Outside the Blur

I must recognize it : I have a Facebook account. With friends and photos and videos and comments and all these Facebook stuffs like games, likes and places and groups and so on. And I like to look at their photos, to the places where they have been because I want to know what choices I have. Like everybody.

Maybe this little description on how I see all this Facebook thing will not change your view about the Facebook phenomenon. Stay relax, it’s not my intention. I want to describe just a few thoughts about this, and I just want to assure that you consider Facebook as being the right thing. Nothing more. In fact it’s a website for God Christ! It’s not your life, it’s not you and this will never be. It can’t represent you, not even a 1 % of what you are. It can’t do anything.

This reaction came after a friend of mine who, in the past, permanently and continuously  rejected all the Facebook idea created a Facebook account and added me as a friend. In that moment, I said : What’s happening here ? Where we are going ? What is Facebook ? Is Facebook a virus or something? If you don’t have a Facebook account you are not cool  anymore? You represent less ? Or what ?

Let’s start from the beginning. We know that Facebook has a big reputation in the World Wide Web. Facebook is ranking as the second website after Google. Do you know what this means ? Maybe you do. Anyway, this means that Facebook has the second traffic from the web after Google. You know ? Google, the search engine which is accessed for searching things on the internet.

Why? Why Facebook is so well accepted by people and they keep coming to this place ? It’s a socializing network and people can meet each other after years and years of lost contact. Maybe someone is in Australia and his friend is in Japan. They can change words, impressions and have a minimal contact with each other.

Facebook works like this. You create an account, you complete your profile and you begin to add photos from the moments and places you consider valuable for you. The most people do like that. Then you add friends you know (or you think you know) and then you begin to interact with them. It’s a very good platform for socializing and maintaining a minimal contact with someone you know.

People are spelled by Facebook. Beginning from young people and finishing with old people all begin to talk about Facebook like a sort of revolution. They are amazed by this.

And the Facebook phenomenon gains more and more adepts.

Another reason is that Facebook has various games, various applications and ways of entertaining people which are permanently maintained and upgraded. It arrived to be accessed very often by people which previously used the internet to verify only their mail boxes. Now they have begun to do something more: access the Facebook account. It’s like a thing which attires you. You are amazed and you are curious what happened in this virtual space while you were outside the Facebook. You are connected to this world because you put something from you: your photos, your memories. A small part of your life is there, including friends. The Facebook has you !

But you must pay attention. Facebook it’s a web platform. Nothing more. It’s a place for contact, hand shake and acknowledgment. It’s not a REAL SOCIALIZING. It’s far less than a real socializing. This platform does not represent you. Not even 1 percent of you, of what you are. Yes. It’s fantastic how Facebook manages to give you that impression. Your Own Facebook Account enters into your mind and gives you the impression that something of you is there. And you love this idea. Because you want to express yourself, to know people, to share to the world a part of you, a part of what you are and who you are.

Everybody wants to be known for something. Well, Facebook succeeded in making things appropriate for people to present a part of themselves. This is not something bad. It’s a wonderful idea in fact. The danger represent the addiction. The addiction of the idea that the Facebook profile you created is you. It’s not you, it’s only an image, a very small representation of you. Like a CV. But you don’t look at your CV everyday like you do with your Facebook profile, don’t you ? Why not ? Because you are proud of your Facebook profile and of the image you created. You are curious about what others say about you, about your photos. You want to be admired and appreciated and This is the addiction. You become attached by the image you created about yourself and that’s why you keep coming to Facebook everyday.

Facebook it’s not a socializing place. Because a social interaction is far far more complex. It’s just a meeting place. You don’t know people on Facebook. You only do a hand shake. A small “Hi!” to someone you know a little. It’s a place where you can laugh, spend some time, know about events and other things you like. It’s an entertainment place. That’s another reason why people come to Facebook. You can organize meetings, participate and involve in different activities.

I used to have profiles on almost all the well known socializing web platforms. I deleted them all. I keep only the FB profile. How much. I don’t know. The idea is not to be addicted and to use Facebook in the right way and in the right measure.

Cheers !

I don’t know if you are familiar with the following problem, or let’s say, curiosity. The women you look it’s spinning. Some of you see her spinning clockwise and some other see her spinning counter clockwise. There are also people which are seeing her rotating in both ways depending on which way they look at her.

This girl provoked me so much that I begun an investigation about the illusion.

First time I saw her spinning clockwise and couldn’t see her moving counter clockwise.  Some of my friends have seen her counter clockwise and some of them in both ways depending on how they looked at it. After some exercises I was able to see her moving both ways. Everybody is able to see her in both ways. I don’t believe in stories that if you see her clockwise you use mostly the right side of the brain and if you see her counter clockwise you use mostly the left part o of the brain. The only truth here is that it depends on how you catch her at first sight. Let’s look closer at the problem. I’ll do some observations and begin an investigation.

Observations :

1.  You see that this women is completely black, it’s like a shadow in a single color. No special other details.

2.  From the observation No. 1 we make another important observation(No. 2) : in any point of the movement  there are 2 possibilities : to be with  the back towards you or to be  with the face towards you. You just can’t precise clearly if she is with the back or the front. Is your brain  which suppose and judge.

3.   You look at this image which is a 2 dimensional picture without any other details and because she is spinning your brain construct a 3D environment. Before moving, when the women is just a simple picture you see only 2 dimensions : the axe X which is the length and axe Y which is the height. When the movement appears which is a movement with the axe Y of height as axe of rotation a new dimension appear : the axe Z which is the deepness.

So what I did is that I took the GIF file of spinning women and I decomposed it into the frames. It resulted 29 frames. Then I separated 2 of them: the frame 26 and the frame 29 to evidentiate the movement. If I took 26 and 27 the differences in positions were not so obvious and more difficult to show you.

Case Number 1 – Counter clockwise movement

Colored in red you have the counter clockwise scenario. When your brain appreciate that the girl is with the face at you and the left leg is completely in sight, you appreciate that the resulting movement is counterclockwise. In fact you associates that it is a left leg only because the girl is with the face at you.The only thing that makes difference here is the leg : if your brain interprets it that it is is completely in sight at these positions, you will associate this change in positions as a counterclockwise movement. This is just a point of view.

Case Number 2 – clockwise movement

If you see the leg in movement as being hidden behind the standing leg you will associate it with the right leg. You will associate in your mind the situation when the girl is with the back at you and your brain will interpret it as a clockwise movement.

These are the same frames seen from different perspectives. Your brain gives only one situation depending on the way you appreciate the women. You can see her in both ways, maybe at the beginning you’ll have difficulties in seeing the other one. After some exercises you will be able to see the women turning in both ways.

Good luck.