you used to say I was really lazy?" (she slept on the couch while the rest of us studied)"But we love you anyway"... (Smile)
Read more!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Coming from the South
I love the States, but I also enjoy going to my hometown, Guayaquil (Ecuador).
I love seeing my friends and family. This time I only went for a week, so I really had to stretch time to be able to meet with everyone I wanted to. That meant I barely had time to sleep, so I came back from my one week vacation exhausted.
Ecuador is one of those ungovernable countries, so we never have good presidents. But in Guayaquil we have had great Majors, so the city is in good shape.
I become really spoiled when I go there... My family, like many others, have "help"... we have "people".. We don't have to do any cooking, or ironing, or laundry washing.
And the food is great so it's a complete gastronomic experience.
I discovered some advantages of being in Facebook. It takes too much of your free time, but in some cases it's pretty useful. My cousins and I had a reunion planned in Facebook, it was the first time in... well the first time we got together just the girls... We've had huge family reunions in the past (I have 40 cousins on my mother's side), but this smaller gathering was really too much fun!.
Also, thanks to Facebook I was able to share some of the things I wrote about the blessing of a Shrine over there (I belong to a Catholic Movement), and my photos were shared many times again and again.
And talking about connected life, my Blackberry saved my life. For some reason everybody has a Blackberry over there, so I was able to contact them via the Blackberry Messenger... cool. Although I've had Macs for many years now, and I love them, that Blackberry Messenger and ATT are keeping me from getting an Iphone. Read more!
I love seeing my friends and family. This time I only went for a week, so I really had to stretch time to be able to meet with everyone I wanted to. That meant I barely had time to sleep, so I came back from my one week vacation exhausted.
Ecuador is one of those ungovernable countries, so we never have good presidents. But in Guayaquil we have had great Majors, so the city is in good shape.
I become really spoiled when I go there... My family, like many others, have "help"... we have "people".. We don't have to do any cooking, or ironing, or laundry washing.
And the food is great so it's a complete gastronomic experience.
I discovered some advantages of being in Facebook. It takes too much of your free time, but in some cases it's pretty useful. My cousins and I had a reunion planned in Facebook, it was the first time in... well the first time we got together just the girls... We've had huge family reunions in the past (I have 40 cousins on my mother's side), but this smaller gathering was really too much fun!.
Also, thanks to Facebook I was able to share some of the things I wrote about the blessing of a Shrine over there (I belong to a Catholic Movement), and my photos were shared many times again and again.
And talking about connected life, my Blackberry saved my life. For some reason everybody has a Blackberry over there, so I was able to contact them via the Blackberry Messenger... cool. Although I've had Macs for many years now, and I love them, that Blackberry Messenger and ATT are keeping me from getting an Iphone. Read more!
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