Some Thoughts on the New Facebook Format and Happy Birthday to the Bagginses

First, I picked up a copy of The Lord of the Rings the other day, not really planning to re-read it again.   I love the book but it’s awfully long, I’ve read it twice and there are so many other books in the world, but right there in Chapter One, on page one, I came across this little gem:

Bilbo would have absolutely hated the new facebook format

“When Bilbo was ninety-nine he adopted Frodo as his heir, and brought him to live at Bag End;  and the hopes of the Sackville-Bagginses were finally dashed.  Bilbo and Frodo happened to have the same birthday, September 22nd.  ‘You had better come and live here, Frodo my lad,’ said Bilbo one day; ‘and then we can celebrate our birthday parties comfortably together.’

So, happy birthday to the heroic Bagginses, and my nephew Josh.

On to the main topic of tonight’s blog: the Great Facebook Update Fiasco.  When I opened facebook last night my first thought was OMGWTFTRS.  From most of the comments I’ve seen, I am, for a change, in the majority opinion.  I haven’t seen such a wave of opposition since they brought out the new Coke.  At first I thought they’d hid the birthdays and that really bothered me because that’s something I actually use.  (It’s still there, maybe just a little less conspicuous).  The streaming updates look far too much like Bloomberg TV.  Of course, I would like to take in as much info as possible about what everybody is doing, but the eyes can only scan so quick and the brain can only hold so much.  There are limits.

I feel the same about the internet in general.  Too many bells and whistles, offers of things I don’t want, boxes popping up whenever you move the cursor over something too slowly and, the thing that infuriates me above all others, predictive text.  I don’t particularly like it when another human being finishes my sentences for me, it’s downright creepy when a machine tries to do it.  And they aren’t that good at it.

In short, although I may be a liberal/progressive politically, I am a technological conservative, sort of a neo-Luddite if that isn’t too much of an oxymoron.

Since yesterday, I have read a few comments in defense of the new format.  Give it a chance, one person said.  It will grow on you.  Another pointed out that there was massive outrage the last time they had an update, too.  Still another made the very valid point that it’s a free service and Facebook is going to do whatever they damned well please so we can just like it or lump it, as the expression goes.

It’s a little bit like being an Obama supporter.  We may resent some of the things he does, and even more some of the things he doesn’t do, but we’re going to keep on voting for him because there really isn’t any alternative.

So, it’s been 24 hours now.  I’m still not crazy about the new format, but I suppose I will get used to it in time, and perhaps learn to appreciate some of it’s advantages.  Anyway, I’m trying.