Greeting To Members and Readers,
Social media was a great experiment. It allows millions of regular folks to share with one another photos of a most recent vacation, distribute a pic of one’s new car purchase, no doubt a proud acquisition of relatively large investment involving a bank loan, lots of hoops to jump thru and finally, a trip to enjoy the car.
We share photos of a grand birthday party, a new lawn, pay tribute or question some few good Samaritans and their actions, or respond to someone’s trip just back from Disney or the islands.
And of course, we forget that our innocent or good intentions to share, ASSUME that the recipients will be pleased, proud, happy or gratified to learn that you have a new car, threw a gala wedding, or dropped a hole in one at the club. But, that is not always the case.
It often can morph into ill feelings, jealousy, accusations of using too much credit or over spending, or a bitch session as to why Susie did not get invited to the wedding, pot luck dinner or the trip to the Bahamas or the fellow in the next state over, that you owe money, wonders why you have not paid him instead of going on an expensive vacation.
And as with human nature, those good and bad themes spread into volumes of well wishes and/or harsh supposition, accusations or hurtful gossip or both for those two faced folks that need to start up some unnecessary BS in the community.
She had to get married, he is not what he seems to be, Phil is selling drugs quietly in the neighborhood so he can have a new car, or the trip to the Bahamas was really a drug purchase. Ad- infinitum.
This kind of stuff was once spread at the hair salon or the barber shop, so there is really nothing new here. Just folks being human except this time, millions of humans are involved.
But there are many other elements at play here regarding the internet dependent opportunity to participate and or spread social news. It is monitored by many that you might never suspect.
There are folks that are in the business to profit from the goobly-gook that can be gleaned from monitoring such publications using algorithms to determine information regarding individual spending, travel, products purchased, age, credit card use, interest paid, individual life routine habits, income, debt, and in some cases intent. Sounds a bit harmless and / or sinister all at once.
If the IRS is checking out your spending habits and compare those habits to your declared income, some questions could be raised. You get it — lots of stuff can be gleaned from the photos from a wedding — Attire, location, estimated costs, the who was there question and then the circle of friends can be judged in regard to who they are, where they live or where they traveled from, how they are associated with you, etc.
So suddenly, there are no secrets. Just a photo of your driveway and the cars parked there displaying many license plates during a pool party can offer tons of information about who you are.
That is just one tidbit of how Social media can begin to rip down your privacy and provide information to many others that may use it to sell you something, investigate how you live as you do, and could offer a bunch of burglars a tip on how to enter your property and when, determined easily after your declared departure date to the Bahamas has been distributed to millions on the net.
It gets pretty ridiculous, pretty fast and should begin to sober us up when considering what we are inviting upon ourselves by publicly sharing our lives with millions on the net.
***** Challenge! Read about Social Media on Technologyreview.com. *****
The above mentioned realities are just the beginning.
Another consideration that is very real and very frightening — What about the millions of folks that are looking for some sort of validation or a sense of belonging or comradary? Why do you ask? You know the folks in the basement that never get out that have 692 friends on Facebook that they have never met and thus, a declared audience that may read what you are writing and though your writings may be valid, supposed, taken for granted or very odd ball, the sheer numbers of folks reading that stuff believe that they can be accepted, validated and celebrated by adopting any pitiful attempt to demonstrate an opinion. They begin to repeat what they have read and add a few tidbits and soon millions of people further embellish and distribute these opinions as fact, skewed as they are and act upon these new facts. And then they write more regarding these new found “facts”.
Now these three million folks stuck in their fathers’ basement suddenly have a quest based on a fairy tale. With a quest they suddenly have purpose that can validate their pitiful and lonely lives.
Thousands begin to believe ( for example) that we really do have a racial problem in our nation. Those that had begun to believe that problem to be nearly cured are catapulted back on the bandwagon believing that their stagnant life is about a racial divide, rather than their unpreparedness to accept the challenges of adulthood and of the marketplace.
As a result of this twisted heavily edited emotional tweet, we now have millions of people believing this BS and are actively deciding to demonstrate in a big city, Soros funds them and eggs them on, and voila, we have black people so angry about this racist issue in our country, that they collude to burn down several blocks in several cities that are full of black merchants who are trying to capture the American dream of independence and make a living by owning their own businesses.
So, long story short: the very people that are pulling themselves up by their bootstraps are burned out by the very folks that could benefit by such demonstrated courage and fortitude and focus. The struggling merchants are destroyed by the “left out”, the rantings of a few idle gossipers that originally shared their inaccurate opinions with one another on social media, a group of billions.
In less than a year, we have a rebirth of perceived racial strife that has become a self fulfilling prophecy for no other reason than a few ne’r do wells, bored to death, decided to share their miserable lives with several billion people making excuses for their sloth, laziness and lack of preparedness. They were being left out and blamed it on skin color. They incite, create fear and misinformation and destroy, so as to feel involved rather than exercise a bit of mature self analysis or an introspection which might provide them a path to individual growth and prosperity.
Thus, we return to the sixties for no valid reason and all previous progress has been negated including tens and tens and tens of minority owned businesses that were robbed or burned out or both. Ruined by their own kind.
There are many other serious instances of how excuses and gossip can turn into deadly retaliation, job loss, divorce, community shunning, jail time, etc., when it is offered up by immature, irresponsible and angry people multiplied by thousands and then millions.
Be aware how the daisy chain of a statement can change the whole meaning of a harmless comment.
Beware of human nature, pitiful as it sometimes is, always enjoying (with keyboard courage) the contributing to the ruin of many an innocent individual, ideas or documents that were created to protect us from governmental tyranny and baseless anarchy blindly perpetrated by your very neighbors.
As they said in the Olden Days —-Often, after hanging the horse thief, several hours later, the horse was found in the barn in the wrong stall.
It might be more prudent and more satisfying, to meet with your family, neighbors, friends and acquaintances to share your adventures, ideas, acquisitions, wins and losses and it will certainly be a warmer more personal experience for all of you and appreciated by thousands of innocents that have been convicted of suggested misdeeds and crimes by those in the courts of rumor on Social Media.
TPP
a
Well said. So many base their post and reactions and on how many likes they may receive.
While some will post political ideas or comments to stir up the pot or get a argument going. I have been guilty of replying because it upset me.
However, I try to post encouraging thoughts and be encouraging to others. I think that we are watched and monitored.
I have been warned of some of my post and threatened to be put in Facebook jail.
Good article.