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McCarver had his moments in the '80s and '90s, though he was never as good as some of his most ardent defenders (e.g. Mike Lupica) claimed him to be. Now, he's the old galoot telling the kids to get off his lawn.
I think Twitter is probably pretty useful but I'm not using it right. Even so I think the signal to noise ratio seems impossible to get right.
Local news...not so reliable. I had to learn about the first local serial killing in some 80+ years from CNN.
Next to orange marmalade that is.
I think he means "the Stalinist Soviet Union", but it's a pretty cool (or insane) quote anyway. I'm not on Facebook and don't really see the point of it, but perhaps Tim's broadcast partner should have asked for elaboration rather than leaving him out on the high wire, netless.
IIRC, the edict was to stop talking about dead people.
O God, this.
My brother is the ############# Grim Reaper of FB. Some TV person died? He is ON IT. "RIP, [person I had not thought about in thirty years]."
1. Famine and Malnutrition Worldwide
2. War
3. the Designated Hitter
4. Pestilence
5. Social Media
6. People Not Using Their Turn-Signal
7. Drought
8. Four Hour, Nine Inning Baseball Games
I was able to speak to him for about 5 minutes today, but he was busy with so many things, his emotions, setting up funeral arrangements, family, etc, that he couldn't talk longer. Nevertheless, he posted a couple of updates on facebook, one which was very emotional and beautiful. It's hard for me not to see how social media, in this case, helped my friend reach out and seek the comfort of his friends, providing him with a way to express emotions he couldn't otherwise express. I have never been less cynical about facebook.
The games (i.e. Farmville) that some people play on there are hated by enough that it's senseless to gripe about it too much. But I'm astounding how many of my FB friends use the check-in feature without a hint of irony. My grocery trips are tedious enough for me. I can't imagine thinking anyone would want to read an update letting everyone know that I'm buying bananas.
One of Facebook's biggest appeals is also one of its drawbacks: the ability to follow a friend's life without ever really communicating with that person one-on-one. I've got friends who are spread out all over the country (and world), so it's cool to see some pictures or read some of their experiences (the more interesting ones, anyway). I've got a good friend who's in Korea right now and I look forward to his blogs/notes and photos, mostly because he shows some restraint in both. In other words, he's not constantly posting meaningless notes or hundreds of shitty photos.
On the flip side, it's a big alarming to think about how I've been able to stay up to date on the lives of some friends despite rarely interacting with them. I've got acquaintances who I haven't seen in years, but don't feel like there's anything to catch up on because their Facebook has kept me up to date.
Social media is an incredible waste of time a resources but those who use it are typically those whose time and resources aren't very valuable to society anyway.
Back-to-back Primey worthy posts.
My, people sure have changed a lot in the 4 years since Facebook became popular.
The flip side of this are people who post:
"Oh (so and so), I'm so sorry for your loss!". Add about 5 different permutations from others, and you're scrambling to try and find out if "so-and-so" lost a dog, or their husband.
Or people who just post pictures of themselves or their children in the hospital without any accompanying explanation.
Who cares? Nobody follows those people.
What's with the personal insults to people like me? Why are you offended by the existence of these mechanisms for people to connect to each other?
I get that, but honestly I think my friend wanted even that reaction, just the feeling of not being alone with this incredible sadness and heavy burden. Just recognition that he was going through this intensely sad and unreal thing.
1. Lurkers
2. People who post only occasionally
3. People who post more frequently
4. Crazy women who post every 3 hours about how wonderful their husband is
5. People who post pictures of their meals. (WTF is this all about?)
6. Etc.
I can't tell if he was reading a Larry King column, or Hank Kingsley's newsletter.
7. People who post pictures of their children.
Maybe this was just his passive-aggressive method of trying to get Joe Buck to stop poking him.
The primary reason I stick with Facebook. I have no kids of my own but I love seeing my friends kids as they grow up. Some of them I see in person regularly other I see rarely but this is easily my favorite thing about Facebook.
I think the point is that the rise of social media has given a platform for anyone to display their self-absorption in a widespread manner. Before, these people had to work a bit more to let their friends and associates know how great they were.
We live in a time when it's an accomplishment when someone actually prepares their own food. Hence, you get schmucks thinking their heinous looking grilled cheese sandwich and bowl of Spaghetti-O's are worth immortalizing via photograph and sharing with your online compadres.
The problem is that most parents think their children are incredible beings and that every action they make short of taking a #### is worth photographing. Some of my friends have adorable children and a few of them will post photos or brief videos of them when it's actually warranted. These are the outliers, though. Most of my FB friends who have children don't have the restraint not to post dozens of albums with hundreds of photos of their sometimes downright ugly kids doing unremarkable things.
Well, I knew there had to be someone out there who liked those pictures. I just never thought I would see this in print.
Edit:
There are actually sub-types here:
a. People who post pictures of their meals at restaurants (status whoring)
b. people who post pictures of the meals they made (acceptable, imo; it's something that they're proud of).
You mean breathtaking.
(Andy should get the reference, as a Seinfeld fan.)
I'm not a parent, but I could see myself actually falling into the pratfall I complained about in my last post. I'm seeing someone right now who has two young children. I met the youngest, a 13-month-old, this afternoon. I don't really take pictures of even things I think are worth photographing, but this was probably the first time I've been entertained by someone staggering around while intermittently drooling and taking huge swigs from a bottle. So in that respect, I can see why some parents can't help but take piles of pictures.
Actually, I'm all for taking lots of pictures. My parents took thousands of pictures of my brother and me growing up. Those albums are some of my most prized possessions. It's just that in the Facebook age, everyone of your "friends" is bombarded with this massive quantity of photos whether they want to be or not.
Not offended. Reality TV and tabloids also exist and find an audience for a reason. People without much going on need something to fill the hours.
Well, sometimes you just say things to be nice.
Plus you don't have to see the pimply twerp in order to tip him!
You should've hung out with me in college.
I don't understand the fascination with getting back in touch with people you fell out of touch with (probably for good reasons); it smacks of an odd nostalgia to me, but then I have very few friends from grade school, high school, and college combined... I'm an outlier I guess.
Nope. Not ever.
People post pictures of restaurant meals to say, "Look at me and where I can afford to eat." Anyone who wants to see beautifully plated food can go to French Laundry or Le Bernardin or Minibar or watch the ####### Food Network for five minutes.
should have their camera phones taken away.
I need to get out more.
It takes some getting used to, it's not brilliant but it's useful. It's not like we've got a pristine signal/noise ratio around here either. I think the only awkward thing is when someone you see regularly (work, church, whatever) but don't consider a friend asks to be your friend on facebook. I've made a semi-policy that I won't be fb friends with someone I work with (until one of us leaves). I just post too much silly stuff (not work gripes) on fb.
And of course all my friends get to remember how witty and charming I am.
Me, I'm just entertained that the critical comments are from people spending time on a baseball website and usually no more than one sentence long. A lot of people in this thread and around here generally are using bbtf just like twitter.
At least you guys are getting snaps of food from fancy restaurants. I'm "friends" with too many people who deem diner fare and Buffalo Wild Wings entrees as photo-worthy.
I like looking at pictures of things my friends are passionate about. If I don't care about it, I won't look at it.
This #### isn't difficult.
A beautiful plate of food is whoring. A 46" pizza is saying "holy cow, look at that".
I go back & forth on this: I like knowing what my friends are up to, and sometimes I like their pictures.
Still, if I can automatically never see any post related to FB games (Farmville, etc.), SOMEhow I'd also like to be able to block (1) children posts and (2) politics posts.
I have a few obsessive food-documenter friends, but they are almost all what-they-cooked posts, and I kind of like those.
(another subset: gardeners posting their resulting flowers / fruits / vegetables - I'm good with those, too.)
Uh.
Yeah, I'm not sure why I'm on facebook, but I have to confess that I'm addicted. I check it 38 times per day; I can't help it. I care about less than 1% of it, but I guess the narcissistic part of me (which is 99% of me) wants to constantly know if anyone's said anything to/about me or whatever. Sigh. I ####### hate myself.
Fox gives a voice to Tim McCarver, who shouldn't have one either.
Okay, I have no idea why someone would post a picture of a 46 inch pizza. The midwest is weird.
I understand most of the complaints in this thread, but I also think that they're very minor. I find it very easy to ignore the boring and stupid posts. I delete continually-offending people from my feed.
Really? If I encountered a 46 inch pizza, I might post a picture of it. That is a notable event.
What on earth makes people want to go to some baseball blog and post comments. If you want to experience baseball, just go watch an actual game. What are you going to get by reading posts from people you've never met?
This is the major reason I'm on facebook. I've spent several years in three different places, all of which are at least several hunrded miles from one another so it's the most feasible way to talk to friends. I treat it essentially as the same thing as ICQ or MSN Messenger back in ancient times. It has the added benefit of seeing what people are up to. Sure 95% of it is pointless but how hard is it to ignore things you don't care about? (On facebook, quite easy as you can just tell facebook not to bother telling you what certain people are doing) And every now and then there are useful tidbits of information posted. For instance last week a friend of mine posted his plans to take his son to his first MLB game this July in Toronto. It so happens I'm in Toronto then as well so we mgiht get together for the game.
It's also handy for groups and clubs. If a baseball game is cancelled our club president doesn't have to send out mass texts or e-mails, he can just post on our facebook site. Or if I'm going to a party I don't have to call the host every time I forget where/when it is (which is usually once a day in the lead-up to the event), I can just check the facebook invite. I guess all this could be handled through e-mail in roughly the same fashion...but people don't check their e-mail all that often these days.
That was a fun exercise!
Let's see what's on mine.
Friend deriding Padres camo uniforms
Former English professor thanking people for coming over for Easter dinner
Ex-girlfriend tagged in pictures at some kind of party
Pictures of Cousin's kids
Picture of dude I haven't seen since grade 8! (he looks like Yul Brenner now)
Fact of the Day Post: Jamie Moyer has faced 8.9% of all batters ever.
So yeah, I could easily live without all that information, but then again I usually don't even look at my facebook feed (despite it being on pretty much all day while I'm working). I mostly just use it for the instant messaging.
This. I sometimes wonder if some of the folks here realize that BTF is a social networking site.
It was Easter yesterday. Unless you're Orthodox like me, in which case Easter is next week.
"I've never figured out how Twitter works."
It has everything to do with following the right people who suit both your interests and your pace (that is, do you mind 40-50 tweets a day from some frenzied sportswriters?). Try a small dollop of people first, then gradually ease in more.
I still follow fewer than 200 people, and that includes dozens of friends and colleagues who rarely tweet at all, so the stream is manageable for me anyway. Don't know why anyone would follow 500+ people, unless it's that obnoxious thing about trying to pad one's "followers" list with a variation on the game "you show me yours and I'll show you mine."
I've never used twitter before, but this has awaken my interest!
Hipster.
I will third this sentiment. The obliviousness of some of these posts is outstanding.
Do hipsters not like Facebook? It seems tailor made for them.
You underestimate the problem. Perhaps the people you know with children are not going through the exciting new world of potty training.
This is the best reason to be on social media - so you can know quickly when something mockable is afoot.
He's no DFW, but Jonathan Franzen hates the social networking sites and has written several essays explaining why. Doug Coupland kind of does, too, and writes about it in his bio of Marshall McLuhan. The internet has permanently altered our perception of time. A big part of me wishes he had his pre-Internet brain -- the more deliberate and contemplative one; the one patient enough to just wait to get the scores and highlights -- back.
To me the difference between Facebook and BTF is the targeted nature of BTF. For all the bellyaching about off topic threads and whatnot the great majority of what is here is baseball related. Facebook is overwhelmingly populated by random musings about all manner of topics. This is not a bad thing but I think even the most well-rounded among us is going to find 75-80% of the stuff on Facebook uninteresting.
If you "unfriend" someone on Facebook are they notified? There are people I would like to unfriend but I don't want to insult anyone.
This is the type of utterly superfluous juvenalia Twitter enables. It's uttered only because the mechanism to utter it exists and there's no purpose served by creating an audience for it.
Hipsters hate anything that's popular. Facebook is popular. QED. Complaining about FB (or Twitter) on BTF is sort of like complaining about Rolling Stone or Spin in the comments section at Pitchfork.
I have no idea if DFW loved or hated social networking, I only know he could have weaved one hell of a narrative about it. It's a fascinating phenomenon whether you find it a good or an evil.
Hipsters race about MySpace and they don't 'tweet', they microblog.
Isn't BBTF more of the inverse of a social networking site? FB connects you to people you know (I assume, never been on it). BBTF connects us mostly with people we don't know, have never met, and will never meet.
I totally disagree with this. Facebook is much more targeted than BTF; everyone I'm friends with on Facebook actually knows me. Most of them even like me. That's a pretty narrowly targeted group.
No, they'll never know unless they go scrolling through their list of friends and notice you're not there. Just like if someone sends you a friend request and you deny it, they'll never know that, either.
It isn't. It's 1. sharing your experiences with friends. 2. A reminder of a time you enjoyed and that brings you personally joy.
I know you (and not *you*, but people who don't like it) think those posts are about *you* and impressing *you*, but they aren't. It's like posts you don't like, or posters you don't want to read from (no offense, Andy or DMN), SKIP THEM.
Long before FB, my best friend and I would call each other from events we were at. Even by pay phone (pre-cellphones). Just to share our happiness with each other. Yes, we did say "Wheee! Look at me!", but the next thing said "I wish you were with me! So this call is to share my joy with you".
So, lighten up, Francises. It's about sharing our lives with people we choose to - just like you are sharing your moronic opinions on this site - no one worth reading from posts here - they are all over at (insert message board of choice).
That's a gloomy outlook. I was hoping for some kind of 25th anniversary bash in Iowa or something.
No, but obviously you will no longer show up on their friend list, so they may figure it out.
"Hiding" people who are annoying is the way to go.
My facebook pet peeve is people who post cryptic status updates. Like, "Today was a weird day." Don't make us ask what was weird about your stupid day, just tell us. Clearly you posted it like that because you want us to ask.
I have only met 6 of the participants in this thread, I think.
I think the difference is that every comment here is directed at something, a response to the post or to a comment or to a poster. On Facebook, most posts are directed at nothing specific.
Wow! I think I'm at 6 total, plus a couple more I met at the softball game, but don't remember.
I was thinking the other day about a UK/European BTF get together. I guess it's difficult finding a baseball-related event as an excuse. I'm probably heading to the September WBC qualifiers in Germany...or the British Baseball Federation finals if the Nottingham club makes it!
Franzen is the perfect modern calibration to what's popular in society at any given moment - if he hates it, it's popular. However, we should all be thankful that the new Andy Rooney has much better literary chops...
He's around. He just changed his name to RJ.
Ah! That makes sense. I've always been rather slow to adapt to change.
snapper, I get to the city about monthly. Want to grab a beer some day?
Sure. Just give me a couple of days notice when you're coming to town.
The fact that BTF's social networking protocol is slightly different from FB's protocols doesn't mean it's not a social networking site. If you come here and comment with any regularity (either Mainland or Lounge) you are networking socially. Sure, the interface is different from Facebook, which has a different interface from G+, which looks nothing like the former shell of LiveJournal or the wastelands of MySpace. But you're here for the dialogue and social interaction. If you were only here for the news links you'd lurk like the other half of Jimmy's user base.
I'm not Dial, but I'd need to take off my shoes to count the people I've met from BTF "IRL" as they say.
This is absolutely true. I've never even met Chris in real life, but we're Facebook friends, and I will never forget the pictures he posted from when he took his daughter to meet Taylor Swift. It made me very happy for both of them. Without Facebook, I'm sure I would have had no knowledge of the whole thing.
If you can't find joy in the things that make your friends happy, there's something wrong with you.
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