Facebook Time Machine

Digital v/s IRL

I have been drawing little illustrations for about a month now. They are all for this blog and I have lots of fun doing it. I use a free app called Paper by 53 on my little iPad. I really like it.

However, I have gotten used to the undo button. A bad brush stroke or a wrong color is very very easily rectified.

In fact, the undo feature is probably the most useful feature of Microsoft's Excel, which I use probably seven and a half ours out of an eight hour work day. I could find a way to do most other things in Excel, but if you take away the undo feature, the software is toast!

I was drawing a pear in my Painting with Pastels class at the local art museum this morning. Having never drawn a pear before, never used pastel paper before, and never smudged pastel colors by my fingers before, I was desparately looking for the undo button.

There wasn't one.
The painting turned out ok. It is the best pear I have ever drawn!

Time Machine

I have participated in a few heated discussions on Facebook in the last few years. Though no immediate solution was found in these discussions I though we were having an important journey togther, me, the OP (original poster), and other commenters.

More often than not, the OP simply deleted the entire thread.
The OP turned a dial and went back in time where the conversation never happened in the first place.

It's like having access to a permenant undo button.

When it becomes normal to remove the existence of a conversation in a particular medium, the value of that medium as a place for conversations starts to diminish.

That's when Buzzfeed takes over.

Sharing is Caring

Not sharing ideas is a fear-driven activity.

The fear being: I will look bad if I share an idea that other people do not like.

This is what keep people from promoting their friend's music/art/resume/business until said friend's music/art/resume/business has already gained some popularity.

This is exactly how Facebook generates it's non-sequential news-feed. Your post does not see any engagement until someone comments on it. Only then do their friends see it and so on. Quite the chicken and the egg.

So when you share that article from your feed and post it on your wall, you saw it on your feed because it was popular in the first place.

But we like it this way. This way where the curation is someone else's problem.
Preferably an algorithm's problem.
Please, just don't make us do the work.

We are busy.

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This post is inspired by my friend who recently tried to quit Facebook and was faced with emotional sleight-of-hand to make him stay. He talks about his account on his podcast. You should subscribe, he is really good at it.

The World is Open for Play

It must have been about five years ago when my friend Goliath started noticing friends and acquaintances wishing him on his birthday on Facebook even though he had never mentioned his birthday to them. Facebook being the stalwarts of privacy that they are had advertized his birthday publicly.

Goliath decided to have a little fun.

He switched his birthday every day to the next calendar day.
For two whole months.

Acquaintances would wish him on his wall every day for two months. It was a little inside joke for a while. Fecebook dot com was the playground and all of Goliath's contacts were unsuspecting players.

The obvious joke was that the obligatory birthday wish happened only because Facebook reminded them of it. The joke was on the notification culture of social media dwellers who were oblivious to real connections.

People like Goliath have been instrumental in making me realize there abundant opportunities to tinker and play.
The only limitation is our imagination.
The world is a playground of ideas.
And the world is always open for play.

Happy cake day, old friend!

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I borrow the title of this post from the excellent video essay by The Nerdwriter about the Late Robin Williams. The video essay is on the same lines as this post, just like the title suggests. You should watch it.