Facebook’s Falling From Fame Fiasco

because they just don’t have it together right now

Are you wondering why some of your friends have talked about deleting their Facebook account? Don’t understand what’s going on? Let me fill you in.

There has been outrage against Facebook for the change in their privacy policies over the years. Facebook’s policy basically allows them to own and distribute any content that you upload to the site. They have been doing this for a while and it’s not like they are the first site to do this. Most sites do collect some information from you like your IP address, your approximate location, and they may even ask for your email address among other things. However, Facebook has been deceptive and taking information that you weren’t aware that they were taking, like all of it.

This is a scary thought for most people and they are getting rid of Facebook for good. At least for now, Facebook is mostly using the information they collect from us to target advertising. I am not too upset about this because at least the advertisements I am forced to look at are relevant to me.

So are you in jeopardy of having your identity stolen by the fault of Facebook? Probably not, but maybe that is not the point anyways. Facebook has been making some pretty terrible decisions concerning the users experience. Between all the horribly annoying applications (Zombies, Super Poke, etc.), Causes (Stop World Sleep Deprivation), Groups (You don’t love Jesus or your mom and a puppy will die unless you join this group), an unreliable chat among other things, Facebook is just not an enjoyable experience anymore. I just want to log in and out as fast as I can.

However, the thought of leaving Facebook is still daunting. Why is that? Well probably because Facebook is the only way of contacting most people you know. This is sad. You don’t have anyone’s phone number, email address, physical address, or even a simple instant messaging screen name (those were popular when I was coming up in the internet). This isn’t all your fault. Facebook just made it too convenient for you with it’s popularity and this is really all that’s holding them together now. MySpace went through a similar phase where people were fed up with their account being hacked but wouldn’t leave it because of it’s popularity.

However, there are many sites out there that offer alternative sources for networking and do it very well. For your Short Status updates there is Twitter and Google Buzz. For sharing pictures there is Flickr and Picasa. For sharing video there is YouTube, of course. For chatting there is AIM, Google Talk, and Skype which all let you text and video chat. I understand that it is nice to have all of these things in one place and there are some up and comers working on solving that problem.

So what should you do? If you are not worried about the privacy policies of Facebook I still suggest that you branch out and not use Facebook as the only outlet that you have for social networking. This will help you stay in contact with people better. Get a personal email address (not bamaboy87, more like name@email.com) and collect friends and families emails. Visit some of those sites I linked to earlier and give them a try. You may also want to check out your privacy settings on Facebook and make sure they are to your liking. Here’s a video explaining how to do that:

Well I hope this was at least some help in understanding the debacle. You can find me at all of the following:  My Gmail, My Twitter, My AIM: ToeJom, My Buzz, My Picasa, My YouTube, My Skype: KTJWeaver, My Blogspot and of course My Facebook (which may not be around much longer). I enjoy using all of these services so don’t be afraid to branch out. Happy Networking.

Thomas Weaver

The Limited Ability of Science

Ignorance is bliss and you look like one too

I posted a video on you-tube a while back in response to some scientific debates. I called the video “Science isn’t God” and I pretty much stated how everyone wrongfully treats science as the end all be all of knowledge. I mentioned that science tests only that which is observable and leaves out a good deal of  information that would be obtainable through other methods. I did not lay out a definite argument for my claim and it was largely founded on my opinion. I knew about what I was trying to say but I could not formulate the idea enough to convey my meaning to my audience. I got a lot of flack for it and was ridiculed a bit; so I removed the video out of humility.

Today I ran across this quote:

As what we call natural science began to come into its own, the conception of science was gradually limited; a discipline had to meet more rigid criteria in order to be designated as a science. In particular, science now is restricted to the objects of sense experience, which must be verified by the “scientific method,” which employs observation and experimentation, following strict procedures of inductive logic…Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality is unscientific, since no one can see or measure or test such entities as the id, the ego, and the superego. In an attempt to be regarded as scientific, disciplines dealing with humanity have tended to become behavioristic, basing their method, objects, and conclusions on what is observable, measurable, and testable, rather than on what can be known introspectively. All intellectual disciplines are expected to conform to this standard.”   -Millard J. Erickson, Systematic Theology

The weakness of my argument before was that I really had no example to prove my point. However, I understand more of what I was getting at by considering Sigmund Freud’s work with the ego. The information he was collecting was not observable or measurable because it was all introspective. To conclude that this is not important because it is not observable or measurable is absurd. Every human being lives their life introspectively. All the feelings we feel and our mental state is completely subjective and are not acquired by any other means than self-observation.

This would not even be an issue if other disciplines received the same credibility as science, however they are deemed as inferior. So many social sciences are conforming to the scientific approach to seem more scientific and gain some credibility. That maybe why many social science majors receive a Bachelors of Arts instead of a Bachelors of Science.

My whole point is that there are many disciplines that are limited and much knowledge to be acquired in unobservable, metaphysical fields, like theology. We are foolish to ignore introspective research since it is the majority of our experience.

Disco fiasco

Sorry that I have not posted in a while. My wife and I have been training for a disco dance competition and were even featured on jibjab.com. We ranked nuber one and now I am back to write. thank you for your support and this week should be full of interesting things… here is something for your entertainment (proof of my disco fiasco)

click me for disco fun

click me for rhythmic fun