So, if you are not on social media as much as I am, you probably have not seen the notices floating around Mark Zuckerberg’s creation, Facebook. I mean every scroll down the newsfeed over the last day has been one longgggg status after another talking about how our profiles are our profiles and our pictures, posts, etc. cannot be made public and such. Well, hey, NEWSFLASH you see ads on Facebook that cater to what you post any how, so notices won’t change much and it just becomes this huge distraction.
What has become fascinating in this 21st century is how chain letters and texts evolved into chain posts. This is very akin to if sending a text to 10 friends you’ll become rich or if you don’t you’ll die, and yes we all bought into that as kids. The difference is we should know better than to do chain posts because I would hope Facebook users now would understand that no matter what notices they send and actually no matter what Facebook says, everything gets sent somewhere and THAT is public knowledge.
Yet, as the posts kept adding up I wondered if people did it just to be cool and jump on the bandwagon or if they actually believed posting it would keep their stuff privatized. Human nature technologically or in person always wants to feel included and possibly for many just posting the status made them feel cool because hey, they are doing what everybody else is. Well, if you are one of those people I’d say don’t follow the crowd, stand out! Post something newsworthy or informative and that will make your status just a bit different then everybody else. Or take my route, post something humorous. How I got 70+ likes on my spoof status I’ll never know!
The other thing these disclaimers show is, and going back to the distraction, how it seems nobody is in touch with realities of today’s world, or just decide to use Facebook as an escape
. While you were posting these disclaimers, President Obama met with Vladimir Putin and they proved to have very different viewpoints, yet will the US end up seeking the help of the Russians and the Iranians to destroy ISIS? Will the Government shut down tomorrow? Are you aware of that possibility? If not, time to snap out of the virtual and step into the real.
Life is more than a disclaimer on Facebook, and hopefully this post will open eyes that may be closed. Or maybe you’ll just “dislike” this post entirely.
The Writings of Alex Garrett 