All My Exes Live in Texts

http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/07/texting-exes-social-media-generation.html

by yarianluis • 13 years ago

28 27 13 years ago

There's a reason for the Reddit truism:

"Hire a lawyer, hit the gym, delete from Facebook."

Far be it from me to say how someone else should deal with their exes, but if their presence on social media makes you uncomfortable, there's a quick and dirty solution just a click of a button away.

hkmurakami• 13 years ago

top image is a bit NSFW even though it's blurred, just FYI.

borplk• 13 years ago

Yes I'd appreciate a warning "[NSFW-ish image]" in the title

pixie_• 13 years ago

I wish I could send this article back in time 20 years. All the prophecies of how the internet would change the social dynamic, and now we see how it has all played out.

billforsternz2• 13 years ago

Damn, was hoping this was an article about how to encode Windows executables into text.

_b8r0• 13 years ago

Ask and ye shall receive (in powershell form):

    $fName = "last.exe"

    $fContent = get-content $fName

    $fContentBytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($fContent)

    $fContentEncoded = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String($fContentBytes)

    $fContentEncoded set-content ($fName + ".text")

Now you can at least say that all your .exes live in base64-encoded .texts.

billforsternz2• 13 years ago

Thanks, upvoted. (But, also, note that I wasn't really hoping this was an article about how to store my Windows .exes as text :-)

ygra• 13 years ago

I guess that should rather be

    Get-PSDrive -PSProvider Filesystem |
      Get-ChildItem -Recurse -Path { $_.Root } -Filter *.exe |
      ForEach-Object {
        $bytes = Get-Content $_ -Encoding Byte -ReadCount 0
        $text = [Convert]::ToBase64String($bytes)
        $text | Set-Content ($_.FullName + '.text')
      }

Reading the files as UTF-8 and converting them back into a byte array isn't such a great idea, I think ;-)

chatmasta• 13 years ago

If your personal history includes memories of 36 events that make your "stomach churn," maybe you should investigate the cause for the events. You might trace all of them back to one origin. That's the root problem. So before you lament the impossibility of resolving your personal issues, try to fix them yourself. Don't excuse your behavior based on the presence of a controllably negative influence like Facebook. It doesn't make you do anything. Your decision of how to use it is entirely of your own volition. If you do not like how you handle that power, figure out why. Do not throw your arms up in the air and blame Facebook. Blame your own decisions and then address the cause. You're only avoiding the problem.

eshvk4• 13 years ago

That is rather harsh and rather tangential. Sure, ultimately every personal relationship being destroyed has two parties at fault; one of whom is yourself. Fixing yourself doesn't mean that you magically become a mormon missionary like grin and become at ease with everything life. The 'stomach churn' is a very human thing.

I feel like your rant places the blame solely on the user herself and not on the usability problems associated in the Facebook era.

E.g. blocking an ex would be easy. Yet, it also means that you cannot see if the other person is going to an event or not. This is an issue for certain people who don't really want to hang out at a certain event if their ex is going to it. The other alternative is to keep seeing them appear in your facebook interaction someway or the other: your chat box shows them as one of the most frequently messaged people; suggested events may be because they are going to a certain event.

temphn• 13 years ago

OP is being polite. Obviously the point is that Maureen O'Connor's problems have very little to do with Facebook's usability and very much to do with Xing with 36 guys, where "X" rises to Maureen's internal threshold for considering them "exes". Who wants to be #37? Or #43, to put a ring on it?

That's the source of the "user's" current and future unhappiness. Not Facebook's usability problems.

girvo6• 13 years ago

I disagree, I feel that taking responsibility for your past makes things easier to deal with and easier to move on. Four out of six long term serious girlfriends cheated on me. While I feel that reflects badly on those girls personality, I also take responsibility for my behaviour in the relationship, I was a typical Beta male who didn't hold up my end of keeping the relationship stable. Accepting that has lead to me being a stronger happier person, in an excellent stable and above all, well adjusted long term relationship with a girl I'm desperately in love with.

What I'm saying, is the OP is blaming Social Media for her own issues,in my opinion anyway.

girvo6• 13 years ago

I'm 22. I have 6 ex girlfriends, and a lot more girls that were not a proper relationship, but for the sake of argument here, we'll call them exes.

I deal with this problem simply. I delete them and remove them from my life. There have been no exceptions.

I've run into one or two of them around town, said hello, and went my own way.

It can be done, oddly enough. But then, I don't ascribe any meaning to deleting someone from Facebook. I have 100 people in my friends list, and I'd invite every one of them to a party.

Subuatai2• 13 years ago

I personally would prefer to be friends with exes. I don't understand why people find it so hard to go from dating to freidship. Of course it's awkward at first, just like your first date was awkward, but you push past it if its someone you'll enjoy in your life.

eshvk4• 13 years ago

I don't understand why people find it so hard to go from dating to freidship.

You must not have a large sample set to work on then. A friend of mine came out of a two year relationship where his ex slept with a close friend. Sure it is "awkward", sure they have a lot in common. However, why does he need to go through all the pain in order to be friends with her (or maintain a friendship with the other friend for that matter)? There are millions of people out there to be your friends, your lovers. Delete, walk away works just as easily.

girvo6• 13 years ago

Because four of of the six fucked someone else while dating me, and felt not once ounce of remorse.

Thankfully I'm a bit better at picking someone to commit to these days.

papercruncher• 13 years ago

That system breaks down if you start dating from within your social circle (friends of friends). I know you'll tell me it's a big no-no but you'd be surprised how much more common it becomes as you get older

eshvk4• 13 years ago

Very true. It becomes harder especially if the breakup is messy. As a friend you are forced, like it or not, to choose sides. As a person in the relationship, you are in the awkward situation of knowing that some of your friends are going to side with the other person and so on.

girvo6• 13 years ago

Oh definitely. Thankfully I've stuck to friends of friends instead :)

rlu• 13 years ago

The comments on the site are a little brutal! I enjoyed the read, though I feel like at this moment in time I relate to it much more than I might otherwise.

I just graduated college this May and so the way I'm relating to the piece isn't so much with maintaining contact with exes, but maintaining contacts with college friends. There are certainly different 'levels' of friendship. Some I could see maintaining contact with frequently (but for how long??), others maybe just 3 or 4 times a year, and others still maybe just a few times every 5 years.

But even my closest friends - suppose I actually gave them a real phone call every month - how long does this keep going? This one comment on the OP site itself certainly hits the nail on the head...

"are you going to be dragging all these people along with you when you are 40? 50? 80? ... You can't take everyone with you."

I can see myself only speaking with my closest college friends maybe a couple times a year, 5 years from now. And that's kind of sad.

davidxc• 13 years ago

I can relate to this comment. I had some really close friends in high school (who I'm still close friends with), but after two years out of high school we've mostly lost touch. We talk to each other once every couple of months, and I see them maybe a few times over summer. It's definitely kind of sad.

All My Exes Live in Texts

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