Here’s a useful tip: If you delete Facebook from your phone, you will check Facebook less often. A LOT less often. In a scientific experiment starting the day after the election, I deleted the ubiquitous blue icon from my iPhone 6. That was right after putting out feelers regarding a move to Australia. Still haven’t heard back from Australia, but over the past few days I’ve noticed […]
All about the eyeballs
I didn’t need Facebook’s dubious study to tell me what I already know: I tend to like stuff I already like. This is why such a large percentage of my news feed consists of amusing cat videos. Still, I get why scientists are calling bullshit on the study, wherein Facebook’s brainiacs conclude, basically, that its secret-sauce algorithm does not keep users from seeing opinions they disagree with. […]
One lab rat to another
Who among us has not spent 15 minutes perusing Facebook without at some point concluding that life could be better? Show of hands. Now we know why. It’s not that life sucks, per se; it’s just that the geniuses at Facebook were messing with us. They wanted to know if small variations in the number of cat videos and dinner entrees and vacation sunsets could have an […]
Some dopamine of one’s own
If you were to make a list of things that might really make a difference in your life, quitting Facebook would be way down there. Probably about the same level as quitting American Idol or vowing to clip your toenails more regularly. Which is to say, it can’t hurt. But neither can it make much difference in the fullness of time. But I quit anyway. Again. It […]
Maybe that “dislike” button is a good idea
Regarding Facebook, I’m starting to feel like Kramer in that Seinfeld episode, “The Stock Tip.” I put FB on my Yahoo listings and smile each time I look at it. Something about watching stock you don’t own plummet in value — it just makes all the world a sunny day. I guess they call that Schadenfreude. As Jerry would say: “Why does it please you?” I don’t […]
Stock tip of the day: Eschew Facebook
Nobody should ever take my investment advice. I am the guy who, in 1993, bought 50 shares of Apple Computer. My broker at the time mistakenly added a zero and prepared an order for 500 shares. The stock was going at around $24 and change. He called to confirm. I could have covered 500, just barely, and I did have a brief premonition that it might result […]
Facebook is no place for valentines
A few words about Facebook. After doing without it for a week, I can say that the self-exile didn’t make much difference. At the start it did feel like the loss of some vestigial sense — that third eye that focuses only on other people’s minutiae — but the feeling quickly faded. At this moment my little deadline has expired, but I still haven’t felt a strong […]