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Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Bow Watches the Facebook Movie

Yesterday was another snow day. School was canceled in advance, and then later it started to snow.


At first it was just a little snow, and then it started piling up. But in the woods, there were still birds calling.




There was no possibility of going outside. The outer pen was white with it. The bench was piled up.


To entertain Bow, I tried the usual standbys. I offered some paper and a pen to draw with. He scribbled a little and got tired of that. I offered paints and a brush. He decided he wanted to taste the yellow paint, so I quickly took it away. Finally, Mark Zuckerberg announced to us that he and his team had made a movie about our participation on Facebook.


Mark, who looks to be about fifteen, has been operating Facebook for ten years now. Bow and I have been on Facebook for five. We were bored, and it was a snow day, so I decided to show Bow the video. To help him feel more involved, I was going to let him click on play.


Bow liked clicking so much, that he began trying to use the entire keyboard, and when eventually I suggested he turn it off himself, a lot more clicking and typing ensued. I wish we could harness this interest of Bow's in some useful way, but so far, he never seems to type when it shows up on the screen, nor will he stop, if left to his own devices, until the computer is disabled. He has his own touchscreen computer, but refuses to use it when it is offered. So I am at a loss as to what to do, even though I feel there is great potential just below the surface.

Bow is literate and likes computers, and yet still he will not type when asked to type, nor refrain from typing when it is not the right time. I wish we could ask our friend Mark Zuckerberg for help with this! I'm sure he could come up with something so diabolical that even Bow would be motivated to use it.

7 comments:

  1. It's really interesting to see what their software will put together for the films.

    While I looked at mine I remembered clearly this post or that post getting a bazillion "likes" and or comments, but then other things....I had no memory of at all.

    Then again, same situation on that "year in review" thing they put together.

    I guess I don't think about it much because....well, Facebook isn't going to pay me, so ...LOL!

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    1. Yes, I do wonder what their algorithm is. it seems to be pretty good.

      I remembered everything they chose, and it does seem to be what most of my friends found memorable, so in that sense they were right on.

      What is sad for me is that all my ideological posts and my books and the books I published for others did not get pulled up at all. This means, I think, that people really did see those posts more as spam and only paid attention to the pretty pictures.

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  2. I remember everything, but the most important posts were about Zazzle. I probably sound like an ad for Zazzle, which is okay, because I actually really like how they use their product with our art.

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    1. Yeah, I liked how your posts about Zazzle showed up. It was strange that none of my posts about books or articles or ideas appeared there at all. It's as if I didn't use FB primarily to market my products and ideas. Instead, it's all personal stuff.

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    2. But I remember you getting lots of likes for your book posts and writing ideas, so wonder why it did not show up.

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    3. Another thought, I do not have kids, so maybe Facebook hones in on family related keywords, like birthdays. Facebook seems to know I like cats, and those pictures out of all the pictures I posted showed up.

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    4. Yes, I think you're right, Julia. It could be there are keywords involved, and birthday is one of them.

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