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A simple provocation and a great discussion
This is a discussion thread from my Facebook profile. It was started by a simple provocation/question. The response was totally overwhelming!
Rahul Sen Provocation: The ‘Like’ button is like a check-mark on Facebook. It lets people know you’ve read, seen or appreciated something. Facebook made us rethink the notion of the word ‘friend’ and now…’like’. What’s next?
11 hours ago · Comment · Like
Madlene Lahtivuori, August Michael and Matilda Almeflo like this.
Soo Basu .
11 hours ago ·
Mike Stott Photo Albums?
The interface layout, technology and interaction contribute to extinguishing the sense of “evolving time”. Photo albums show no time-lines. All images have the same sense of immediacy and represent a continuous, never-ending ”now”.
11 hours ago ·
Mike Stott Memory is being absorbed by images
11 hours ago ·
Mike Stott I´ve been writing a bit about images in Facebook on this blog:
http://www.plattformfotografi.se/node/135
11 hours ago ·
Rahul Sen Wow! nice feedback Mike! great articles too!:)
11 hours ago ·
Hannes Seeberg My point – they made our lives go public! Do I really care about, why someone status is “I have hole in my socks” or “I missed my bus”… No, but I still read it. Social media, co-creation..
10 hours ago ·
Martin Willers One answer is “Google wave interactivity” with text, so I could edit, ad or cross over statements and then others replay what happened over time. There is bound to be more levels of interactions with html5. What is interesting is how these limitations frame the dialogue. I think facebook is building up pent-up agressions by just beeing “positive”, I really really want to “un-like” or filter the mafia-war app. because it’s a noise in my information intake.
A note to Mike. I really think it’s interesting with the pictures where people look away so only “true friends” can recognize/ad them. I would love to see some research on how personalities maps to profile pictures.
9 hours ago ·
Mike Stott I don´t yet have any experience of Google wave but
I´d love to hear more. I think it´s really interesting how software limitations frame the dialogue, as you express it. Do you know of any research around facebook use? It´s my current preoccupation..
5 hours ago ·
Rahul Sen Thanks for sharing your views!! Great to read. Lots of Facebook articles on Wired and other sites. Definitely a sizzlin topic! 
5 hours ago ·
Mikko Pitkänen Facebook hasn’t made me rethink anything. “Friends” is just better word for random people who I met in the pub of life, plus some others that are actually my friends. Nevertheless the friends, randoms and their friends want something that probably is not yet defined, because it is probably something more beautiful than can be arbitrarily designed.
4 hours ago ·
Mikko Pitkänen ..meaning this wasn’t forcefully designed. It just happened and evolved on that. Same thing with Youtube.
4 hours ago ·
Madlene Lahtivuori I am provoked and enticed and I like it I’m going to throw myself in here and start with Language. Friends come in all nationalities but you have to select one language to write in. Using English is the easiest way through this obstacle (?) but it might feel unnatural to be talking to your Swedish friends of 20 years in English (true story). Hence, the simple and integrated service of Language translation. I can choose to write in the language I feel most comfortable in but I am still not excluding anyone (which is the feeling you have to negotiate with today) because if you are interested in hearing what I have to say you can get it translated. Maybe you can even save it somehow to your Language Learning Tool (as you are learning Swedish/Spanish/…) … A more inclusive approach I would say!
Second has to be the connection between people, location and context (events and such), simply better ways of providing with possibilities for meeting people face to face I am not loving Google Wave and Latitude but they are at least exploring the area and it is appealing to some extent.
I did like your articles Mike and I got especially stuck on “self portrayals” which triggered my imagination! The self portrayals of today are through media such as text, music, images, videoclips etc but what if we had other dimensions within (or outside of) that media to express the “tone of voice” and emotions to add to the portrayal of self? Based on who you are right now or to whom you are speaking for instance. What could the dimensions or filters be like I wonder?
I am also intrigued by the temporal issues, will there be more ways of handling the stream of social dialogue perhaps? Personally I remember time through events and location, and they are usually captured in photos (I am pretty sure I am not the only one . On FB we have a constant stream of events in different types of media and they all represent a bookmark or tag on that specific temporal location. Maybe being able to get a snapshot of a particular moment in time with all the media and all the people involved, translated into a geographical map and tagged with other media events/news in the society at that same time but at totally different locations? Or a summary of my day or month in status (which my Friend has thought of too long now and must do something about, right Jonas ?)
These are not superadvanced thoughts, I know, some of them are real low-hanging-fruit but it makes me wonder even more why FB has not really dealt with them yet? The platform and technology need to open up more to allow more unexpected things to evolve! Sorry for the essay…now I can’t sleep ….. thanks Rahul….
Martin Willers
Something that strikes me as interesting with this topic is what “resolution” ‘like’ disables/enables. Looking at cognitive aspects we can go from a realistic, personal emotion to a super general facebook blue-collar (white man?) thumbs-up on a green-screen backdrop…
I do wounder Mikko if maybe the bland design is guilty for giving it a broad “read, seen, appreciated etc” check box meaning? What if it was a real photographic hand/thumb from the actual persons, would that give it more power?
This article talks about cognitive levels in the visual field: http://bit.ly/6us3Et ..I think it serves as a helpful metaphor because just as your apple-dock-icons needs to display personality/character/brand, so does some of your opinions … See More
But then of course, it´s not so easy to make a perfect “getting divorced” icon as this article illustrates: http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/relationships/articles/2009/05/27/change_of_heart/
Oh, now I know! Perhaps if I touched the screen with my thumb and it read my fingerprint, then we could see nice quotes visually cluttered with thumb-fingerprints (automatically tagged with identity)! And guess what my middle finger would mean..!
Oh, once again exited about the digital future!
9 hours ago ·
Martin Willers
Damn, now you got me thinking just before bedtime!
A great video that explores some of the temporal aspects that Madlene and Mike was talking about can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXYckRgsdjI
… See More
“We are triangulating the (vast digital) world we live in, so we can see it’s shape” – Scott McCloud
So will this become a “durable mutation” in communication? I think it probably doesn’t have the cultural mojo of say the “peace-sign”. So ‘like’ will never be loved, but standardized like a a smiley.
When we get more refined gestural interactions I think the “long-finger-dislike-push” (from last post) will spread from the screen to the pub. So my kids will not be giving people “the finger” the will be pointing at them with “the finger”. This will be a much worse curse because this means that a photo is probably already up in the cloud with a bad judgement for every one else to see.
THANK YOU, my Friends!
The merits of an Offline Facebook.
Fact : The social-media ‘meshworks’ that we bind a part of our lives to, are becoming rapidly real-time, living Museums of our Everyday Lives.
These ‘meshes’ coupled with the lives and experiences of everyone we know (and sometimes don’t know!) are social artifacts of a very personal micro- and macro-nature . They are a dynamic testament of our ‘zeitgeist’. We, the social-networking generation, will leave behind a far richer, more vivid record of our lives than our predecessors. Our way of dealing with memories, remembrance and nostalgia will also change dramatically in the years to come.
As we post and upload our experiences on these platforms, thoughts like ‘what happens to all this data when we die’ are natural.
Recently I read a blog post by Bruce Sterling on his blog (Beyond the Beyond, Wired), about a Facebook form that dealt with Death. I found this addition very interesting.
The page excerpts from Facebook are – “IMPORTANT: This form is solely for the reporting of a deceased person to memorialize the person’s account. Memorializing the account removes certain sensitive information and sets privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile or locate it in search. The Wall remains so that friends and family can leave posts in remembrance. Please note that unrelated inquiries through this form may not receive a response.”
In a bizarre co-incidence, while writing this article, I read this article on TIME magazine’s website which convinced me that my thoughts were not entirely a ramble.
“We understand how difficult it can be for people to be reminded of those who are no longer with them, which is why it’s important when someone passes away that their friends or family contact Facebook to request that a profile be memorialized,” Facebook’s head of security Max Kelly said in a recent blog- post.
These articles and recent discussions with colleagues over lunch inspired me to complete writing what had been an empty draft (thought) in my blog for over a month. The discussion we were having was about hating/liking Facebook – a subject that is probably discussed all over the World with much intensity – led me to think about the merits of an ‘Offline Facebook’.
The idea of a ‘digital-diary’ – a confidential treasure-trove of memories and experiences documented over time – is not new. It has been blogged about and discussed by people far more qualified than myself. My thoughts emanate from the universal and inevitable march toward ‘real-time’ social networking. I am provoked by events like Google Wave, and all other similar endeavors including my own attempt as a MA student – Chameleo.
I am a social-networking glutton. I have over 1,000 ‘friends’. I share experiences frequently in order to get a glimpse of those of Others. Simple.
Sadly, I hold very few dear to me. Probably even fewer that I truly ‘follow’ and empathize with on a daily basis. I post updates, share, and consume the interesting people in my Life – their likes, dislikes, comments and experiences.
This thought is more about those who don’t want to be a part of this cycle of ‘post and consume posts’. This idea is aimed at people who don’t want to be stripped bare of their experiences and everything they cherish, by posting updates about it.
How can the social mesh-works that we use in our World adapt or tweak its settings to accommodate people who are more wary of ‘real-time’ and want to keep things personal and private? How could we create a digital-artefact that grows slowly, over time into a museum that would only be visible to a handful of near and dear ones.
Imagine this fictional post -
Oct.20, 2015 – John Macintosh’s ‘cloud-tablet’ indicates an incoming package.
On accepting it he finds his friend Ben’s ’Offline Journal’ with the following message written by hand. ‘Hi John – I added you to my Offline Journal ages ago because I wanted you to have this someday. Hope you will cherish this as much as I enjoyed documenting it. I’m sorry I never joined you on Facebook through these years. I wanted only a few people who I hold most dear to me to have this Journal.’
The Journal contained daily occurrences in his life since 2000 which he documented carefully, but never published. As John swipes through the various chapters, his eyes stream with tears as he immerses himself into deeply personal and vivid moments through his Father’s eyes. It was like unveiling a curtain on a past that had never been spoken nor shared. It was an immeasurably moving experience. And it was exactly like Facebook, only – never published. Never seen nor shown. Events as they occurred with reflections, recollections, pictures and tags – all unveiled at the right time, and place.
John can see who else received this Offline Journal. It makes him part of a truly unique group of people who were loved in a very special way by his Father during his lifetime.