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#ThatDress, or why I so strongly dislike social media

I clicked on a link on a science page explaining it, found it interesting and then ignored the dozen of other posts about it for the rest of the day. I think the only comment I made on it was a thank you for the explanation on that science page.

I learn so much via different Facebook pages that I cannot see why people are so negative about it. Though Facebook I have reformed friendships with people I like but I lost contact with years ago. I can be in contact with them without having to be too involved in their lives.

I find Facebook an easy way to stay in contact as I have difficulty with using the phone especially as my hearing problem is worsening with age. I am embarrassed when I have to keep asking people to repeat themselves on the phone. Also I can have a conversation in real time on Facebook which is why I prefer it to email.
 
The xkcd comic on this is pretty good:

dress_color.png


(Note to mods: Hotlinking of xkcd comics with a link back to the license is allowed as per the license.)
 
Since when did the illustration and teaching of science become "trivial shit"? True, most social media is pointless - but not in this case.
 
I read your post and I find it contains many interesting points, but you failed to address one important thing...

Sooo, what color do you think the dress is?

;)
 
I will say, in that video, the bottom of the dress (the last couple stripes) actually looks blue and black to me for the first time. The top still looks gold. But at least I finally can see how other people could naturally see it that way (I always accepted that it could be that color, but not that people could see it that color).
 
^more importantly, it's an UGLY dress. I would never wear horizontal stripes across my hips.;)

I found the color science interesting, but not enough to warrant the numerous emails I received from people.

I do get rather annoyed with social media in general and that's why I don't have a Facebook account, nor do I use Twitter. I signed up for Linkedin at a co-worker's insistence but I fail to see how it would benefit me in any way. My "skills" aren't really marketable except in an extremely narrow field.

I think this place is about as "social" as I want to be, quite frankly. I don't care what other people think about me. If I want opinions, I'll ask for them. If I want the news, I'll read it.

I totally understand the OP's point. Sometimes, this obsession with social media is downright discouraging.
 
The argument about it is rather silly, but the science behind it is rather fascinating if you stop and think about why this is actually happening. Personally, I see it as white & gold, with a bluish tint. I think that's due to monitor contrast and the quality of the image and wether it was enhanced or not. The gold for instance is rather bold, almost like someone had applied a filter to it.

Now the real question is, is this board blue or gold? ;) I see it as blue!
 
Like I said, I know I'm in the extreme minority.

But if I did concede that in this instance the focus on neuroscience made this one meme worthwhile, and maybe a few other memes that focused on charity and awareness of important issues made their existence worthwhile...that's a few in a sea of mostly trivial shit. And I think we can agree on that...the vast majority of the stuff that goes viral is just not newsworthy. Yet it makes the news, just because it goes viral. It's changing the narrative of what society at large sees as important, and that's troubling to me.

And as time goes on, you can't just ignore it unless you totally unplug. Because it's everywhere, thanks to the growth of social media.

My brother won't give me pictures of my baby nephew. Unless I log into Facebook, I can't see them, as he refuses to email them to me or send them to my phone, because "It's too much trouble" to give them to me separately when I can just see them there.

So I have no choice but to move with the times, I guess.
 
Ya know I remember when people bitched at me, "why do I have to email people, why can't I just mail them a letter?" I have exactly 0 sympathy for people moaning about communication preferences changing around them, especially as it's easy as pie to use FB and other sites exactly as you want to use them and ignore or not participate in any aspects you're not interested in.

Also, Grumpy Cat.
 
^Exactly.
One of my favorite memes:


The times may be changing, but people haven't changed all that much. We've always been obsessed by the trivial, we've always found ways to ignore each other or conversely, to irk one another. It is the nature of siblings to piss each other off. Tabloids in some form have been around since the dawn of written language, and people have always lamented the superficial and the gossips while always gossiping about superficial shit. I don't think it's a matter of moving with the times, but accepting that sometimes people need the superficial shit, and that's okay. And realizing that more often than not what appears to be superficial upon first glance has far more depth if you're willing to look. What is annoying or fascinating or superficial or deep is almost always up to you, the beholder.

Except Grumpy Cat, which is just obnoxious and stupid.
 
I can certainly understand, respect and love the idea of people taking this dress thing and using to learn more about how light, vision and our own brains work but, somehow, by the bulk of it I don't quite get that that is what much of the Internet was taking from it and building arguments on even after the true color of the dress was revealed and that the original picture was just a crummy one with poor white balance. (Though I think "black balance" is what better revealed the true colors of the picture.)

Most people seem to be bickering over it and "discussing it" much the same way anything else is on the Internet. Not as a learning experience but just as something to fight over and refuse to change your ideas on. And, really, even with the more interesting aspects of it I don't get at all how the color of this dress went freaking "viral."

I saw the true color of the dress right away and realized it was just a crummy picture.
 
My favourite Facebook cat is Oskar the Blind Cat, along with his best friend Klaus.
 
Yes, I like Henri, Le Chat Noir as well.

And Hamilton the Hipster Cat, and Sam Has Eyebrows, and Streetcat Bob, and the late Colonel Meow, and the three cats of the Black Cat Club (Little Man, Junior and Mista Boo aka the Godfather), and Sir Stuffington, and Cooper the Photographer Cat, and L'il Bub, and Creationist Cat, and Mittens who texts his owner all the time.

I probably left some cat out.

Edited to add - Nora the Piano Cat and Maru the little Japanese cat who loves boxes so much.
 
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