Social Desire

Do you want to be my Facebook Friend?? Stop Threatening Me!!

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I have been a little disappointed in Facebook lately. Well, maybe not Facebook directly, but instead some of the people that I have agreed to Facebook Friendships. And, due to the tactics these people are using on Facebook to pass the word about things they feel strongly about has caused me to not spend as much time on FaceBook in general.

In case you aren’t aware…. it was only a few months back that I was singing my praises about Facebook. I spent a lot of time there. I was able to do my social networking in ways that I couldn’t do in other Social Media arenas. I love Social Networking in all different ways, but what is so cool about Facebook is some of the very cool Applications that Facebook has. Some of these applications helped me interact with fellow marketers and bloggers that I didn’t know too well before facebook, but due to the fun networking via these applications caused me to take a closer look at their websites and blogs. But, recently something has started to happen that has not happened to me in this last year of using Facebook until recently…. "Chain Messages."

I’m not sure if Chain Messages is what this "thing" is actually called. But, this is what I’m going to call it. Chain Messages reminds me of a chain mail, but is is done through Facebook Applications. These Chain Messages are rude, forceful and threatening and I’m more than a little bit irritated that they have entered my Facebook space.

Here is an example of a message I received earlier today that has me so upset. I have removed a couple things from this screen shot. I removed the name of the person who sent me this FunWall post. I have also removed the name of my Facebook Friends from the "forward to:" section.

Now, this isn’t the first Chain Message I received, but this one really has me bothered. I’ll get into the reasons why this particular Chain Message has me irked, but in the meantime let me list what makes a Chain Letter a Chain Letter, so we can compare the Old Fashioned Chain Letter to this Chain Letter 2.0.

Wikipedia tells me that a Chain Letter is…

"A typical chain letter consists of a message that attempts to induce the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to as many recipients as possible… Common methods used in chain letters include emotionally manipulative stories, get-rich-quick pyramid schemes, and the exploitation of superstition to threaten the recipient with bad luck or even physical violence or death if he or she "breaks the chain" and refuses to adhere to the conditions set out in the letter."

Wow, that definition sounds very much like the FunWall Post I received above. Let’s check out another. The following is from FraudBureau.com. Here they explain the Anatomy of a Chain Letter.

"Every chain letter is comprised of three components:

* The hook. The letter will try to grab your attention so that you will read the rest of it. Some common themes are "Get Rich Quick", to appeal to our desire to make money or "Virus Alert" to hook us by arousing our fears.

* The threat. Once you are hooked, the letter arouses your fears by telling you about the terrible things that will happen if you do not continue to keep the chain in tact. The threat is usually realistic enough to get you to continue the chain.

* The request. The request is usually the demand to distribute the letter to as many individuals as possible. "

Ahhh, so there are three components to every chain Letter. Very interesting. Well, Let’s see if there are three components to this Facebook Chain Message…

The Hook - "Someone will either call you or talk to you and tell you that they love you." Not a get rich scheme, but definitely something that many people are desperately looking for.

The Threat - "I better not see anyone breaking this one or see deleted." Well, I know this is not a specific threat, but it is an empty threat at least. It is playing on the fear of many people with social networking…. not having other’s support.

The Request - "These are ribbons for Soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pass it on to everyone and Pray." Definitely works on the emotions of many.

Hmmmm…. very interesting. Seems like this FunWall Post has all the makings of a Chain Letter to me. Dress it up whatever way you want to, but it is what it is… a chain letter.

What has me so upset about this particular Chain Message is the fact that it plays on the emotions of many people. We all know and love someone who is helping fight wars in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. And, this message is using our emotions to get us to do what they want us to do.

You know what really gets me is that I might have helped passing around the support ribbons to my Facebook friends had I not felt threatened. But, after reading the entire FunWall post I didn’t want any part of it. I wonder how many others who received this same FunWall post felt the same way I did and didn’t forward the message to their Facebook friends as well.

And, that brings us to another topic which I won’t delve to far into at this time….. friends made online. Should they have the same qualities of real life friends? OF COURSE!!! The social skills and etiquette that your mother and father taught you should still apply online. No parent in their right mind would teach their children the skills of threatening their friends. So, if you wouldn’t treat your friends in the real world with threats then don’t do it online.

You want to be my friend online?? Stop threatening me!!

Posted in Blogging, Facebook, Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0 | 15 Comments »

StumbleUpon Changes - Are you a List or Grid?

In the past few days I’ve noticed a few changes on StumbleUpon. They aren’t huge changes, but changes none-the-less. These changes appear on your own StumbleUpon page. What is cool about these changes is that you have a choice. You can choose to keep things the same as they have been or change the way your Favorites page looks. And, deciding between keeping things like they once were or changing it to the new display depends whether you are more visual or not.

If you take a look on your Favorite Page on StumbleUpon and you have it set to the standard view it should look something like this:

Now, take a look at the right section of this page. You will notice a section that looks like this:

If you click on the link that says, "Show thumbnails" your Favorite page on StumbleUpon will now look something like this:

Pretty cool, huh?! But, it can be changed even more still. Visually, I like the way the above thumbnails looks on my favorites page. But, maybe for you this way is too wordy and you would like to see more Thumbnails. Not a problem. You will notice that there is a section that says, "Display: List Grid". It should look something like the following image:

Right now your StumbleUpon Favorite page is probably on the default display, List. Click on Grid to see the display change to list your favorites as a grid using Thumbnails. It will look something like this:

For example, when I stumbled the post, "Treating Your Blog as a Business: 8 Aspects to Consider" it lists the screen shot of the entire web page and It’s easier for me to look at the thumbnail and know it is a DailyBlogTips post. It probably has a screen shot of the entire web page because there is no other image on that post. However, when I stumbled Brent Csutoras‘ post, "Digg’s April Fools… The Joke is on You!" the thumbnail on my StumbleUpon favorites page is the image of Brent’s "digg-fools-buttons photo". This could make just the thumbnails display on my favorites page more difficult for me in the days to come to figure out what I stumbled without having the description there too.

I DIG that I have choices on how I would like to see my StumbleUpon Favorites. I love the way my Favorites look on one page. Visually, it looks awesome!! But, I’m not sure if this is the best way for me to keep my StumbleUpon favorites page. Again, it looks great!! But, it is hard for me to figure out what website it is by the Thumbnails. Some Thumbnails are easier to figure it out than others. Some of the Thumbnails are screen shots of the web page… making it easier for me to figure out what favorite it is. However, some of the thumbnails are images from the web page itself. Even though this too is cool it isn’t very easy for me to always figure out which StumbleUpon favorite I stumbled.

Bottom line…. I love that I have choices. Which display do I enjoy the most? The answer is, "I’m not sure, yet". For right now I’m toggling back and forth between different displays until I figure it out. So far, it appears that I’m leaning towards to the traditional basic original version of no thumbnails. But, that is probably because I’m not really good with sudden change and I need to work myself into it a bit. I’m usually a very visual person, so I’m guessing that eventually when I get more use to it I will be using the Display page with the Thumbnails in the List form.

What about you? What StumbleUpon Favorites Display are you using?

Posted in Social Bookmarking, Social Media, Social Networking, StumbleUpon, Tips and Tutorials, Web 2.0 Basics | 18 Comments »