Even a stopped clock is right twice every day. After some years, it can boast of a long series of successes.
– Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916)
Month: March 2012
Lonesome Kachodi & Chai: Small Is Beautiful (and tasty!)
Debunking the Big Gang Theory: Why Facebook and Others Suffer From Being Big
Debunking the Big Gang Theory: Why Facebook and Others Suffer From Being Big by Bianca Bosker
Posted: 03/27/2012 12:17 pm
Of the top 39 stories that appeared in my Facebook feed on a recent afternoon, 11 were from brands, nine were from people I wasn’t interested in hearing from, and 13 from people I couldn’t for the life of me remember.
In short, it was a mess — a cacophony of noise from people whom I barely know, whose actions and opinions have little bearing on my life, and whom I have a minor interest in keeping up with. I don’t much care for their music recommendations and I’m not dying for their restaurant tips.
It wasn’t always this way. When it first launched, a then much smaller Facebook provided an online extension for offline relationships. The social network offered a way of keeping tabs on the classmate down the hall and the neighbor next door, people whom we cared about and whose activities online would influence our behavior offline. Then I became friends with teammates’ siblings and friends of friends I hadn’t met, but felt obliged to follow. I fell back out of touch with all the people I’d lost touch with before Facebook. I followed a few celebrities, and gradually brands, companies, and other organizations weaseled their way into my feed. As a result, the few dozen people I care to keep tabs on have gotten lost in the hundreds I now follow online.
This information clutter isn’t unique to Facebook, but it’s symptomatic of one of the greatest and most complex challenges confronting social networks: how to deal with being big. Like a cocktail party that spirals out of control and ends up a sweaty, noisy mess of hundreds of strangers, our online social circles have grown, and, in the process, have become something else entirely. And there’s no easy fix that can make them intimate and relevant again.
Social media sites, such as Facebook, have been driven by the Big Gang theory of social networking, which mandates that bigger is better and the best way to get rich is to get huge. They focus on expanding their universe to connect distant coves of the human galaxy at large and claim more and more millions of users. As the criticism of Google+ underscores, a social media site must either grow faster than just about any other before it, or be branded a ghost town.
But little time has been spent addressing the flipside of the Big Gang theory and the trouble with Silicon Valley’s obsession with size. Can there be too many people networking on a social network? How do you take a crowded social circle and make it feel personal again? Will our social binging — adding more people, adding more friends, sharing more data — be followed up with a purge?
Attracting users is the easy part. Now, sites are grappling with how to transition from “massive” to “meaningful.”
Social media services suffer from their success in a way other tech companies do not. The experience of using Google, Amazon.com, or the iPhone doesn’t change drastically if the number of other users skyrockets from 8 million to 800 million (and if anything it improves). The network effect has dictated that new technology must get huge to be useful — be it fax machines, text messaging, or even Twitter. Yet downsides to the network effect are emerging for social networks, which risk becoming less useful to users as the din of data from their millions of members increases.
Nowhere is the Big Gang problem more obvious than on Facebook, the web’s largest and most sprawling social network. The site has continuously reinvented itself and transitioned from focusing on personal relationships with people we know to fostering connections with people we admire, brands we covet, and news organizations that inform us. The result? A jumbled mess of updates that are part personal, part aspirational, part informative, part materialistic.
There’s still enormous value to what our friends share on Facebook — but we may not be seeing it. And while we’re only beginning to tap into the huge potential for a rich ecosystem of apps — from news readers to games — that use Facebook to connect us to the people we care about, the utility of these services is being undermined by all the noise.
Facebook users have been trying to muffle the racket by paring down their social circles, which, on average, include 229 friends. Sixty-three percent of social network users said they had “unfriended” people in their network, up from 56 percent in 2009, according to a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Though Pew did not specifically ask why people had deleted their friends, the move suggests an effort to de-clutter the social media experience as well as a concern for privacy. Facebook has also been trying to address the issue of social sprawl with features that make it simpler for users to shush acquaintances they don’t care to hear from and sort friends into groups.
There’s no obvious solution to this “shareturation,” though a slew of startups are rethinking the Big Gang theory with offerings that limit whom we interact with and what we see (and share).
While Facebook links everyone, social apps such as Path and Highlight connect only some — those who are chosen and those who are nearby, respectively. Path, which describes itself as a “limited, intimate, more personal network,” caps a user’s social circle at 150 friends. Another burgeoning breed of social media services focus on physical surroundings instead of a virtual world. Highlight, Glancee, Kismet, Ban.jo, and Sonar seek to link us to people by using a smartphone’s GPS and a user’s online social circle to show individuals nearby who share interests or friends. These apps superimpose a filter on our enormous networks to showcase people we can meet face-to-face rather than status-update-to-status-update.
Another solution may be to narrow the topic, rather than the group of users. Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube have each zeroed in on a specific medium — images, photos, and videos, respectively — and lay out strict templates for what can be shared and how. Facebook does it all. These social media services very intentionally do less.
Yet there’s no guarantee that these services, which are still small by comparison with Facebook, will not be undone by their own Big Gangs, or muddled by their users in our relentless quest for more friends, more connections, and more attention online.
Instead, the next move for social networks may be to offer exclusivity — online gated communities for members who have been carefully screened and selected. Think of them as the fraternities or country clubs of the Internet. The come-one-come-all Facebooks and Twitters of the web could be supplemented by sites that deliberately admit only a select assortment of individuals based on like interests, like incomes, or similar values, potentially even charging membership fees as part of admission into the “club.” In this sense, perhaps our socializing online will come to look a bit more like our socializing offline: divided along class lines and dotted with enclaves reserved for the rich, famous, well-connected, and like-minded.
Even Facebook knows the benefits of staying small. The social network exploited its initial exclusivity to build buzz: It launched first at Harvard, then spread gradually to Stanford and the rest of the Ivy League, followed by other campuses, where students were eager to gain admission to a site they had heard rave reviews about from their peers. The reverse may happen: From elite to mass, the future could see social networks move from mass back to elite.
Online social networks may be forced to reckon with online societies — elite, exclusive, invitation-only enclaves accessible only to a select few.
On This Day: March 28
Updated March 27, 2012, 2:28 pm
On March 28, 1979, America’s worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit Two reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pa.
Go to article »On March 28, 1899, August Busch, the American businessman who built Anheuser-Busch into the world’s largest brewery, was born. Following his death on Sept. 29, 1989, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1797 Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patented a washing machine. 1834 The U.S. Senate voted to censure President Andrew Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. 1854 Britain and France declared war on Russia during the Crimean War. 1930 The names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul and Ankara, respectively. 1939 The Spanish Civil War ended as Madrid fell to the forces of Francisco Franco. 1941 Novelist and critic Virginia Woolf drowned herself near her home in England at age 59. 1969 Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, died in Washington, D.C., at age 78. 2001 President George W. Bush publicly rejected the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate, a pact never ratified by the Senate. 2006 More than 1 million people poured into streets across France and strikers disrupted air, rail and bus travel in the largest nationwide protest over a youth labor law. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Singer Lady Gaga turns 26 years old today.
AP Photo/Wally Santana
Actor Vince Vaughn turns 43 years old today.
AP Photo/Dan Steinberg
1928 Zbigniew Brzezinski, Former national security adviser, turns 84 1933 Frank Murkowski, Former Alaska governor, senator, turns 79 1942 Mike Newell, Director, turns 70 1942 Jerry Sloan, Basketball Hall of Famer, turns 70 1944 Ken Howard, Actor (“The White Shadow”), turns 68 1946 Henry Paulson, Former secretary of the treasury, turns 66 1948 Dianne Wiest, Actress, turns 64 1955 Reba McEntire, Country singer, actress, turns 57 1966 Salt, Rapper (Salt-N-Pepa), turns 46 1969 Brett Ratner, Director (“Rush Hour” movies), turns 43 1977 Annie Wersching, Actress (“24”), turns 35 1981 Julia Stiles, Actress, turns 31
Historic Birthdays
August Busch 3/28/1899 – 9/29/1989 American chairman of Anheuser-Busch, Inc.Go to obituary »
70 William Byrd 3/28/1674 – 8/26/1744
American planter, satirist, and diarist71 Henry Rowe Schoolcraft 3/28/1793 – 12/10/1864
American explorer and ethnologist; discovered source of Mississippi River48 St. John Neumann 3/28/1811 – 1/5/1860
Bohemian-born American bishop canonized the first American male saint in 197784 Wade Hampton 3/28/1818 – 4/11/1902
American Confederate war hero of the Civil War69 Aristide Briand 3/28/1862 – 3/7/1932
French statesman; served 11 times as premier77 Paul Whiteman 3/28/1890 – 12/29/1967
American bandleader88 Rudolf Serkin 3/28/1903 – 5/8/1991
Austrian-born American pianist and teacher76 Onoe Shoroku II 3/28/1913 – 6/25/1989
Japanese actor and interpreter of kabuki plays67 Freddie Bartholomew 3/28/1924 – 1/23/1992
Irish-born American child actor
March 28
MORNING
“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”
Hebrews 5:8We are told that the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering, therefore we who are sinful, and who are far from being perfect, must not wonder if we are called to pass through suffering too. Shall the head be crowned with thorns, and shall the other members of the body be rocked upon the dainty lap of ease? Must Christ pass through seas of his own blood to win the crown, and are we to walk to heaven dryshod in silver slippers? No, our Master’s experience teaches us that suffering is necessary, and the true-born child of God must not, would not, escape it if he might. But there is one very comforting thought in the fact of Christ’s “being made perfect through suffering”–it is, that he can have complete sympathy with us. “He is not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” In this sympathy of Christ we find a sustaining power. One of the early martyrs said, “I can bear it all, for Jesus suffered, and he suffers in me now; he sympathizes with me, and this makes me strong.” Believer, lay hold of this thought in all times of agony. Let the thought of Jesus strengthen you as you follow in his steps. Find a sweet support in his sympathy; and remember that, to suffer is an honourable thing–to suffer for Christ is glory. The apostles rejoiced that they were counted worthy to do this. Just so far as the Lord shall give us grace to suffer for Christ, to suffer with Christ, just so far does he honour us. The jewels of a Christian are his afflictions. The regalia of the kings whom God hath anointed are their troubles, their sorrows, and their griefs. Let us not, therefore, shun being honoured. Let us not turn aside from being exalted. Griefs exalt us, and troubles lift us up. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.”
EVENING
“I called him, but he gave me no answer.”
Song of Solomon 5:6Prayer sometimes tarrieth, like a petitioner at the gate, until the King cometh forth to fill her bosom with the blessings which she seeketh. The Lord, when he hath given great faith, has been known to try it by long delayings. He has suffered his servants’ voices to echo in their ears as from a brazen sky. They have knocked at the golden gate, but it has remained immovable, as though it were rusted upon its hinges. Like Jeremiah, they have cried, “Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.” Thus have true saints continued long in patient waiting without reply, not because their prayers were not vehement, nor because they were unaccepted, but because it so pleased him who is a Sovereign, and who gives according to his own pleasure. If it pleases him to bid our patience exercise itself, shall he not do as he wills with his own! Beggars must not be choosers either as to time, place, or form. But we must be careful not to take delays in prayer for denials: God’s long-dated bills will be punctually honoured; we must not suffer Satan to shake our confidence in the God of truth by pointing to our unanswered prayers. Unanswered petitions are not unheard. God keeps a file for our prayers–they are not blown away by the wind, they are treasured in the King’s archives. This is a registry in the court of heaven wherein every prayer is recorded. Tried believer, thy Lord hath a tear-bottle in which the costly drops of sacred grief are put away, and a book in which thy holy groanings are numbered. By and by, thy suit shall prevail. Canst thou not be content to wait a little? Will not thy Lord’s time be better than thy time? By and by he will comfortably appear, to thy soul’s joy, and make thee put away the sackcloth and ashes of long waiting, and put on the scarlet and fine linen of full fruition.
351/365/01
On This Day: March 27
Updated March 26, 2012, 2:28 pm
On March 27, 1958, Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party.
On March 27, 1886, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the German-born architect who helped introduce the International Style to the United States, was born. Following his death on Aug. 17, 1969, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1513 Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida. 1625 Charles I ascended the English throne upon the death of James I. 1794 President George Washington and Congress authorized creation of the U.S. Navy. 1836 The first Mormon temple was dedicated, in Kirtland, Ohio. 1939 Oregon won the first NCAA men’s basketball tournament with a 46-33 victory over Ohio State in Evanston, Ill. 1977 A KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off, crashed into a Pan Am 747 on the Canary Island of Tenerife, killing 583 people in the deadliest aviation accident in history. 1996 An Israeli court convicted Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s confessed assassin of murder, then sentenced former law student Yigal Amir to life in prison. 1998 The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Viagra, made by Pfizer, to fight male impotence. 2002 A suicide bomber killed 30 people during a Passover Seder in Netanya, Israel. 2002 Comedian Milton Berle died at age 93. 2006 Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui testified at his federal trial that he was supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House. 2007 NFL owners voted to make instant replay a permanent officiating tool. 2009 President Barack Obama launched a fresh effort to defeat al-Qaida terrorists in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, ordering in 4,000 more troops. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Singer Fergie (Black Eyed Peas) turns 37 years old today.
AP Photo/Peter Kramer
Director Quentin Tarantino turns 49 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
1927 Anthony Lewis, Newspaper columnist, turns 85 1935 Julian Glover, Actor, turns 77 1940 Austin Pendleton, Actor, turns 72 1942 Michael York, Actor, turns 70 1950 Tony Banks, Rock musician (Genesis), turns 62 1970 Mariah Carey, Singer, actress, turns 42 1971 Nathan Fillion, Actor (“Firefly”), turns 41 1988 Brenda Song, Actress, turns 24
Historic Birthdays
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 3/27/1886 – 8/17/1969 German-born American architect.Go to obituary »
78 Andrew Bell 3/27/1753 – 1/27/1832
Scottish clergyman who developed popular education66 Alfred-Victor Vigny 3/27/1797 – 9/17/1863
French poet, dramatist and novelist84 Gloria Swanson 3/27/1899 – 4/4/1983
American film, stage and television actress83 Otto Wallach 3/27/1847 – 2/26/1931
German Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1910)70 Sir Henry Royce 3/27/1863 – 4/22/1933
English industrialist; a founder of Rolls-Royce Ltd.78 Patty Smith Hill 3/27/1868 – 5/25/1946
American educator93 Edward Steichen 3/27/1879 – 3/25/1973
American photographer; a leader of the Photo-Secession Group74 Sato Eisaku 3/27/1901 – 6/3/1975
Japanese prime minister (1964-72); awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1974)62 Pee Wee Russell 3/27/1906 – 2/15/1969
American jazz clarinetist64 Ben Webster 3/27/1909 – 9/20/1973
American jazz musician33 Denton Welch 3/27/1915 – 12/30/1948
English painter and novelist66 Sarah Vaughan 3/27/1924 – 4/3/1990
American jazz vocalist and pianist
March 27
MORNING
“The love of Christ which passeth knowledge.”
Ephesians 3:19The love of Christ in its sweetness, its fulness, its greatness, its faithfulness, passeth all human comprehension. Where shall language be found which shall describe his matchless, his unparalleled love towards the children of men? It is so vast and boundless that, as the swallow but skimmeth the water, and diveth not into its depths, so all descriptive words but touch the surface, while depths immeasurable lie beneath. Well might the poet say,
“O love, thou fathomless abyss!”
for this love of Christ is indeed measureless and fathomless; none can attain unto it. Before we can have any right idea of the love of Jesus, we must understand his previous glory in its height of majesty, and his incarnation upon the earth in all its depths of shame. But who can tell us the majesty of Christ? When he was enthroned in the highest heavens he was very God of very God; by him were the heavens made, and all the hosts thereof. His own almighty arm upheld the spheres; the praises of cherubim and seraphim perpetually surrounded him; the full chorus of the hallelujahs of the universe unceasingly flowed to the foot of his throne: he reigned supreme above all his creatures, God over all, blessed forever. Who can tell his height of glory then? And who, on the other hand, can tell how low he descended? To be a man was something, to be a man of sorrows was far more; to bleed, and die, and suffer, these were much for him who was the Son of God; but to suffer such unparalleled agony–to endure a death of shame and desertion by his Father, this is a depth of condescending love which the most inspired mind must utterly fail to fathom. Herein is love! and truly it is love that “passeth knowledge.” O let this love fill our hearts with adoring gratitude, and lead us to practical manifestations of its power.
EVENING
“I will accept you with your sweet savour.”
Ezekiel 20:41The merits of our great Redeemer are as sweet savour to the Most High. Whether we speak of the active or passive righteousness of Christ, there is an equal fragrance. There was a sweet savour in his active life by which he honoured the law of God, and made every precept to glitter like a precious jewel in the pure setting of his own person. Such, too, was his passive obedience, when he endured with unmurmuring submission, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and at length sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane, gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked out the hair, and was fastened to the cruel wood, that he might suffer the wrath of God in our behalf. These two things are sweet before the Most High; and for the sake of his doing and his dying, his substitutionary sufferings and his vicarious obedience, the Lord our God accepts us. What a preciousness must there be in him to overcome our want of preciousness! What a sweet savour to put away our ill savour! What a cleansing power in his blood to take away sin such as ours! and what glory in his righteousness to make such unacceptable creatures to be accepted in the Beloved! Mark, believer, how sure and unchanging must be our acceptance, since it is in him! Take care that you never doubt your acceptance in Jesus. You cannot be accepted without Christ; but, when you have received his merit, you cannot be unaccepted. Notwithstanding all your doubts, and fears, and sins, Jehovah’s gracious eye never looks upon you in anger; though he sees sin in you, in yourself, yet when he looks at you through Christ, he sees no sin. You are always accepted in Christ, are always blessed and dear to the Father’s heart. Therefore lift up a song, and as you see the smoking incense of the merit of the Saviour coming up, this evening, before the sapphire throne, let the incense of your praise go up also.
