Friday, October 01, 2010

Facebook

I know I'm probably being tech-sacrilegious here, but I'm not wild about Facebook. I get on it from time to time and check for the birthday's of my friends, but there are days I don't even log on.
I have friends who spend a great deal of time communicating with their peeps.  Many times you get a faster response if you send them a message on Facebook than if you send them an email.
Facebook has given a voice to the masses, not only in the US, but in the rest of the world. There are more than 500 million users (the US population is only 360 million), and half of them log on to Facebook daily. Statistics show that we spend 700 BILLION minutes a month on Facebook.
I'm guessing a bunch of these folks are "on the clock" at their jobs, so I'd like to see how much this impacts the world economy.
Now where was I....my head is still spinning over the 700 billion minutes.....Oh yes, what Facebook has done is given anyone who has access to a computer, a voice.
I've seen some incredible stories, pictures, and videos on Facebook. I see a lot of people playing Facebook games....well, I don't actually see them since I've learned how to block the games from showing up on my live feed and for the most part, this is a good thing.
But I've also seen an underside to Facebook that I don't like at all. I've seen urban legends spread like a wind swept wildfire.
I've seen horrible things spread about politicians and other people. The recent outrage about Muslims building a mosque near the World Trade Center 9-11 site, was troubling as well.
People clumped  all Muslims together as terrorists. 
I've pointed out that a few whacked out "Christians" have committed atrocities too, but we would never point to Jim Jones, David Koresh, or other extremists and say all Christians are bad seeds.
When you look a little deeper into the Muslim mosque issue, you find that there is a Burger King closer to the 911 hallowed ground....there is a porn shop closer.
I seem to remember that on 911, people all over the world were shocked by the attacks, including Iran and other Muslim countries.  
The first amendment of the Constitution says"
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
This doesn't protect just the religion that we practice, it protects all of them. In order to keep my religion safe, I think we have to keep all religions safe whether we agree with them or not.
Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, but I don't see anyone up in arms about how much oil we buy from the Saudi's every day. I have to believe that some of this money is going to extremists.
I'm guessing you had no idea that an entry that started out with Facebook would drift so far from shore, but I feel strongly that we as a country are fanning the fires of fear and hatred. 
It can be contagious if you let it...if you don't dig a little deeper and do your own thinking.
I believe that there are a lot more people in the middle who don't buy into the extremes on either end of the spectrum. People who are quick to give the benefit of doubt, and slow to judge....or that's what I want to believe.
OK, I've had my say. I'm stepping off my soapbox.  Feel free to let me have it in the comment section.

7 comments:

  1. I agree with you about the mosque. This is either a free country or it isn't. And lots of people do generalize about Muslims and their religion. It is shameful what has gone on in New York.
    It made me think of David Koresh and how he caused the death of all those people in Waco. I thought, "No one would make a fuss if a Christian church were built on top of that fiasco - and David thought he was Jesus Christ himself!

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  2. It's a great view from a soapbox.

    I agree with you 100%.

    I'm on Facebook but I don't play the games and I don't get involved in the petty BS that goes on between hateful "friends". In fact most of my FB Friends are from High School because I got on there when they were planning a reunion. I've had nothing to do with any of them for 40 years and now I peek into their lives after all that time and they act just as they did in 1969!

    We are stupid for believing things that are spread on a social network. There's this thing now where if you have a "smart" phone you can set it to log onto your Facebook wall everytime you go into a store or restaurant or race track or other public venue with open wifi. Imagine 500 of your not so close friends knowing you went to Starbucks for coffee!

    In the future, maybe in the present, privacy will be more prescious than time.

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  3. I am with you. Facebook is a daily read for me, but I have a love/hate relationship with it. I have enjoyed connecting with people I knew several decades ago, and relatives I don't hear from otherwise.

    Twitter? I mostly just hate it. How can a person share anything meaningful in 140 characters? And how am I supposed to decipher the hyper-shortened abbreviations to figure out what they said in 140 characters?? I know you didn't say anything about Twitter, but I lump it in with the other social media.

    I still like old fashioned stationary and pens to communicate--but it is nice to have the option to go a different route since not many agree with my preference!
    tm

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  4. I haven't embraced Facebook. Just not that interested in it I guess.

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  5. I joined Facebook at the urging of my children, so I open my account every day. I don't make any entries, because I feel it more important to hear their voices on the telephone. Also, it's nice to open a piece of snail mail and find that I'm thought about.

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  6. Like Just Plain Tired I have successfully avoided a Facebook account thus far. I'm comfortable with that.

    I couldn't agree more with your soapbox rant and I do hope you're right about there being more people in the middle than at the extremes, but I'm not convinced by what I see around me.

    Even my mother (sweet little lady who usually won't speak if she doesn't have something nice to say)got all caught up in that Muslim hate over the mosque thing.

    It hurts my soul to have to argue with other Americans that the first amendment applies to EVERYONE ... or it applies to NO one. How can anyone not understand so basic a principle?

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  7. And poor me, just twenty and yet only a weekly visitor to the site!

    And you're perfectly right about the urban legend and hype part as well. There doesn't seem to be a way to check it though...

    ReplyDelete

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