I used to be the person that didn't see any value in new year's eve celebrations, or birthdays and any recurrent celebration. To me they were just a day like any other from a grander scheme. I'm just a tiny fraction different from yesterday. It's just a turn around the sun from an arbitrary point in space. So why bother?
But recently I realized the value they have. Humans need cycles and renovations. They need to get to a point where they can look back to what happened and what didn't in their lives and plan for the next cycle to make better. They need celebrations to allow them to relieve important moments and to realize that time is passing.
We celebrate not because the day itself has any special meaning, but because every one of us can get a special meaning out of it.
I was already coming to the realization, but the turning point was when a friend of mine told me her experiences working in countries close to the equator, where seasons and cycles don't exists. There, the culture is to live by the day, because winter never comes and they don't need to prepare for hard seasons. If they are hungry, fruits are always available, food is always provided by nature.
For this reason they don't plan ahead at work, they don't save money and they waste a lot of resources thinking that there will always be something provided to them. This was her hardest problem in working in those cultures.
So, these cycles shape cultures and are a big part of what pushed mankind forward. Now I look at them with different eyes.
I was raised in California but have spent considerable time in areas of the US with 4 seasons (such as Chicago). I have come to love the 4 seasons for this exact reason. Sure, hot/humid summers are tough, and winters can get chilly, but I would keep them for the cyclical nature they produce. They make it so life continually changes, but more importantly, they make the passage of time explicit in everything (what you see in the city, what you do, how you dress, etc.).
>For this reason they don't plan ahead at work, they don't save money and they waste a lot of resources thinking that there will always be something provided to them. This was her hardest problem in working in those cultures.
It would be good to know in which country your friend went to and what she was doing there. I was born an raised in Colombia (you can tell it by my far from perfect English), been living in Europe for more than five years now, and I've had the opportunity to travel to more than a dozen different countries. I completely disagree about the conclusion your friend jumped into from her experience near the Equator.
It was 1986, if I remember correctly, when our country was hit by El Niño[1]. We barely had rain for months, so the government decided for the first time ever, to implement day-light saving time and electricity rationing. Most of our energy is hydropower, so it was very important for us to make a very conservative use of electricity. Schools and offices changed their schedules and everyone was very conscious about the situation. I was just a child, but I realized how important our natural resources were and that there is a really big difference between using them and wasting them.
I speak for myself, but believe me when I tell you this was a generalized sentiment. I lived in a big city, but there are small villages (even Today) that only have running water for a couple of hours a day, because there's not enough money to keep the water treatment plant turned on 24/7.
Now, living in the first world, I can tell that people here in general tend to be less conscious about those facts. I see it everyday at my office, at parties, public events, etc.
I don't think this has to do with geography, it's something cultural and it's not like that in the place where I come from. Is people in Hawaii living day by day and wasting resources because they are closer to the equator? I don't think so.
I recommend you to travel more, don't let your friends tell you, experience it first hand, get to know different people, different places. It makes you a better person and changes your perspective on certain things.
My friend worked in NGOs in Asia, mainly in Indonesia because her mother is from there (but she was born and raised in Europe). I'm pretty sure that it's not the same everywhere in the world, but there they probably didn't experience the sort of things. She has been there for a long time and the prevalent culture is what I described.
Definitely that's not the entire world. But what you are explaining is what I was saying, only in the reverse. In your country you had situations where you really had to plan and rationalize to go through extreme climate problems. Then again, every country and culture is different.
This might be the straw that actually makes me delete my Facebook account, and it's not because I think Facebook is trying to be malicious or doing anything wrong.
I use FB maybe several times a week, as a time killer. Sometimes I may share things (status, pictures), but I'm certainly not "on top of it".
My "year in review" is certainly NOT the sum of everything I posted to facebook. When I go on a road trip with friends, the pictures do not always make their way there. Not every person I date becomes a relationship status.
I used to argue to fb detractors and holders out that it's not intended as a socializing replacement, but just as an enhancer. But this just seems to reinforce the fact that, for many people...what they've publicly shared online defines them.
I guess it just kind of saddens me that, for many people, this WILL be a summary of their 2012. I think I'm having trouble really articulating what bugs me about it, but it just feels like validation that Facebook is gamifying people's lives into being about making Facebook some sort of mirror of their real life, which is not a future I'm on board with.
Reminds me a bit of "staged authenticity" in tourism studies which I've been thinking about lately. When we see the fake version of something as the real version, whether because we don't care about its blatant falsity or because we're not competent enough to authenticate its veracity.
I find the lack of humility in this page fascinating. Even though it's my account and my life, I have no control over what my top 20 moments are. The concept is great, but the tone (Facebook assuming authority) definitely rubs me the wrong way.
Year In Review actually takes care to highlight photos and posts you have highlighted on your profile/Timeline. If you'd highlighted posts or photos throughout the year, they'd have a higher likelihood of being in the top moments.
I really enjoyed how it was frictionless to get an interesting view of my year.
Good to hear. 3 posts in my review were links to random funny websites related to the presidential election. Clearly not what I would have chosen as personal moments of 2012. Since I'm not that active on FB, it might just not have had enough data to work with.
I'm glad that Facebook thought my attending a Baltimore Orioles game was more important than me getting married this year.
I suppose though it's based heavily around social signals - which means apparently my friends thought me attending an Orioles game was more important than my marriage.
It's probably because the friends of yours that cared about your marriage probably showed up to the marriage in person. But clicking likes maximizes around sports games (especially if you have friends who are also Orioles fans).
It's the same thing with my friends: My 5 closest friends don't even register on my facebook feed, because I talk to them regularly in person and share experiences with them. The more intimate private conversations. It's the next 50 that show up constantly in facebook, hitting like ex post facto.
Wow, considering how FB's algorithm seems to pick a good news feed for me to read, it's astonishing how poorly done this year-in-review thing is done. It's not organized even by content that was most liked or read, and random, arbitrary events are given large prominence...it makes me wonder if my newsfeed really does reflect the things I'd be most interested in
I completely agree, and really wonder about their algorithms in general (there's a reason I keep my news feed sorted by most recent, rather than top stories). It completely missed my trip to South America over the summer, yet very prominently featured a random photo taken of me at the office yesterday.
Well, now I took a closer look I'm seeing private photos switching back and forth. I'm waiting for a friend to confirm, but I see photos I posted to closed groups that have no relevance to others out of context. I'm waiting for a friend to tell me what he sees.
Like, if this are my bigest moments in life in 2012.... then I must post more, meaningful stuff to facebook so that my yearly review in 2013 will be more satisfying.
so they indirectly ask you to add more meaningful content to your wall... otherwise your review in 2013 will suck again.
- http://2012.twitter.com
- http://www.google.com/zeitgeist/2012/#the-world
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