The problem isn’t Facebook…

I literally have no idea how to start stuff like this, I’ve never done a blog before which is quite a surprise as I am a standard man, in that, I have strong opinions on things (but you can think of my opinions more as ‘facts’ (see…standard man)) on often controversial things, and often have quite a lot to say, but have never really found the right channel (or audience) to express them. Before I move on though, if you’re an American reading this, you’re doomed. My humour is satirical, and if you’re an American reading this, then that means ‘sarcastic’, and thus don’t think my opinions are actually facts. 

I’ve recently started a new job in London which involves me staying away from home all week in a B&B. So contact with an actual human past the hours of 5pm each day is going to be a rare. Normally my wife, the lovely Mrs T, would bare the brunt of my inability to have a light-hearted chat and rant about the injustices or abundant cretins in the world. I am a big thinker and often feel the need to share my random paths of thought to Mrs T as she is the only one that actually pretends to a)care b)listen.  Soooooooo I thought instead of rambling on Facebook constantly annoying people by clogging up their News Feeds on things that actually matter in the world, I’ve decided to start a blog for those that actually care about anything beyond themselves or even better, are impressively capable of thinking for themselves. 

I’m sure I’m not alone in this and I am confident the majority of Facebook’s users have a Marmite kinda relationship with it. It’s a paradox, I use it, frequently would probably be an understatement, but then I get ridiculously frustrated with it and actually loathe it. To summarise why… because it seems buried somewhere down in Facebooks ever-changing Terms and Conditions in Section 12834837384.23.233.2679998 that…;

Any posts on Facebook SHOULD be or contain all or one of the following;

• Light-Hearted
• Bright Colourful Pictures (generally landscapes, babies, cuisine is acceptable)
• Reference Alcohol and how hungover you are – then declare you will never drink again. Repeat each week.
• Promote how awesome you are
• Promote how awesome your partner is
• Fluffy
• Pointlessness
• The occasional sly rant about an unspecified person. Caution – this does make you look like you should be on the Jeremy Springer show.

Any posts on Facebook SHOULD NOT;

• Aggravate 
• Racially Abuse 
• Persecute minority groups (unless religious groups)
• Cause offence to individuals\minority groups (unless religious groups)
• Contain anything intellectual
• Contain anything that counters what Mainstream media outlets is reporting
• Challenge people to actually think for themselves
• Contain ANYTHING about politics\politicians
• Express opinions that go against the general consensus – no matter how valid
• Show any sense of individuality beyond physical

I think this is very evident just purely because of the consistent mindless dribble that people share (I think others would just call this ‘light-hearted content’), all in the rather vain hope of accumulating ‘Likes’. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for mindless dribble, I find it entertaining when I’m subconsciously scrolling on my phone bored out of my mind. Pictures of some grotty looking dinner which is for eating, not looking at. If you want to share it, share it with someone who cares and give it to a tramp. More of late is the constant stream of baby pictures, or spawn shots. Obviously I am of age but I’m still suffering from an adolescent form of rebellion from growing up. Then you get these… struggling to think of the right word here… Moronic twattish crazes like NekNominations, I’ll start with the controversy early, but if you’re stupid enough to down two pints of gin just to score some worthless man points on Social Media – well then, you kinda deserve whats coming, be that a mighty hangover or some dude dressed in black holding a scythe. In intellectual circles I think that’s referenced as Natural Selection, and you maybe up for a Darwin Award. Anyway, I digress…

I know I can block the frequent offenders from my News Feed, but that defeats the point of being friends with them surely?! Just like I wouldn’t ignore the majority of them if I saw them walking down the street….riiiigght? “Yeah I’m friends with you but shut up, don’t talk to me”. The thing is though, I do actually care what they may have to say in amongst the generic posts of accepted conformity. I really don’t mind for the light hearted content, but there is no equilibrium. There is nothing wrong with sharing pictures of your generic-looking baby, in moderation (roughly once pushing twice a day). There is nothing wrong with sharing pictures of your generic-looking (at best) roast dinner, or pontificating about what holiday you’ve just booked. But not all of us are the Jones’. Personally, I like things with substance, that actually cause conversation, which…maaaayyyyy just be the ‘SOCIAL’ in SOCIAL media. I could be wrong here. Generally I struggle with small talk anyway, and empathy as a whole. The awkward office one liners…”so anything planned for the weekend?”, “good weekend?” or walk in wearing a suit followed by the “when’s the interview?”… I may just be a tad cynical here but that would have perhaps been funny just the once, when that line was first used about 200 years ago. I generally don’t care for what car a person drives, I like to know what drives a person, their thoughts and opinions on things. Actually getting to know the person, the individual, and that is something that there seems to be an unwritten rule with Facebook, is that you’re only allowed to show the tip of the ice-berg of your personality and thoughts. Maybe this isn’t just Facebook and maybe it’s society in general now where we feel we can’t express our true opinion or thought in the event we may insult someone inadvertently. Or maybe there just isn’t that much more to people anymore?! (Starting to sound like a granddad at the tender age of 28). 

Anyway, back to Facebook… Imagine for a second at the Dawn of Mankind that we had this cerebral link (bit like a gammy Avatar – worst film ever), this innate network allowing us to talk in real-time. Billions upon billions of users having the ability to study and communicate in real-time. Think of how different things would be in society. How quickly knowledge could have been acquired and passed on, the electoral systems, political systems, economy, society as a whole would be vastly different. We would have been immediately thrown into the Information Age. And the old saying is, knowledge is power. So avoiding going down any obvious rant about NSA or GCHQ etc… My frustration is simple. We do have this network now available to us with over 1 billion active users. We can enlighten and share the real joys and tragic despair on mankind in an instant. The information is all there to be shared. We have the genuine power (currently) to make a real difference in society and change the things and right the injustices. We have the technology to make a change to the old-fashioned way society is governed. And that’s exactly why acts like the Patriot Act were feigned and passed. The Corp funded Governments know this is a real possibility, hence the formation of NSA and GCHQ. We all know we are enslaved to banks, corps and money, but yet the only things that get ‘Likes’ or make it viral are things like NekNominations, Bitstrips and other pointless brainless dribble. Literally nobody cares for anything important. A post about Fracking, or Media Censorship, Corruption, Mass Data Surveillance, False-Flag Terrorist events, atrocities, environmental disasters will accumulate at best 2 or 3 likes. But something like “Fell down the stairs today” will gain 20-30 likes. 

A perfect example is the following article where a women posted a nude picture of herself. 100+ people unfriended her. But what she posted a nude picture of herself with all her scars after she suffered cancer. She purely wanted to raise awareness;

http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/woman-posts-photos-of-cancer-scars-on-facebook–loses-100-friends-181745855.html

Social Media isn’t an escapism. It isn’t just for light-hearted posts. It’s the best tool we have to counter some of the real sh1t that is going on, to raise awareness about whatever you’re passionate about. But the problem isn’t with Facebook… Facebook is just the observable medium in which human behaviour manifests. The problem lays with people and selective ignorance, which is kind of an oxymoron because they’re perfectly aware their unaware, selectively. Sticking their head in the sand and choosing intentionally not to care, do, or say anything. Facebook isn’t just a playground. The point of Social Media is in the word SOCIAL. It’s a viable and massively useful platform to communicate anything and is available to everyone. Those freedoms of speech etc are gradually being eroded away, and as things stand the ostrich-like majority are ruining it for the awoken minority. Not everything ‘social’ implies cutesy wutesy fluffy wuffy in life. The more people that care, the more will change. All you need to do is actually take the effort and time to read and think. But to finish on a positive note… if you do find yourself at the end of a NekNomination… then can I suggest a RAKNominate. This is exactly the sort of thing that needs to go viral…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2559613/RAKnominate-Man-hopes-random-act-kindness-drinking-game-help-steer-people-away-controversial-Neknominate-challenges.html

I would like to say the next post won’t be as rambling, but it likely will. I was meant to be blogging on Secular Fundamentalism and how it has dominion over society but got completely distracted venting. This will probably happen alot.