Disclaimer: I am one of those people that don’t have Facebook.
To the topic at hand, I’m married to a Taiwanese woman (no not girl) and it used to be that if you bring her out to dinner she for some reason had to take a picture of every dish they serve, still haven’t figured out why. Well, then came Facebook, a place on the internet where you can spend several hours a day talking to your friends about everything and nothing, usually the later one if I understood things correctly (a bit like Forumosa). And finally the geniuses at Facebook have managed to combine these two, now that we go to a restaurant, even if it is grandma’s dumpling place on the corner, she has to “check in” thru her I-phone. Not only that, she will take pictures of the food and upload them to her Facebook account so that everybody on her friends list can discuss the food.
To be honest, I don’t see the point of “checking in” to places, if you check into places on your phone can you explain to me why?
Btw, it is not only restaurants, apparently a friend got arrested for drunk driving last weekend so he “checked into” the police house not only in real life but also on Facebook.
So if you didn’t get it already, my question is why would you check into places on Facebook?
I haven’t checked in anywhere yet. But the other day a friend of mine checked in to a cafe (which we both frequent) and as I was in the area I stopped by for a coffee and a chat. I haven’t seen her for a while so I thought it was kinda cool.
It’s mostly a vanity thing. When I checked in at the Meridien recently when I was dining there, I honestly just wanted to show off to my friends where I went. Yes, I know, pretty shallow but some of my FB friends do the same. I also check in at places that offer goodies that I think my friends would enjoy. The other day I checked in at my neighborhood Yoshinoya and shared with my friends the delicious breakfast sandwiches it’s offering. That got some positive feedback.
The only drawback I see with checking in is if one of your friends happens to be a thief, he’ll know exactly when you’re not home and break into your place.
[quote=“Incubus”]It’s mostly a vanity thing. When I checked in at the Meridien recently when I was dining there, I honestly just wanted to show off to my friends where I went. Yes, I know, pretty shallow but some of my FB friends do the same. I also check in at places that offer goodies that I think my friends would enjoy. The other day I checked in at my neighborhood Yoshinoya and shared with my friends the delicious breakfast sandwiches it’s offering. That got some positive feedback.
[/quote]
Love the honesty in this post, and that attitude is actually why Facebook is so popular, it is basically a soapbox for people to say ‘look at all the awesome shit I got goin on!’ or ‘listen to how witty I am!’ etc…It is human nature to behave in this manner from time to time, and obviously some people do it more than others, and I vacillate between finding this behavior cute and endearing, and finding it annoying.
To me checking in is dumb and has more potential downside than upside, but it can, as mentioned above, bring people together from time to time, and Facebook has been great for that. One thing I do not like about Facebook is how some people I now barely know and never see, but have added as friends (old classmates from HS or whatever) are in my life daily because they post so much on Facebook. Sure I could just ignore them, but to me that takes away from the experience (though I have ignored two people, mainly for endless Mafia Wars and Farmville updates). Facebook has exposed angles of people’s personalities we never knew existed, and I am curious to see if this need to document and comment on all mundane facets of our life is a passing fancy or something that will get more intense as our digital life becomes more and more in step with our lives.
If I’m visiting a location that advertises on Forumosa, I’ll always check in. It gets their name out just a little bit more, and I try to be as supportive as I can of their businesses. Loyalty means a lot to me, so I assume it does to others as well.
It just makes me jealous when I see how some of my friends eat so often at places that I can’t even afford once a month. Where DO they get the MONEY???
Stupid updates I’ve seen include the convenience store at Lotus Hill (you know hwo you are), and a motorway intersection in England. I try not to take any notice of these messages, and positively frown on hearing that anyone has become mayor of anything.
Then again, I think being labelled ‘English teacher with headband’ is also stupid, so who am I to judge what works?
The assumption that people check in for vanity purposes is wrong in my case. Facebook is my journal. I check in when I go somewhere special with my family in order to remember what we did. I don’t think I’ve ever taken photos of the food we eat, but it doesn’t bother me when others do that.
Facebook is completely opt-in–block the people you don’t want to follow, and only friend the people who you don’t mind sharing some of your life with. I think it’s a brilliant tool, but I’m not the addictive type. It doesn’t rule my life. It adds to it.
Some people require confirmation that their lives are exciting via facebook. Other people like to live vicariously through others via facebook. At any rate no harm to either parties.
Just sign up to Friendface by giving us all your personal information, then we’ll provide a web page where you can meet new friends, catch up with old ones or maybe find that special someone. We own everything you put on Friendface - it says so in the terms and agreements. But don’t worry, we won’t do anything bad with it, we promise. Just think about love and companionship and everything is fine.
It’s sad that the more we strive to be seen as better, to be liked - to be recognized as an individual and the more we try to incite jealousy in others, the more anonymous we become.
I seem to keep having this experience as well. I was eating with these two girls and the one who was taking pictures of the different dishes did it almost robotically, as if that was part of protocol of eating at a restaurant. She didn’t even smile while doing it.
[quote=“Super Hans”]Just sign up to Friendface by giving us all your personal information, then we’ll provide a web page where you can meet new friends, catch up with old ones or maybe find that special someone. We own everything you put on Friendface - it says so in the terms and agreements. But don’t worry, we won’t do anything bad with it, we promise. Just think about love and companionship and everything is fine.
It’s sad that the more we strive to be seen as better, to be liked - to be recognized as an individual and the more we try to incite jealousy in others, the more anonymous we become.[/quote]
What’s even sadder is that is going to be on a lot of people’s signature lines all around the world and nobody will know who made it up. It was good.
