yes

Pretty much what I've been thinking for months now:

Facebook epitomizes filter failure for me. Yes, there are ways to segment information and keep groups, but there aren’t very good ways to keep worlds from overlapping. Facebook isn’t a more neutral LinkedIn and Myspace. It is the collapse of LinkedIn, Myspace, and a bunch of other networks, while many people want these worlds compartmentalized. I mostly avoid Facebook the same way that I’ll get drinks on a Monday night with colleagues, but not on a Friday or Saturday night. This generation blurs the line between work and play, but there is still a line or else you’re not getting the best out of either.

It's really a very annoying problem for those of us who would like to see what the latest development is over at the Saltzklatsch but don't want to risk coming to the attention of all the Facebook zombies from the past out there.  Anyway, via.

Comments

[CAP]

You could always join Jerry under an alias, or get in the queue. Personally, I don't find him that compelling, unplugged before a captive audience.

Methinks the guy compensates for running out of steam in other ways...

[JL]

Ouch! That's pretty harsh. But I have to agree with you--at least from what I've seen, the Saltz/Facebook thing is not all that. Nothing wrong with it, I suppose, and for those who are enjoying it, good for them. What I have seen when I've checked it out (and I have taken a look in under an alias, but I find I can't even deal with Facebook on those terms for long) has confirmed to me that the highlights, as it were, that bubble up to the blogs are indeed relatively exceptional--most it's simply rather dull if you're not already someone invested. At the same time, it generally doesn't make Saltz rise in my eyes, at the very least (not that anyone should care about that.) I have his Seeing Out Loud book somewhere around and have been meaning to dig it out and read around in it again. I don't believe I ever thought he was the greatest (indeed, I've criticism his work here in the past), but I don't remember thinking he was all that bad, given the competition, either. I've found a lot of the Facebook (and related) stuff rather embarrassing. Hm, I said as much in a comment to this post which now seems to be gone, for whatever reason.

Thanks for commenting, CAP, not only here but on the previous post about Baxandall, Haskell, etc. I meant to reply at the time (as I had been spending some time last year re-reading Rediscoveries in Art, your comment was especially interesting to me), but like so much around here, I never got around to it. Perhaps in time.