Okay Facebook, It's Getting Creepy

Some of you may be familiar with Clifton StrengthsFinder? I like this tool--and the whole psychology behind it--quite a lot. (I've written about it here on the blog in the past too...check out this, and this, and this for a look into the past.)

My wife works in the Career Development Center here on our campus, and they use StrengthsFinder as one tool to support discerning students trying to figure out "What should I do with my life??" It's helpful for that sort of thing. And, like many couples, we sometimes wind up talking about work at home. And so it happened that last night, we had a conversation about Strengths, which isn't wildly out of the ordinary, but it also isn't something that we talk about all that often.

And I know I haven't looked up the StrengthsFinder website on my computer or phone anytime recently--probably for a couple of years, actually, until today when I searched it up as was writing this post.

But here's why I'm thinking about this right now. Earlier today I had this ad show up in my Facebook feed:

Hmmm...this feels a little (lot) bit creepy, Facebook.

Facebook Update

About 5 months ago, I wrote this rambling post about my complicated relationship with Facebook, which included a mention that I was removing the Facebook app from my phone.

A weird thing happened right after that. As I often do, I shared the link to that post on Facebook...

What's Your Brand?

Let's do a little free-association.

What pops to mind when you hear the word "brand?"

Are you picturing a cowboy, marking a cow as belonging to a certain ranch?

Or maybe you have in mind the logo for a specific company?

Or perhaps you're thinking of a celebrity who endorses a particular product?

Or...maybe you are picturing a person, and the way s/he portrays her/himself on social media?

I've been thinking about that last definition for "brand" lately. I recently have seen quite a few people on Twitter responding to this tweet, sharing their own stories of foolishness...

What's the most On Brand™️ story you have from your early childhood.

Mine is when my mom told me not to touch the electric stove when it was red, because that meant it was hot, so I made direct eye contact with her and slapped my hand down on the stove top.

— mu✨ (@prinxeMu) July 8, 2018

Social Glue: Celebrating TodaysMeet

Today I deleted a bookmark from my browser that has been there since the fall of 2013. It looked like this:

This was a shortcut to a (semi-)private chatroom hosted by TodaysMeet.com, which I used regularly from 2013 up to the present. But TodaysMeet is no more. If you head to the site, you'll find this message:

TodaysMeet was a communication tool that allowed users to create private (or semi-private) chatrooms that anyone could join if they knew the URL. There are lots of ways such a tool could be used, and many educators used it to get students sharing their best thinking. I used it myself in both online and face-to-face courses from time to time.

Facebook is Weird

I.

A month or so ago, I presented a session at the annual Day of Encouragement held here on our campus. The session was entitled "Ministering to 'Digital Natives'" and I was pleased that quite a few people showed up. As folks were coming in the room, I was surprised and amazed how many of them I knew: one of my best friends in the world, a couple of colleagues from here at the college, several of my former students (both from my days teaching middle school, and my current prof life), a young woman who used to babysit our kids when they were little, church friends, and even my former youth pastor from my high school days in southern California. It was a weird mash-up of different parts of my life, all in the same room. I joked that this was a little bit like Facebook.

Image by Jo Alcock [CC BY-SA-NC 2.0]

Social Media: Curating Our Lives Away

Confession: I love social media. I am probably an addict. Strike that...since I'm confessing...I know I am addicted. Have a "spare" couple of minutes? My immediate reaction is almost always to pull out my phone: "Hmmm...what's up on Twitter today...?"

And I'm an adult.

How is this for tweens and teens and young adults today?

A friend shared this article with me this morning: Instagram Worst Social Media App for Young People's Mental Health. It's worth a read, whether you are a parent, or an educator, or a social media user yourself. I hope you'll reflect on it, and perhaps see yourself here...