3. All The Cool Kids Are Quitting Facebook

JENNA WORTHAM

“All the cool kids are Quitting Facebook” is an article written by the reporter from New York Times, Jenna Wortham that exposed about how Facebook continued to grown drastically since it first released on net. We live in a hyper-connected world and it is quite unheard of for someone from Generation Y to not have Facebook.  As some of you may know, it was one of my New Years Resolutions (well, two years in a row, really) to go on Facebook less to increase my productivity.  I pretty much massively failed both years and instead of logging on online, I would log in with my iPhone Facebook app.  It got to a point that you could say I was Facebook addicted- I would update my newsfeed, oh, maybe 20 times a day, sometimes I would refresh the newsfeed it again about 10 minutes after I updated it already.  Yes.. it was that bad.

When I first joined Facebook back in 2008 it was really exciting to reconnect with long lost elementary school friends, high school friends, and even people I met briefly but wanted to keep in touch with.

However, somehow Facebook reared its ugly side and I started to question why I was addicted to Facebook so much.  So I decided a few days ago to deactivate it. Am i cool?

Before I clicked “okay” to deactivate my account, Facebook said “Are you sure?  _______ will miss you!  _______ will miss you!  _____ will miss you!” and I found that even more creepy that Facebook would give one last “nag” and proceeded with the deactivate account button.

So here are my reasons why I deactivated my personal Facebook page

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1. Pivacy !

Each time, I would change my privacy details AFTER I read about it on another friend’s newsfeed, about how they changed the privacy laws and in order for your profile page not to be viewed by the public, you would need to log in and change the tick boxes in the privacy section.  I’m not sure how many times I had to readjust my settings to suit my privacy needs while maintaining a public Facebook profile (amongst my Facebook friends anyways)

The last straw for me, was this most recent update.  I make sure that my “main” Facebook profile picture doesn’t include a picture of my face in case people search for me on Facebook.  However, with this most recent
 update
 assault to privacy, ALL of your profile pictures, even the ones from years ago, are visible to people who search for you.

And there was no way that you could undo that with a privacy setting adjustment.  I ended up deleting the pictures with my face to start and to “adjust” with this new update.

2. Back to School All Over Again?

Although I didn’t have a terrible time in high school (I certainly miss the egocentricism and the lack of responsibility except to myself), because I have a lot of high school friends on my Facebook page, I found that in Facebook, people wanted to add more and more friends (I think I know someone from high school who has over 1000 friends) because its some sort of popularity contest.

The more Facebook friends you have is not an indicator of how popular you are, okay?  Some people try to add you even when you met them once.  And they never try to talk to you on Facebook.  Just stalk you.. that’s all.

My feelings also get hurt when I find out someone unriended me.  Sniff.

3. Awkward !

When a colleague adds me on Facebook I find it awkward.  Will they know that I don’t want to add them.  Will I hurt their feelings if I don’t add them?  Of course, I end up adding them and because I’m a Generation Y individual who isn’t that tech savvy (yes, I know, an anomaly) to group friends and colleagues in one group to limit what they see…

Even then when you limit what your colleagues see, they may be suspicious that you’ve blocked access to the gossip juice from the “Photos of _____” page.  Will it be awkward because they know you’ve blocked access for them?

In conclusion, social network like Facebook may have many negative effects towards the users but for people who manage to use Facebook wisely, they will not having problem to connecting in it.

2. The Steve Jobs Nobody Knew

STEVE JOBS (1955-2011)

The article "The Steve Jobs Nobody Knew" by Jeff Goodell exposed Jobs attitude that might never know. Three quick thoughts looking at the general make-up/outline of the article, though. First, I think that Goodell got away with such a long article because of the legacy Jobs holds, people are interested and willing to read. Second, the tagline that’s used to grab readers’ attention “How an insecure, acid-dropping hippie kid reinvented himself as a technological visionary – and changed the world,” definitely draws Rolling Stone magazine’s target market in. The story of some “underdog” rising above it all and coming out on top makes any person drop what their doing to be engrossed in such and “inspirational” story. Third, I’m not sure how I feel about the way Goodell goes about the introduction in first person, discussing the “first time” he met Steve jobs and throughout the article describing in random tid-bits his relationship with Jobs.

I guess I also had a few other concerns… In the article there is a one page snipet written by Chrisann Brennan (a former lover of Jobs who had his daughter Lisa); I wasn’t sure if it was necessary at first. However, after finishing the article, I think that it gave more credit to Jobs character (until the last paragraph) to show what he was like growing up and discovering Apple, and I like how it was included. Another thing, I’m not sure I liked the cliche “becoming a family man changed his life/attitude,” approach the article had focusing on Jobs’s character. I can see why it’s being used because it really hits home with families, and the whole “live like you’re dying” approach, but I thought it was a bit much when the idea was first introduced after Goodell brought up his meeting/marriage to Laurene Powell. I’m curious if it’s really fair to say that he was arrogant, perfectionist with asshole tendencies before he started a family. Is any part of this looked at as possible slander? Just some thoughts to keep in mind while reading the article, which I really think everyone should.

Overall, however, I found the article very enlightening, I had no idea who Steve Jobs really was until reading this article. Therefore, you should all take a crack at it as well.

1. Degree of Happiness

The article “The Degree of Happiness” written by Betrand Russell who is a British philosopher has made me realised several things that I never noticed about the word “happy” before.  he stated that the happiness that is only to those who can read or write are emotionally simple and are obtainable from their work – a satisfaction that is so great, felt and experienced very strongly that they can derive pleasure from eating and even marrying ; the men of science or scientists. It is quite astonishing on how merely the men of science capable of achieving happiness only from the satisfaction of their work instead of marrying, spend some quality time with their family, et cetera.

From my review, this article is trying to persuade us, to make us understand and respect each other point of view about happiness. To me, I would like to do something that I like because that is my happiness. People’s perception are different, don’t do something that will make you regret, just be yourself. So its easier to grab the happiness with you.