Saturday, January 16

Facebook performs a number of very different functions, some more profitable for the company than others. We can find one way of dividing these by looking whether the rewards for users occur inside Facebook or outside it.

Social media / look-at-me posts attract likes, which cause dopamine hits, which lead to repeated posting – and the reward system occurs within Facebook. Hyperlocal groups in Facebook, however, offer rewards that occur in the locality, and thsu outside Facebook.

We follow a hyperlocal Vartiokylä group, and today we will get lots of real-life benefits. Right now Akseli and Emil have arrived with their mopo-style truck to clear our snow. They are teenagers and they have all kinds of equipment for their new business. They will spend two hours clearing snow from the terrace that would have taken all weekend.

I lusted after one of these mini-trucks in the summer, where I saw one in Pellinki, and so I stand in the yard and photograph this one. They intend to buy a bulldozer-like front piece from their earnings, to make their business more efficient. They also intend to mow lawns in the summer and sweep up leaves in the autumn.

Later the fig cake we ordered from a woman who posts in the Facebook group will arrive. We ordered one a couple of weeks ago and it tasted so good that we waited for the next opportunity to buy one.

Later still we will take two large bags of unwanted clothes to a local house whose inhabitants have decided to gather clothes for the homeless.