Social media is dangerous. Although it’s horrifying, I’m not speaking about criminals live-streaming their violence or online bullying that devastates so many children, teens, and adults to the point of suicide. I’m talking about the rest of it. It is a soul-sucking time thief that distorts our view of of society with impossible images, portrayals of 24-hour happiness, and lifestyles with standards that are unattainable.
It’s absurd that so many people need so much affirmation of their worth. Did you see my picture? Why didn’t you “like” it? I envy the creativity and thought that goes into captions like “fun day at the zoo with Taylor,” fun day in Ibiza with Brad,” fun day at the Eiffel Tower with Colin.” So many fun, fun, fun days. I wonder if Brad, Taylor, and Colin got any attention. Do many selfie-takers take the time to appreciate the miracle of their surroundings or did they commence their search for the next selfie location? When the places most people only ever dream of visiting are reduced to a backdrop for practiced posers they lose their appeal. Click, caption, post, and they’re off to find another selfie background. Yolo. You only live once. We have one life, and it’s passing people by.
Today was a dream come true. Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp all disappeared for five hours. Even their internal servers went down. I have some questions:
- What did “Influencers” do with their selfies during those five long hours?
- Did productivity spike in workplaces across the globe?
- And why does anyone still gives Mark Zuckerberg access to their data?
- Would everyone text me a picture of the food you ate while Instagram was down?
I have advice that will fall on deaf ears- delete Facebook. If you need it because you keep all of your pictures there, consider today your wake-up call. Back up your photos. Mark Zuckerberg has been selling your data for years. He has given criminals the tools they need to manipulate you; Target marketing works and people believe it all, they don’t check news sources. Abraham Lincoln was right when he said, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”
Unsuspecting people who are searching for a place to direct their rage are prime pickings to be radicalized, and that makes Facebook an unparalleled resource for white supremacist groups, corrupt politicians, and world leaders who aspire to divide us.
Last night on 60 Minutes, whistleblower Frances Hagen, who had worked for Facebook for 15 years, told how the company incentivized angry, polarizing, and politically divisive content. They allowed misinformation to spread, and in the days leading up to the Capitol attack, Facebook cut restrictions, allowing hate groups to organize their attempt to overthrow the government.
When Hagen left Facebook, she took evidence with her, thousands of pages of internal analysis and communications, proof she delivered to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hagen will testify before Congress on Tuesday regarding all of Facebook’s practices, including the decision they made to abolish “Civic Integrity,” a policy of limiting the type of content people can post. Facebook is a $1 trillion business that puts profit first. Poor Zucker lost $7 billion today.
“Mark Zuckerberg Still Seems to Think Facebook’s Big Problem Is Bad P.R.” ~ Vanity Fair Magazine Wrong. Mark Zuckerberg is Facebook’s big problem because he values money more than humanity.
There is copious conjecture about why the servers went down because the timing is suspicious. Also suspect was the fact that Zuckerberg’s employees were locked out of their offices for 12 hours. One guess is that the Department of National Security hacked the sites to preempt any attempt by Zuckerberg’s team to delete data. Another opinion is that it was a malicious outside hack, resulting in the theft of over 1.5 billion Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp user’s information. Zuckerberg already sold that. The conclusion I have come to is that the five hours were used by Zuckerberg to wipe out incriminating evidence from servers before investigations into the whistleblower’s allegations begin.
The official explanation for the shutdown is that it was random, accidental, a mistake made by an engineer. Yeah, I don’t trust Zuckerberg and I don’t buy that story.
Today was bad for Facebook, but tomorrow will be worse.
A lot from Lydia 
Thank you……..thank you…….thank you!!!!!!
We are way overdue in putting serious constraints on social media platforms……..especially Facebook.
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Pretty much stuck In my orbit of the Milky Way Galaxy, I find Facebook (and Como, incidentally) extremely insignificant. What I’m most obsessed with is just what is the black hole in the center of our home in space spitting out? The last report I come across said gaseous bubbles the size of planets full of asteroids. And another report located a temple of Sophia on one of these asteroids, Sophia being an old gnostic proper name for the Holy Ghost of Holy Trinity fame. And that this asteroid is heading for Earth. I believe we’re on our way to being saved from all this nonsense in a matter of minutes…
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Ominous, indeed. I read about a different asteroid, Bennu, headed in our directionon with an eta of approximately 300 years. Fortunately (or unfortunately,) by then we will have made the Earth’s climate hostile to human existence. We will be fossil fuel for the Earth’s next inhabitants.
https://api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/science/article/nasa-osiris-rex-spacecraft-finds-asteroid-bennu-slightly-more-likely-to-hit-earth
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