Sunday, May 13, 2018

Facebook: uggh

I mainly read facebook to see what my grandchildren and cousins all around the world are doing.

I ignore the news and ads, and I suspect a lot of people do. So a Russian ad caused the election to change? I don't think so.

But Facebook did: because I got harassed off of facebook because a "friend" posted daily the latest outrage by whoever. Usually they found their strawman "christian" in the news, and then the commentary was filled with anti Christian hate against any and all believers, all 1.5 billion of them.

The comments were worse than those I usually avoid reading on the British papers or the NYTimes.

but I guess it works both ways, because my Pinoy relatives are always posting "honk if you love Jesus" stuff there too.

The problem with facebook is not the Russian news, or that they now have decided to censor "fake news" (aka conservative sites).

The problem is that it is a platform for those who like to ridicule.

And for teenagers it is worse. My sister in law had long forbidden her daughter to go on facebook. Why? She was in an iceskating group that won awards, so the haters were busy ridiculing her for everything (because of jealousy, of course).

Yup. I put up with this in high school and college for being smart. It's a horror, but I managed to ignore it (because as a science major I had lots of guys to hang around with, and you know, if a guy harasses you, you just fight back twice as hard and cut the venom off with a joke, and voila, you are friends and they stop, whereas girls keep the hatred in their heart and go on to do worse things).

so I suspect much of the harassment suffered is by girls and perpetuated by girls or boys who think like girls, because I doubt an engineer is going to be that snarky, and luckily my relatives are divided among engineers, nurses/doctors, and a few artistic types for good luck.

Well, anyway, I avoid facebook but do use their messanger to talk to my granddaugher and other relatives. I have the app on my phone, and my Opera browser had an extension so I didn't have to open facebook and read all the facebook crap to text them.

So this morning, I open my browser and find: WTF? The Facbook extention is now for "telegram", which is now competing with "WhatsApp".

FAQ.

 How old is Telegram?
Telegram for iOS was launched on August 14, 2013. The alpha version of Telegram for Android officially launched on October 20, 2013. More and more Telegram clients appear, built by independent developers using Telegram's open platform.Q: Which devices can I use?
You can use Telegram on smartphones, tablets, and even computers. We have apps for iOS (6 and above), Android(4.1 and up) and Windows Phone. You can also use Telegram's web version or install one of our desktop apps for Windows, OSX, and Linux.
You can log in to Telegram from as many of your devices as you like — all at the same time. Just use your main mobile phone number to log in everywhere.
Our API is open for developers, should you want to build your own applications for other platforms.Q: Who are the people behind Telegram?
Telegram is supported by Pavel and Nikolai Durov. Pavel supports Telegram financially and ideologically while Nikolai's input is technological. To make Telegram possible, Nikolai developed a unique custom data protocol, which is open, secure and optimized for work with multiple data-centers. As a result, Telegram combines security, reliability and speed on any network.



the Russians are coming! the Russians are coming! or maybe the Arabs:


Q: Where is Telegram based?
The Telegram development team is based in Dubai.
Most of the developers behind Telegram originally come from St. Petersburg, the city famous for its unprecedented number of highly skilled engineers. The Telegram team had to leave Russia due to local IT regulations and has tried a number of locations as its base, including Berlin, London and Singapore. We’re currently happy with Dubai, although are ready to relocate again if local regulations change.

Take that Mark Zuckerburg!

on the other hand, none of my extended family uses it, so I am still stuck with facebook to find photos and news of my worldwide Pinoy family.

And yes, I mainly post my rants here (or the really hateful ones on my private blog) to let off steam in between posting stuff about kittens or the Bronze age collapse.

So if you are reading this, don't take me seriously: I usually post before I have had my first cup of coffee, and tend to get mellow as the day goes on.

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