MyFacyPlace

First it was a MySpace, a site that was fine for a while. Then a google page and wiki space soon followed. I have now settled down, and am quite content I might add, here at blogger. So why is it that all summer long there have been conversations like this (note that I am not simulating one single conversation but a conglomerate of many, many conversations I have had):

Friend/Relative/Acquaintance: "Hey do you have a Facebook?"

Me: "No"

Friend/Relative/Acquaintance: "You should"

Me: "It is just another electronic media that I would have to check. I already have a MySp......"

Friend/Relative/Acquaintance: "Facebook is way better/cooler/hipper than MySpace. I deleted my MySpace like months ago, no one uses MySpace, MySpace is for kids."

Me: ".....ace that I don't use, so why would I get a Facebook?"

Friend/Relative/Acquaintance: "You should still get one."

Me: Thinking...... Hard to argue with logic like that.

It seemed to everyone else that I was being stubborn and trying to be the obstinate one that didn't go along with the crowd. That was true, but now, after being left out for so long, I yearn to be part of the group. But how can I just change my position and keep my street cred? I needed an inspiring example of someone swallowing their pride and changing their opinion on something.

I found such an example in a close friend. Four years ago I was getting married and invited a friend of mine to the wedding. He/she chose not to go because he didn't believe in marriage. To be fair, I am sure he/she believed it existed, just not for him and if he could help it not his close friends. He/she was not able to talk me out of the wedding, and he/she did not grace us with his/her presence there. Now four years later, this friend has attended many more of his/her friends weddings and his/her attitude about marriage has changed. He/she isn't married or engaged, or promised, or promised to be engaged (that I know of) but he/she is less hostile and even open to the concept. Now if a friend can change his/her views on marriage, I should be able to change my opinion of Facebook.

So here it goes, I am posting this and then going on Facebook to create my profile. First person to add me gets......... a hug......from........ me......... someday.



I would also like to use this post as a platform to publicly apologize to Paul for not attending his wedding. I am full of shame.

Hurt Feelings.

This is how I feel, an autobiographical rap, things that happened to us....If you don't know what happened go read AYC first.



Have you ever had a friend tell you you were wrong?
Has he ever wrote a 576 word blog?
Did another friend laugh when he read the blog?

I got hurt feelings, I got hurt feelings......

This is how I would feel if I was wrong.

Since I am not I don't have hurt feelings.

Let me explain. The definition of positive reinforcement is,

Positive reinforcement is an increase in the future frequency of a behavior due to the addition of a stimulus immediately following a response.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement
Notice that stimulus is neither + or - (why did I use symbols? I am a math teacher, I can)

An example, but by no means a definition would be...

Positive reinforcement is a procedure whereby a student, contingent upon performing a specific behavior, is immediately rewarded to maintain or increase that behavior.
www.usu.edu/teachall/text/behavior/BEHAVglos.htm (As AYC so elequently quoted)


The desired behavior was you throwing interceptions (Why? I have my reasons). And by my telling you that "you sucked" I was adding a stimuli to increase the behavior of you throwing interceptions.

Me: "Friend, I find that I would probably respond better to positive reinforcement, rather than negative."

Lets assume that that I didn't want you to throw interceptions, even if that was true I was still not giving you negative reinforcement. (Seems like a double negative but it isn't) To be negative reinforcemnt, I would have had to be removing a stimuli,

Negative Reinforcement is an increase in the future frequency of a behavior when the consequence is the removal of an aversive stimulus. http://allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement.html


What I would have been giving you was punishment.

Punishment refers to adding something aversive in order to decrease a behavior.http://allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement.html.

The fourth kind of Reinforcement would be,

Extinction, when you remove something in order to decrease a behavior, this is called extinction. You are taking something away so that a response is decreased. http://allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement.html.

I don't know about you but I feel like we all learned something today, I know I did. And to follow suit I will end on a positive note, thanks to Shawna for letting us crash her apartment for the better part of a week and to Caleb for putting it all together and making sure that I would be a part of the fun.