Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau

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  1. Yuseff

    Yuseff said, 12 days ago

    I get on Facebook about once a week for an average of 10 minutes each session.

    I know people who spend 6 or more hours per day on there every day.

    I know how Mike is feeling.

  2. barticle35

    barticle35Genius_badge said, 12 days ago

    Why I don’t do Facebook.

  3. Margueritem

    MargueritemGenius_badge said, 12 days ago

    Same here….

  4. Setebos

    Setebos said, 12 days ago

    Ditto…..

  5. Jim

    Jim said, 12 days ago

    Facebook is so 140 characters ago .

  6. Budmania

    Budmania said, 12 days ago

    I just use it to find old friends…….

  7. Doctor Toon

    Doctor ToonGenius_badge said, 12 days ago

    This is as close to a social networking site as I get.
    I can make a fool of myself here on Gocomics and nobody who knows me in real life cares.

  8. Potrzebie

    Potrzebie said, 12 days ago

    I am on facebook since a few months ago and still don’t find it satisfactory.

  9. pearlandpeach

    pearlandpeach said, 12 days ago

    Ah, Doctor Toon - comments I can live with - and nobody will ever know unless out yourself.

  10. Jay_Dallas

    Jay_Dallas said, 12 days ago

    I’m with you Portzebie. I joined at the request of a good friend, but I honestly dont see what all the fuss is about.

  11. geedee

    geedee said, 12 days ago

    Better to bury your face in a book.

  12. MsLizVt

    MsLizVt said, 12 days ago

    I’m curious what the ages are of everyone who’s posted so far, I’m 52. Not a scientific note, but it would seem for the 10-30 year old’s social media is far more important than it is for me/us.

    Kids can hang in their rooms, logged in for hours on school nights, keeping out of mom and dad’s hair. What was our distraction when we were growing up, television?

  13. Joe Allen Doty

    Joe Allen Doty said, 12 days ago

    Alex’s father, Mike only said two words and those are in the last panel.

    Mike apparently just walked into her dorm room at MIT.

    Alex is not at home.

    AND, she is entering information in her MySpace blog when Mike enters the room.

    While what Alex is saying might have a connection with Facebook, she doesn’t mention it by name.

    This seems to be a case where actions, body language and facial expressions, speak louder than words.

  14. jtpozenel

    jtpozenel said, 12 days ago

    What is this, CliffsNotes for the comics?

  15. seablood

    seablood said, 12 days ago

    MySpace, Facebook, Twitter!!! It’s all a bunch of Jive toys for kids. To paraphrase Maurice Chevalier : I’m glad I’m not young anymore.

  16. MiepR

    MiepR said, 12 days ago

    How charming to see such consensus on a comment thread here. I’m glad to hear that people are just as capable of driving each other up walls while using their real identities, as they are with nom d’plumes.

    Was creating war zones the intent of the inventors of social networking? It does drive site traffic, after all. I wonder how much of such comprises feuding and forwarding doctored cat photos.

    It’s like inventing French cuisine and never using it to make anything except French fries.

  17. Susan001

    Susan001 said, 12 days ago

    Alex is in a state of denial. That techno-crap is definately riuning her life.

    My brother wants me to go on Facebook. As if!!!

  18. Crashgrande

    Crashgrande said, 12 days ago

    I joined Facebook six months ago at the urging of several students. Anyone who wants to be my “friend” is allowed to; they can talk to each other. I very rarely look at it myself.

  19. benbrilling

    benbrillingGenius_badge said, 12 days ago

    I suppose one might conclude Facebook has improved her talent for reading parents’ minds.

  20. MackRN

    MackRN said, 12 days ago

    Tried Facebook a while, almost never checked in, (I’d rather read a book), got off a year ago…no regrets. I’m soon to be 56.

  21. Joe Allen Doty

    Joe Allen Doty said, 12 days ago

    Since “a picture is worth a thousand words” and each of the 8 panels is a picture, today’s strip must be worth 8 thousand words.

    I am not that verbose.

  22. Margueritem

    MargueritemGenius_badge said, 12 days ago

    MsLizVt, my daughter keeps trying to get me to sign up for Face Book. I have no interest in doing so. Age is 62.

  23. TerriAKF

    TerriAKF said, 12 days ago

    MsLizvt, I’m 47. We completed our chores daily. We played outside we: ran, rode bikes, played games like hide-and-go-seek or stuff we made up, we caught tadploes and explored woods and hills and paths to who-knew-where, we played sports or joined scouts or some other club. We made plans before we went out for which we got permission from our parents ahead of time. We came home for regular family meals or when the street lights went out. We didn’t know name brand clothes, or make-up, or boy/girlfriends in elementary school. Mostly, we formed friendships with real people in our neighborhoods vs. meeting virtual people a world apart. We knew and liked spending time with our extended families. As for TV,we watched cartoons on Saturday morning, and The Wide World of Disney on Sunday nights. It was a VERY different world. Even if kids today were inclined to toward some of our experiences, it might not be safe for them. Your question really got me thinking. Sorry about the length!

  24. Cackles

    Cackles said, 12 days ago

    Terri, Paul Harvey called. He wants his reality-distorting nostalgia back.

    I’m quickly learning there are few experiences more belittling than being a 24 year old who reads the comments under Doonesbury each day, especially when technology plays a role in the strip. I don’t know what us bleeep kids were thinking, having the audacity to be born after 1975 and act like we’re not living in the 50s. Never mind the irony of all this correspondence taking place over the internet…

  25. cholldekkgher stenstenstaffgher

    cholldekkgher stenst... said, 11 days ago

    Your life is complicated
    More than you anticipated
    All this oversharing
    Has become overbearing
    Makes me feel constipated

  26. picocycle

    picocycle said, 11 days ago

    Cackles, While everyone appreciates your youth, your sarcasm can remain elsewhere. Doonesbury came out when we were kids. This is a forum where we can enjoy reflection. If you do not like what you see, get over it. Children should be seen and not heard.

  27. nagut

    nagut said, 11 days ago

    Cackles, every generation has to decide for themselves what they want to be. But that doesn’t mean they are not missing anything. I really think a lot of young people of today are missing out on the real life out there, meaning trees and wind and flowers and stuff. Or being somewhere alone, without the need or even the possibility of contacting anyone, and without anybody knowing where you are, just being alone with your thoughts. I think that’s something worth experiencing, and I get the impression less and less people have had that experience. Makes me sad.
    (sorry for grammar mistakes, English is not my first language…)

  28. Cackles

    Cackles said, 11 days ago

    Thanks, nagut. I understand where you’re coming from, and I actually agree with you. Truth be told, my own childhood was probably much the same as your own, I just had access to modern technology in addition to all the hiking and neighborhood play. Computers and the internet didn’t replace a “regular” childhood, they simply supplemented it.

    That’s what makes the willful ignorance and derision of new technology displayed here (not in the strip itself, but in the comments) so grating. It may not be true for children and teens today, but most of my generation did all the things our parents did as kids. We didn’t miss the boat on sports and playing outside. We enjoyed them just as much as they did, we just enjoyed the new stuff too. But because of every generation’s seemingly compulsive need to find fault with the activities of the one(s) that came after them, we’re treated to this kind of self-righteous condescension all the time.

    As an aside, I never cease to be amused by excerpts from historical figures bemoaning the obvious degeneracy of “kids today,” and how it will undoubtedly lead to the fall of civilization as we know it. All the way back to Plato, and I’m sure his dad gave him an ear-full as well.

  29. Chikuku

    ChikukuGenius_badge said, 11 days ago

    Social Media ARE running and ruining your life, Alex. Media are plural. Singular: Medium.

  30. MisngNOLA

    MisngNOLAGenius_badge said, 11 days ago

    I have both a MySpace and a Facebook account. I use both daily to keep in touch with folks in other places, especially with respect to when any of us “emigres” will be returning to New Orleans. I’m 51 years young.

  31. TexTech

    TexTech said, 10 days ago

    Cackles,

    I am 60 years old and been working with computers for more than 30 years (mainframes however, not PC). I don’t know that most of the folks here are trying to denigrate technology or those that use them. It is for them, as for me, just not that interesting or useful.

    To draw what is probably a poor parallel, I don’t get piercings and tatoos but if young people want to do it, I don’t care. Just don’t ask me to join in. It isn’t that different in it’s own way when the guys of my generation started wearing their hair real long. Parent went nuts but it was what we wanted to do.

    Please don’t think we are knocking your generation. Indeed, it is the techno whizzes of your group that may open up new and as yet unimaginable wonders to my generation.

    And by the way, I just spent this past weekend learning how to run a seminar group online for a distant learning program using the Blackboard product. I’m not a complete technology “poop.”