Facebook and Grammar
My older younger brother (think before you ask) recently joined Facebook and asked me to sign up in order to share his photos. So, reluctantly, I did. Surprisingly, I found the interface to be infinitely more intuitive than Myspace which I hate but joined in order to communicate with my grandson, Dakota, while he was in Europe with his soccer team. I know, lots of folks love Myspace, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that thinks it’s a bloated, clumsy clunker.
Anyway, between the two, Facebook appears to provide a smoother user experience and a better sense of humor. For example, I found this post on the site’s own blog somewhat amusing. Apparently, some folks aren’t choosing a gender in their profiles, an omission that has caused some problems for Facebook’s language translators, so much so that they’ve asked members to kindly select one or the other. Of course, not to appear insensitive to users who haven’t yet decided which gender they want to be, Facebook has granted an exception:
“We’ve received pushback in the past from groups that find the male/female distinction too limiting. We have a lot of respect for these communities, which is why it will still be possible to remove gender entirely from your account, including how we refer to you in Mini-Feed.”
The male/female distinction is “too limiting”? How so, I wonder. What other distinctions might there be? Anyone?
Doug
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Reader Comments (17)
I think all these "social networking" sites are bad. They are mine fields for our kids who unknowingly walk amongst the scum out there who wants to hurt them.
MySpace is the worst. Have you ever had to navigate through a MySpace site? It is slow on older computers, the pictures overlap one another, there is no order to them. The only thing they have is a jukebox to play music.
I usd to use Myspace but it was too "busy" for me so I am trying Facebook now. But a lot of my friends don't want to bother switching so I have to accumulate new friends.
You think MySpace is junk? Try Twitter. Now there is a real waste of bandwidth!
8:03 : "I'm drinking a latte."
9:03 : "I'm on the crapper."
9:45 : "Bill is sad."
Who effing cares?
Let's see. "He", "she" and "it"?
"Male", "female", "she-male", "he-fem", "bi", "beast", "sheep
fuhumper", "orientationally confused" (that's all I got.)lol, that is funny!
Yeah, I don't "get" Twitter, but I don't "get" texting either. Kids look like zombies walking through the mall with their phones in front of them as they text. What could they be saying? Usually something trivial or stupid. Most texters outgrow it but not all. I see adults sitting in a restaurant with their significant other and buried in their texting. How rude to their date!!
You are right and I have to say I have done that. I never thought about how rude it is to the person/people I am with. Sometimes a look in the mirror shows us a bad side of ourselves. Thanks.
well, i think if you don't like myspace you must not have set your page up right. i have seen bad pages too but that is because the person didnt set it up right by not using the tools for setup right. if you do it right it works and looks great. and they have more users so you get more friends.
"Friends"? Oh please! They aren't "friends", they are other losers who don't have "real" friends so associate with "imaginary" friends on a social network. If you want "real" friends, you have to make an investment in time and effort to meet real people and develop true friendships. To do that, you need to push away from the keyboard and pay attention to "real" people.
"older younger brother"?
The older of two younger brothers.
Or the oldest of several younger brothers, isn't it?
Your grandson went to Europe to play soccer? You must be very proud of him!
immensely proud.
And it's the oldest of my two younger brothers in this case.
I am pretty well sick of Myspace. Think I will give facebook a try.