Richard F. Santiago

A little game of Facebook survivor

I realize I was being a bit of a fascist (thank you @michaeldezso) in my arbitrary decision to obliterate an entire population of “friends” from my Facebook page. Call it a twisted sense of justice or whatever, but I feel compelled to come up with some way to quantify who does & doesn’t get cut. Like literally create a set of data that will help me make choices, particularly in the more difficult instances (like should I cut my cousin who I NEVER talk to even though we’re technically family?).

So I’ve decided to create a visual map of my Facebook interactions (posts, shared photos, tags, etc.) and overlay qualitative factors that can give a “bump” in the rankings for those that I get most excited about hearing from, or that I dig impressing. I will try to be as honest and forthright with myself as possible given my natural tendency to believe in things that aren’t real. (See “Cat in the Hat” and smile below for example)

First sketches will drawn out this evening with @therealraggi and @joescalo to vet the idea and troubleshoot any particularly sticky situations. I’ll be posting my sketches in progress and the prototypes I’m creating in Processing here.

If you’d like to follow the progress or post other ideas for this project, use the tag #FBsurvivor or just leave a comment below. Any and all comments for or against are welcome, but as Jay-z said, “Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t.”

One other note, which could be potentially cool or destructive depending on our dealings, I will further summarize my relationships with folks via baseball cards (of sorts), capturing notable stats, career highlights and milestone interactions.

I’m psyched. Eastside (by which I mean the cultural melting pot of the east of Biggleswade…and sh#t).