Why are some people so eager to give Facebook the role of dictating social behavior, rather than forcing them to be what they should be, a tool that facilitates our own social desires and expectations?
They're fixing a serious error in the way they model conversation. Please explain how this is "dictating social behavior."
People engaged in an in-person conversation constantly and involuntarily give each other verbal and nonverbal cues indicating the receipt (or loss/corruption) of each message. One of the primary gripes against the text-based communication Facebook et al "forced" us to use is the loss of that subconscious channel. Having an unreliable chat system that created the ability to hide behind "oh sorry, I didn't get your message" was one way Facebook corrupted human social interaction. Now they're making it right.
I, for one, desire and expect reliable delivery of my messages to my friends' attention. Do you see a workable solution besides acknowledgments?
Text-based conversations are not in-person conversations! Text-based communication has existed for centuries prior to Facebook, and existing social protocols are perfectly capable of handling "seen" notifications. "Sorry, I didn't get your message" and other half-truths are an essential part of human interaction. If you want to know if your friends received a text message, just ask them. Instantaneous "X saw your message" notifications are an intolerable intrusion into private behavior, as they can convey unintended meaning without verifying user intent, especially in multi-party conversations.
Aside from the mangling of social behavior, "seen" is an impossible flag to get right. Maybe someone else was using the PC, maybe the person shut their PC down without looking at their browser window, even though the browser window was focused, etc.
>Text-based conversations are not in-person conversations!
My guess is Facebook is wants its messaging system to be farther towards in-person conversation on the scale of information-richness.
>"seen" is an impossible flag to get right
I'll agree with you there, but I think most cases would be handled quite well by setting "seen" iff the user interacts with the Facebook window after the message is displayed. This would handle situations where the browser is in focus but the computer is unoccupied, switching users, shutting down, etc.
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Why are some people so eager to give Facebook the role of dictating social behavior, rather than forcing them to be what they should be, a tool that facilitates our own social desires and expectations?
They're fixing a serious error in the way they model conversation. Please explain how this is "dictating social behavior."
People engaged in an in-person conversation constantly and involuntarily give each other verbal and nonverbal cues indicating the receipt (or loss/corruption) of each message. One of the primary gripes against the text-based communication Facebook et al "forced" us to use is the loss of that subconscious channel. Having an unreliable chat system that created the ability to hide behind "oh sorry, I didn't get your message" was one way Facebook corrupted human social interaction. Now they're making it right.
I, for one, desire and expect reliable delivery of my messages to my friends' attention. Do you see a workable solution besides acknowledgments?
Text-based conversations are not in-person conversations! Text-based communication has existed for centuries prior to Facebook, and existing social protocols are perfectly capable of handling "seen" notifications. "Sorry, I didn't get your message" and other half-truths are an essential part of human interaction. If you want to know if your friends received a text message, just ask them. Instantaneous "X saw your message" notifications are an intolerable intrusion into private behavior, as they can convey unintended meaning without verifying user intent, especially in multi-party conversations.
Aside from the mangling of social behavior, "seen" is an impossible flag to get right. Maybe someone else was using the PC, maybe the person shut their PC down without looking at their browser window, even though the browser window was focused, etc.
>Text-based conversations are not in-person conversations!
My guess is Facebook is wants its messaging system to be farther towards in-person conversation on the scale of information-richness.
>"seen" is an impossible flag to get right
I'll agree with you there, but I think most cases would be handled quite well by setting "seen" iff the user interacts with the Facebook window after the message is displayed. This would handle situations where the browser is in focus but the computer is unoccupied, switching users, shutting down, etc.