Recalling October...

...Breast Cancer Awareness, Domestic Violence, Spirit Day, Supporting Lupus Awareness, TweetDeck woes...doing the cha-cha and merengue on Facebook in an attempt to redefine algorithms, form new relationships, examine existing ones, strengthen the ones that are more meaningful to me...things like that. Why am I not there now? Different space, same theory...posting should be pure, and when it isn't...just doesn't feel good to me. So, I browse, read and blog till I purge that thing away...then I'll go back, hopefully stronger and having learned a thing or two. First two weeks on facebook were ok, it's changed since the last time I was off into it heavily...they've added a few features: opt-out groups, see friendships/view friendships, drop-tagging via likes...they've brought back interest pages. Several words stood out in my mind...following/being followed/paying attention to tweets, friendship, privacy, algorithms, marketing, interactions and virility.

There are many definitions for an algorithm, but my favorite as it pertains to facebook is "Step by step procedure designed to perform an operation" ~ dictionary, it involves lateral thinking and heuristics...which I happen to "like" lol...yes ya'll I can be a bit of a geek every once in a while. I like socializing, but I also like understanding systems...anywhoo, your news feed in facebook is supposed to contain the stories/posts of the people you interact with the most whether its via message/posts/likes/wall-writing/pictures etc...one of the goals of the interaction for facebook is to populate your "suggested friends" list...so you connect with other individuals who tend to like the same things as you. The news feed can be manipulated manually, the suggested friends list on the other hand CAN NOT. the suggested friends is all based on algorithms.

So, I tried my hand at manipulating the algorithms myself, by interacting with people who posted things (content) I genuinely liked. My first lesson, everyone on facebook is not there to interact for the purpose of forming new relationships. My second, privacy needs/desires seriously messes up this process as does personal feelings/agendas. My third, being followed/having your tweets payed attention too on networks is not necessarily a good thing nor is it for everyone. See... I thought being followed and paying attention to tweets/posts on the networks was a good thing...in fact I thought it was the whole idea, to attract people to you while by being interesting then when you want privacy...you log off or go blog or something. In my mind following and paying attention to tweets/posts contributed to virility. My forth, I don't mind being followed...but I do not care for insincerity and/or indirectness. My fifth, I really really enjoy randomness and diversity...this one I kinna think I knew already. My sixth, a privacy setting can come in handy every once in a while...depending on what you're trying to do. Oh well, you live and you learn. *took out the word stalked, cause I just really don't like that word*

Sidenote: my algorithims for suggested friends on facebook did change...took a while...but they did change ON YESTERDAY...*shrug*...was very cool to see that change. My purpose for wanting the change, lol... I bore easily...sometimes...not always but sometimes, I like seeing things that capture and hold my attention...and I wanted a change ( for other reasons)...P.S. I tried that google buzz thing...it was scary...lol...but you never know...maybe one day i'll gravitate that way...

Forgot to add this to this post: great note on facebook algorithms via Jean-Sebastien Miousse