Facebook is just an extension of how we’ve always interacted with almost all the people we know.
Example: you get to your office, you encounter one of your coworkers. He/she: “Hi! How’s it going?” You: “Good. And you?” “Good.” All a polite fiction. You never tell them how it’s actually going, all of the dozen or twenty things wrong with your life in general and specific to the day. If you do answer frankly, you quickly find that people stop asking; eventually, they begin avoiding you. So we don’t do that, except with a select few of our most intimate friends.
Facebook is not a place for intimate friendship. It’s the world, and while you may have intimate friends on Facebook, everything you say and do is Out There for the world to see. When you’re out in the world, you wear your out-in-the-world mask, a smiley-face moat around your personal castle. Pity the (way too many) fools who think Facebook is the place to dump TMI.
This may all sound cynical, but it’s actually a good thing: neither civilized life nor personal sanity would be possible without it.
That Alex is simply amusing herself on Facebook during this beautiful day might be slightly disappointing, Sandfan, but Leo could be doing homework. I have spent many pleasant mornings staring into my laptop, writing. Did not regret it for a second, and it was much easier than taking my old Smith-Corona outside would have been.
You make a good point, Scaaty, but Facebook ups the ante & the noise. We keep getting bombarded by everyone’s positive announcements about themselves and their world, and instead of anyone merely replying “Good” to the salutary question, people reply “Great! Perfect!!” It begins, quickly, to make one wonder how bad things really are.
As I wrote in a paper last month, when a man uses Facebook to announce how much he loves his wife, then you know that the marriage has problems.
Facebook is already the place for too much information, but it is information of the trivial, exclamation-point-riddled sort.
Facebook “friend”: I tied my shoes this morning!!
Twenty people (only two of whom you know): Congratulations! Good job!! I knew you could!! I’m praying for you!!! Jesus loves you & so do I!!! Etc.
FB “friend”, replying to each of the twenty: Thanks!!! I love you, too!!! Etc.
Do you want the Joke answer to that or the real way?
The Joke answer:
1) Know how to say “Yes ma’am” and “No ma’am” and be sure to get them in the right order.
2) Always lift the lid and lower it again afterwards.
3) Keep two rolls of toilet paper hidden. So long as any woman knows you can put your hands on toilet paper on a moments notice your life is safe.
4) A plentiful supply of chocolate can’t hurt
The real way is that :
1) Pay attention - Nothing kills a relationship more quickly than neglect. Take the time to talk daily and actually listen to what happened in her day. The most important 15 minutes in any couples day are the first 5 minutes you are together in the morning, the first five you are alone in the evening and the last five before bed. Your full attentions should be on her during those times.
2) Be romantic - Love is like a flower. It withers and dies without care. The same care you give it when you are dating is the care you need to keep it alive. Just being thoughtful helps. The occasional kind word like Leo demonstrates here or a simple thoughtful unexpected gesture. You should occasionally plan a special night too, like a date. Some time for the two of you to be alone to reconnect and just enjoy each other’s company. When the world is beating at your doors and the kids are howling and the times are so bad you can’t find time for it, is the time you need it most. Sometimes you have to plan to be spontaneous.
3) Ever relationship from simple friendship to the love of your life must share common interests. If you like to do different things than she does, the relationship won’t last. If you can’t find things you both like to do and share with each other then you aren’t meant for each other. That isn’t to say you can’t have interests the other doesn’t share, but you must be able to share some interests.
4) There is a grain of truth in the old joke that “women are called the opposite sex because whenever you think you understand them it’s the opposite!” Partly cultural I admit, but not all of it. Many men have said that women are emotional creatures because they make decisions based on emotions without any logic. Most sociological and psychological studies show that all human decisions are made that way male or female. My opinion is that women are more in touch with their emotions and understand them better than men, probably because of the cultural upbringing. They accept what they do without trying to understand while we try to understand, which is why we can’t understand it if you get my meaning.
“Facebook for Dummies” says it all. That’s why I don’t have a page and don’t bother looking at those of my friends who want to “friend” me. The Facebook creators are laughing all the way to the bank.
I love them both and they love eachother. This may be the only place love-in-bloom exists in the whole wide cynical 2011 world. (contented, unassailable sigh) Thank you GT
I have a facebook page. It allows me to easily remain in contact with my two grown children and to see their pictures of my granddaughters without having to download them to my computer while I’m on the road or onto the computer I use at work. I can also keep in touch with my two brothers who also have FB pages, and also with many of my cousins who are flung all across the US. And since it costs me absolutely nothing, I’m totally happy for the folks who invented FB and wish them all the money they can manage to harvest from this brilliant idea.
rayannina over 13 years ago
Leo is great!
sherpafree over 13 years ago
well, least your ti ti timm timing has improved.
Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ over 13 years ago
Ah, Facebook! Where you can make a perfect copy of yourself as long as your friends don’t catch on.
pouncingtiger over 13 years ago
^^ or family members.
FriscoLou over 13 years ago
Too nice a day to be cooped up in the trailer.
Better change the Mrs. DeLuca parts.
jeanne1212 over 13 years ago
FaceBook for Dummies? WHERE was it when I needed it!
cdward over 13 years ago
Leo always knows what to say.
lewisbower over 13 years ago
Has Leo written a book on surviving with the opposite sex? Gotta get a copy.
Sandfan over 13 years ago
They’re together outside on a beautiful day, each staring into a computer. Sad.
woowie over 13 years ago
Want a change? How aobut starting with a new hair style? Especially one that looks like you have combed it! Same for Leo.
peter0423 over 13 years ago
Facebook is just an extension of how we’ve always interacted with almost all the people we know.
Example: you get to your office, you encounter one of your coworkers. He/she: “Hi! How’s it going?” You: “Good. And you?” “Good.” All a polite fiction. You never tell them how it’s actually going, all of the dozen or twenty things wrong with your life in general and specific to the day. If you do answer frankly, you quickly find that people stop asking; eventually, they begin avoiding you. So we don’t do that, except with a select few of our most intimate friends.
Facebook is not a place for intimate friendship. It’s the world, and while you may have intimate friends on Facebook, everything you say and do is Out There for the world to see. When you’re out in the world, you wear your out-in-the-world mask, a smiley-face moat around your personal castle. Pity the (way too many) fools who think Facebook is the place to dump TMI.
This may all sound cynical, but it’s actually a good thing: neither civilized life nor personal sanity would be possible without it.
And yes, Leo is a frakking genius. :)
TexTech over 13 years ago
Facebook For Dummies. Isn’t that redundant?
BrianCrook over 13 years ago
That Alex is simply amusing herself on Facebook during this beautiful day might be slightly disappointing, Sandfan, but Leo could be doing homework. I have spent many pleasant mornings staring into my laptop, writing. Did not regret it for a second, and it was much easier than taking my old Smith-Corona outside would have been.
You make a good point, Scaaty, but Facebook ups the ante & the noise. We keep getting bombarded by everyone’s positive announcements about themselves and their world, and instead of anyone merely replying “Good” to the salutary question, people reply “Great! Perfect!!” It begins, quickly, to make one wonder how bad things really are.
As I wrote in a paper last month, when a man uses Facebook to announce how much he loves his wife, then you know that the marriage has problems.
Facebook is already the place for too much information, but it is information of the trivial, exclamation-point-riddled sort.
Facebook “friend”: I tied my shoes this morning!!
Twenty people (only two of whom you know): Congratulations! Good job!! I knew you could!! I’m praying for you!!! Jesus loves you & so do I!!! Etc.
FB “friend”, replying to each of the twenty: Thanks!!! I love you, too!!! Etc.
Justice22 over 13 years ago
I like it…. the ‘toon.
Ermine Notyours over 13 years ago
Their hair looks askew because the wind is blowing outside.
Kerovan over 13 years ago
@ Lewreader
Do you want the Joke answer to that or the real way?
The Joke answer:
1) Know how to say “Yes ma’am” and “No ma’am” and be sure to get them in the right order.
2) Always lift the lid and lower it again afterwards.
3) Keep two rolls of toilet paper hidden. So long as any woman knows you can put your hands on toilet paper on a moments notice your life is safe.
4) A plentiful supply of chocolate can’t hurt
The real way is that :
1) Pay attention - Nothing kills a relationship more quickly than neglect. Take the time to talk daily and actually listen to what happened in her day. The most important 15 minutes in any couples day are the first 5 minutes you are together in the morning, the first five you are alone in the evening and the last five before bed. Your full attentions should be on her during those times.
2) Be romantic - Love is like a flower. It withers and dies without care. The same care you give it when you are dating is the care you need to keep it alive. Just being thoughtful helps. The occasional kind word like Leo demonstrates here or a simple thoughtful unexpected gesture. You should occasionally plan a special night too, like a date. Some time for the two of you to be alone to reconnect and just enjoy each other’s company. When the world is beating at your doors and the kids are howling and the times are so bad you can’t find time for it, is the time you need it most. Sometimes you have to plan to be spontaneous.
3) Ever relationship from simple friendship to the love of your life must share common interests. If you like to do different things than she does, the relationship won’t last. If you can’t find things you both like to do and share with each other then you aren’t meant for each other. That isn’t to say you can’t have interests the other doesn’t share, but you must be able to share some interests.
4) There is a grain of truth in the old joke that “women are called the opposite sex because whenever you think you understand them it’s the opposite!” Partly cultural I admit, but not all of it. Many men have said that women are emotional creatures because they make decisions based on emotions without any logic. Most sociological and psychological studies show that all human decisions are made that way male or female. My opinion is that women are more in touch with their emotions and understand them better than men, probably because of the cultural upbringing. They accept what they do without trying to understand while we try to understand, which is why we can’t understand it if you get my meaning.
peter0423 over 13 years ago
Kerovan: Both answers are true wisdom, sir.
btbass2 Premium Member over 13 years ago
“Facebook for Dummies” says it all. That’s why I don’t have a page and don’t bother looking at those of my friends who want to “friend” me. The Facebook creators are laughing all the way to the bank.
PappyFiddle over 13 years ago
The love between a man and a woman is the supreme greatest thing there is.
Nemesys over 13 years ago
Methink that debating the merits and pitfalls of Facebook via an online Comic Comments site is a question that provides its own answers.
“The medium is the message”. - Marshall McLuhan
arye uygur over 13 years ago
How come on some days Leo’s sides are completely shaved off, while on days like in today’s strip he has hair on his sides?
babka Premium Member over 13 years ago
I love them both and they love eachother. This may be the only place love-in-bloom exists in the whole wide cynical 2011 world. (contented, unassailable sigh) Thank you GT
griefofdawn over 13 years ago
Arye, he hasn’t gotten around to shaving the hair today. Face book is for playing games.
MisngNOLA over 13 years ago
I have a facebook page. It allows me to easily remain in contact with my two grown children and to see their pictures of my granddaughters without having to download them to my computer while I’m on the road or onto the computer I use at work. I can also keep in touch with my two brothers who also have FB pages, and also with many of my cousins who are flung all across the US. And since it costs me absolutely nothing, I’m totally happy for the folks who invented FB and wish them all the money they can manage to harvest from this brilliant idea.