Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Don't Cry For Me, Indonesia


Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country by population. About 87% of its 237 million citizens are Muslim. I have been there a total of three times, as recently as 2010. Two of my relatives are currently living in Bali as ex-patriots. I've always enjoyed going to Indonesia and whenever I went I never really felt like I was in a "Muslim" country at all. It seemed to me, a lot more like the popular images of Bangkok Thailand, filled with "discotheques" and seedy prostitutes. Indonesia was for a long time, perhaps along with Turkey, a shining example of a moderate Muslim country that could counter the crude stereotypes of many of the Muslim majority countries of the Middle East, and I can tell you that first hand. I first went there when I was 13 and I remember going out to a nightclub, being served beer and being able to buy cigarettes without any problem.

But perhaps I saw it through a filter. I've only been to two areas in Indonesia - Jakarta, the capital city on the island of Java, and the island of Bali, which is the predominantly Hindu part of the country, known to tourists for its nightlife. Just like in the US, religiosity in Indonesia increases once you get out of the big cities. Generally speaking, the further west in Indonesia that you go and the more rural the part of the country, the more likely you'll find people who are deeply religious. And in Indonesia, "deeply religious" tends to mean deeply Muslim, as Indonesians are at least about as Muslim as Americans are Christian.


Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Does Anyone Remember What It Was Like Before The Internet?


I remember back in the days I would actually get bored from time to time.

I happen to be just old enough to remember a time before everyone had the internet. In the early 90s, many people didn't have a home computer, and the idea of the internet was still a sci-fi dream for most of us, talked about by wide-eyed futurists. I remember often getting bored. I remember what it felt like not having anything to do, not having any interesting shows on TV to watch, or books to read, or friends available to hang out with.

All that's changed now, because of the internet. Now I have unlimited entertainment at my finger tips. I can stream movies, documentaries and TV online, and watch them whenever I want. I can find information about anything from frog sexuality to the list of popes, instantly. I can read up on the latest scientific discoveries, the latest discussions in philosophy, or read from millions of different blogs about a variety of topics. I can watch debates and lectures on subjects I find fascinating from world renowned professionals in the field. Or, I can waste hours on social networking sites. It just never ends. I'm never bored anymore. There's never enough time in my day to be able to do and see all the things I want online, even on days when I have nothing to do.

It's impossible to be bored anymore. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?



Thursday, June 27, 2013

My New Twitter Account


For a long time I hated Twitter, just like Facebook. I just didn't see the point. But realizing how convenient it is to follow someone you respect, I decided to make an account. I haven't been tweeting all that frequently but that will change.

Follow me @AtheismNTheCity

Friday, February 19, 2010

I got un-friended

I did an experiment the other day. I randomly friended a few a girls who were friends of friends just to see if they'd except it. I can't remember how many I friended but 2 girls accepted my request. One a hot Latina, Dominican looking, who is a big believer in God. I commented on her wall and asked a question that might challenge her faith, and she removed it and unfriended me. Ha. It was kind of funny. We were never friends to begin with, and I'm surprised she unfriended me.

She writes a lot about her faith and trips to church. I guess she doesn't want a challenge and when she saw my profile she figured I'm a bad person and got rid of me. Too bad I would have loved to challenge her more. Oh well.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

To friend or not to friend....?

When it comes to Facebook "friends" the term is used too loosely. I take friendship serious. I'd rather have 5 real friends than 500 fake virtual friends. I haven't had many friend requests on FB mostly due to the fact that no one knows who the hell I am. I don't use my real name, or my picture. There are over a dozen people out there who have the same name as me on FB. I wonder how many people have searched for me and turned their profiles instead.

I've always been very secretive about my last name and many of my friends have never known it. I've seen on FB all my old friends from high school who I really don't talk to anymore. Most people on FB reunite with all their old high school friends, I haven't. There's a reason who we lost touch perhaps, and that's because we didn't have much in common. So why would I then want to reunite with them? I have only one friend from high school that I still keep in touch with in real life and on FB.

There's a term I use for FB people who friend everybody, I call them "Facebook whores." These are people who are trying to get as many friends as possible and will friend anyone and except friend requests from anyone. I must admit that I hate the idea of friending someone that I don't really know well. Partially because I fear they may not accept it and partially because I'm very private online. I do wish I had more friends on FB though. I could start friending everyone randomly.

People who have 200+ friends must be in the business of being a FB whore. It's like a high school popularity contest. I do think that FB has changed the culture. I've heard people saying and writing that a relationship is not official until it is broadcast on FB. If someone rejects a friend request it could be taken personal by the rejectee. I think I would. Imagine you meet someone, a friend of a friend, hang out one day, and then friend them on FB only to have the request linger for days and weeks. You know they've been active on FB because you can see their activity. Then next time you see that person should you bring it up? If so how do you do it? What is the person rejecting the friend request going to do? How should they explain it to the person they're rejecting as politely as possible? No matter the explanation the friendship is most likely going to be strained a bit.

This goes on to my earlier posts about why I hate social networking sites. Now you can't just have a casual friend anymore, it has to become "official" on Facebook. Now almost every time you meet someone becoming friends on FB is standard procedure, like shaking hands. There will be more pressure I'm sure to make relationships official and public on FB too. Well FB might die off like the way MySpace did, although I think FB will be around for at least another 5 years reigning supreme.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Facebook

I've never had a relationship in this age of Facebook. It's been a while since I had a serious relationship anyway. I hate the idea of dating in the Facebook era because I might know too much about the person I'm dating too soon. Let's say I meet a girl and we have mutual initial attraction. I think she's interesting, I want to get to know her. We become Facebook friends and then I find out a bunch of things I don't like about her. Now I'm starting to become less attracted to her. Eventually it wanes to the point of being gone.

This is a possible scenario. I could after Facebook, become more attracted to her. I might find her intriguing. She might reveal just enough information about herself, but not too much and get me interested.

I keep my privacy settings on Facebook pretty high. Some people let anyone see their wall and information. Some people treat it like twitter or their online blog and pour out their deepest emotions. I prefer to use it to keep in touch with friends. I'm highly opinionated but I'm afraid letting out my opinions on Facebook might hurt my future job hunting prospects if a potential employer were to find it out and dissuade them from hiring me. This really scares me. I don't want to lose a job over an angry thought I had on my mind at one particular moment.

I have become kind of obsessed with Facebook recently. I can see why so many millions of young people are addicted to it. It's the number 2 site on the internet now. Wow. It beat yahoo and msn. It's popularity is incredible, I mean everyone uses Facebook. Will it be a fad like Myspace was? I don't know, I think Facebook is hear to stay at least for a while. But who knows, the web is very fickle.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

So I finally surrendered to Facebook

I wanted to wait as long as I could but I got hit with a technical question at work about how Facebook works by an older fellow, so I then realized that I have to know how it works. I was reading about Facebook's effects on relationships recently and the whole new layer of complexity that it brings to our already complex lives and relationships. I also got my first Facebook rejection when I had wrote a comment on a friend's wall that accidently revealed information about him he didn't want his other friends to see. So he "unfriended" me.

I got pissed because he didn't tell me why he did that at first and I only found out days later. It is making me think too about the amount of information out there we all see. Do I want ALL my "friends" on Facebook to be able to see what everyone writes? The conflict between my older friends who might know things about me that, let's say I don't want my newer, or my professional friends to know about is a constant worry. I don't want to be in the position of having to obsessively monitor everything said about me on Facebook 24/7.

I didn't put my real name up and I created an email address just for registering on Facebook so that no one can track me down. I prefer to use this only for newer and professional relationships I have and wish to not include most of the older friends from my past, some of whom aren't even on Facebook.

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