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Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’
What Constitutes a “Friend” on Facebook These Days Anyway?
January 25th, 2012 | Added to Computers, Internet, & Technology | No Comments »
Over the last few years, I’ve written several posts about the dwindling functionality and, ultimately, usefulness of certain social media platforms. For example, some three years ago I noted that I closed down my MySpace and LinkedIn accounts. And here we are – three years later – and I have no intention of opening up either of those accounts again. Sure, a lot of people tell me to reopen my LinkedIn account so I can shore up certain professional contacts in a worst case scenario (i.e. if I need to find employment quickly), but I have no interest in maintaining a presence on that platform at this time.
Which brings me to one of the two social media platforms where I do maintain accounts: Facebook.
 Facebook seems to have become "Happy Birthday-book" I’m sure that most of the folks reading this entry have a Facebook account – it seems like most people on the planet have a Facebook account these days. And, if you’re like me, then you’ve noticed something weird about Facebook in the last few years. No, it’s not the fact that Facebook seems to constantly change their layout without the consent (or considered happiness) of their users. And no, it’s not the fact that spam-loving companies have found a way to breach even Facebook’s strong security measures. Instead, if you’re like me you’ve noticed that Facebook has been reduced to a single phrase for most people…
“Happy Birthday, buddy!”
I can’t tell you how many of my Facebook friends only interact with me on my birthday. And, admittedly, there are scores of my Facebook friends who I only interact with on their birthdays. Over the last year, I’ve made a conscious effort to not send happy birthday greetings to people who I wouldn’t go out of my way to call or text with the same message. Sometimes, I find that there are social strictures that require me to send someone a happy birthday note. Other times, there are folks who I would go out of my way to say happy birthday to if I saw them during the day, but I refrain from doing so online because it seems somewhat weird.
But more than any other observation about the oodles of birthday messages that are flung around Facebook, the most pressing observation is just how weird the whole exercise is for everyone. I mean let’s be honest – how many different ways can you say, “Happy Birthday, [INSERT NAME HERE]! Enjoy!” or something similar each year to the same person before it gets redundant, repetitive, and just bizarre? With some of my Facebook friends I’ll go in and check what I wrote on their wall the prior year and most of the time the message that I’m crafting for the new happy birthday message is eerily similar.
The whole thing is just bizarre to me. However, the weirdness factor aside I have no plans to get rid of my Facebook page. The truth is that Facebook is too ingrained in our society today and we are all too reliant on that particular social media platform. So, while I may be a little exasperated with the happy birthday messages that I see on there every single day, I think it’s just part of the platform that we’re going to have to accept.
By the way, my birthday is next Tuesday, January 31st… and I’ve grown to expect many birthday greetings on my Facebook wall!
An Amazing, Happy, Joyous Week and a Half Period for the Global Community
May 2nd, 2011 | Added to International Politics, United States Politics | 2 Comments »
You know, when I think about it – the last week and a half has been absolutely amazing for this world. Welcome back to JerseySmarts.com. Though I have been – and continue to be – swamped with an ever-growing pile of work, I wanted to take a few minutes to write about why the last week and a half has been such a happy time for this planet.
 This has been a pretty happy place for the last week and a half. About a week and a half ago, nearly a one-third of the planet’s population began celebrating the Easter Triduum. The Easter Triduum is the three day period leading up to Easter Sunday and the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly something for believers like me (and some 2.1 billion other believers in Christ) to celebrate.
On the first of two personal notes in this entry, one of the young men that I advised when he was an undergraduate in Sigma Pi Fraternity became a member of the Roman Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil mass. For him – and those of us who know him – this was also a reason for celebration.
After a solemn, joyous Holy Week the world then began preparing for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Normally, I wouldn’t cite this as a reason for the world to celebrate. However, following the tragic, paparazzi-fueled death of his beloved mother Princess Diana, there were many people who saw this past Friday’s wedding as a sort of victory for civility. The Sun Newspaper (based out of the United Kingdom) estimated that up to 3 billion people might watch the wedding. I’ve read post-wedding viewership figures as high as 2 billion, so I don’t know the exact number of people who saw the wedding, but I’m sure that most folks out there either saw the wedding live or saw footage.
In any event, the adoring crowds in the United Kingdom reflected the joy and happiness that most people shared for the young bride and groom.
And on a personal note – this past Friday a good friend of mine got married. I was honored to be one of his groomsmen and the excitement of the wedding helped make this past weekend a really great one for me and the hundreds of people who are celebrating this wedding, too.
And then Sunday, May 1st came. For the more than 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world, we celebrated the beatification of Pope John Paul II – now known as Blessed John Paul II. The beatification mass was viewed around the world as a man who many knew as a world leader took the final step before being declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Certainly a reason for celebration among the faithful Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church communities!
Of course the only way for such an amazing week and a half period to come to completion was with the announcement that the United States had located, stormed, and killed the most wanted terrorist in the world. And not only was I excited about the confirmation of Osama bin Laden being killed, but I was proud about the way the United States citizens celebrated the victory. I posted this message on Facebook late last night about our national celebration:
When certain countries on the other side of the world celebrate a big event, radical extremists come out in the streets and burn effigies of world leaders and flags of other nations.
When America celebrates the death of a global mass murderer, we have men, women, young, old, Republicans, Democrats, black, white, Hispanic, etc. all celebrating together chanting “USA! USA! USA!”
We win. Again.
Followers of freedom and believers in liberty have a big reason to celebrate this news. Congratulations go out to the men and women of our military and intelligence services on a job well done.
As I posted on Twitter last night – I feel like this week and a half period of happiness and celebration is the beginning of something great for this world. Let’s hope that the good times keep on coming and that we continue to receive good news (or the Good News, as it were) in the coming days, weeks, and months! Enjoy!
Miles Austin is My Favorite Dallas Cowboy, Ever
September 20th, 2010 | Added to Sports | 4 Comments »
Just a brief background for this entry… I was born in Manhattan and moved to the northwest part of New Jersey when I was seven years old. I stayed up there until I left to go to college at Monmouth University in the fall of 1999 and, except for one summer, I’ve been living in the Monmouth County area of the Jersey Shore ever since. In other words, I live in a part of the world where when it comes to the NFL, you’re either a Giants fan or a Jets fan. Me? I’m a Giants fan. So that’s your background for this story.
 From Garfield High School... I give you that background because it’s well known that Giants fans hate the New England Patriots and the Dallas Cowboys. However, I have to admit that after last Sunday night’s game on NBC, I have a new favorite Cowboy – Miles Austin. In case you didn’t hear it, during that game’s on-screen introductions Austin announced himself from Garfield High School instead of from Monmouth University. Austin and I both went to Monmouth University and I distinctly remember him coming into my office (after I graduated and while he was still an undergrad) to pay his rent every month. So as alumni of the same university, I got a big kick out of him using his high school alma mater to introduce himself to the viewers at home. Unfortunately, I can’t find a clip of the introduction online or on YouTube anywhere, but it was funny.
After the game, a Facebook page that purports itself to be Austin’s official page had this to say:
My passion for football began at Garfield.. not sure why yall are so upset that I repped them for once instead of Monmouth. Yall should know I love MU and always will.. But without Garfield and the support I received there, I woulda never made it to Monmouth. Kids need to know that high school is a time to find your talent or passion and run as far as you can with it.
Now, I’m not sure if this is Austin’s real Facebook page or not, but the blurb above makes sense in my world. Of course, before Austin posted this on his Facebook account, I commented about how hilarious I found the whole situation. In the comments following my blurb, I wrote the following:
[My Roommate] and I figured that thousands of MU alumni started laughing out loud when he said “Garfield High School” while dozens of MU employees and administrators were confused as to why someone would do that in the first place!
And this point is the crux of this entry. I guarantee that all of the idiot “yes men” ass kissers that I went to college with had no idea why Austin wouldn’t even consider announcing himself from Monmouth during that opening game. I also guarantee that some exorbitantly paid administrators at Monmouth who are so full of their own bullshit started to panic after hearing “Garfield High School” during what should have been the shining moment of their delusional impressions of my alma mater. The fact is that many of the folks working in the administration at Monmouth are out of touch with the student body. And when they need to get student opinions on issues and items, they choose their “yes men” and ass kissers to provide feedback for the general population. It’s useless.
Oh, and I speak for a super-majority of the current students and alumni from the school? How do I know that? Very simple. I looked at a copy of Monmouth University’s most recent results on the National Survey of Student Engagement. One of the questions asked, “How well do students get along with administrators and staff?”
The answer?
Some 35% of first year students find the administrative personnel and offices helpful, considerate, and flexible. Gah! If 35% of my clients thought that I was helpful, considerate, and flexible to their needs I’d get fired on the spot! Because if 35% think that you’re great, then 65% want to bang their head into the wall each time they deal with you!
Anyway, for the reason that Austin stated in his Facebook update and because of the results of the national survey – and for the many less-than-pleasant encounters I had with the administrators over there when I was an undergraduate – I’m glad that Austin said he was from Garfield High School instead of Monmouth University. It serves them right. There’s clearly a disconnect that the university isn’t addressing and, quite frankly, doesn’t seem to know how to address.
So for this Giants fan, my favorite Cowboy is Miles Austin. And that’s in light of the fact that Tony Romo and I are in the same fraternity (Sigma Pi Fraternity)!
What I Hate the Most About the Start of a New School Year
August 31st, 2010 | Added to College & Fraternity Life, Random Entries | 2 Comments »
Don’t get me wrong by the title of this entry. I’m essentially a professional student and I love the feeling of the last few days of summer just as much as the first few days of school. I know that’s a rarity, but there are some folks out there that love the whole idea of learning and increasing one’s knowledge, etc. Needless to say, this is a fun time of the year in my book.
However, there is one thing that I absolutely hate about this time of the year and you can find it on Facebook. That’s right, an anti-Facebook message on JerseySmarts.com!
What I hate is when all of these teachers and education industry people get on their Facebook accounts and complain that they have to go back to school. WHAT?! You’re complaining that you’re dreading going back to school!?! First of all, what balls to say that in New Jersey where there are thousands of laid off workers who only wish they were going back to school!
Second, it’s your JOB! Sure, I bitch about my commute quite often and yes, I might get annoyed at one of my managers from time to time, but you’ll NEVER catch me (or anyone with any common sense) complaining that they have a job to go to tomorrow. That’s utterly ridiculous!
And, without fail, the same bevy of complaints come in from teachers and education industry people that are in near-comatose states of mind because they’ve spent the last three to four months sitting around doing as close to nothing as possible. Get real, people! The entire world is out there working everyday of the summer and teachers have the gall to complain that their three to four month vacation is coming to an end? Shut up!
Complain about your commute, complain about your bratty little kids that you teach, complain about the extremely overpaid administrators in your districts…but don’t complain that you have a job to go to and don’t complain that you actually have to work for a living. Good grief! And people wonder where this entitlement mindset comes from with some of these teachers?! Then again, it was no surprise to anyone with a year-round job (i.e. 90%+ of the entire workforce) that teachers complained about having to pay into their healthcare system. I wonder if the teachers heard that collective laugh when they started complaining about the 1.5% or 2% (I don’t remember what it was) that they had to start contributing.
A final thought – I’m a guy for education reform at all levels. For example, teachers should absolutely pay more into their retirement system, but they should also receive an increase in pay (not necessarily on par with the money that they’re paying into the system, but some small increase to bring them closer to a living wage). That said, teachers are government employees – plain and simple. When the government has no money, then teachers should not get raises. It’s part of having a government job.
However, one of my favorite education reform ideas is increasing the school year. Think about it – we prepare our students for the real world by telling them, “You’re on vacation from the end of June through the beginning of September – go have fun!” Completely ridiculous. What does that prepare them to be in life? Well, I guess you could argue that it prepares them to be teachers, but we have enough of those already! I bring this up because imagine the complaints coming from the teachers and education industry if summer vacation was reduced from two and a half months to two or three weeks!? Ha!
JerseySmarts.com Now Has an Official Facebook “Like” Button
June 10th, 2010 | Added to Computers, Internet, & Technology | No Comments »
Welcome to JerseySmarts.com, where we’ve finally entered the year 2010 by placing an official Facebook “Like” button on each of our entries. Granted, you won’t be able to see this button on the main page of the blog itself, but since 80% of our traffic comes from people searching for specific items, the Like button will be seen by more people than actually see the front page anyway.
I played around with the button last night (which, if you are on the front page, you can see by clicking on the title of title of this entry – it shows up right underneath the title) and tested it out to see how it works. I’m not really sure of the dynamics of the button, but I think when you hit click on it there is an update to your Facebook wall saying that you liked that entry on the blog with a link to the entry for your Facebook friends to see.
Oh, and I tried the Like button in Internet Explorer and it didn’t work. I don’t know why, but the majority of this site’s traffic comes from Firefox or non-Internet Explorer browsers so I’m not overly concerned. Plus, Internet Explorer has been bulky and clunky for the last few years anyway. If you’re not using Google’s Chrome or Mozilla’s Firefox (or even Apple’s Safari), then you’re missing out on a much better internet experience.
But back to the point of this entry – we now have a Like button so if you see something that you like (and you’re not using Internet Explorer), then feel free to hit the button so your friends on Facebook can see what JerseySmarts.com has to offer, too!
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