Perhaps I'm just getting sour grapes from having sold my FB stock at $175 a month ago while it's now a $230 stock, but recently I've thought about giving up on Facebook. I've been with Facebook since its inception and my start in college (which coincided pretty closely) and I've been a loyal user ever since, if not a very active one (I don't try to add friends, I post occasionally). The relationship has been generally smooth through the years with some occasional bumps, like when I stopped using it when I was using up too much data from loading up Facebook every time, and just recently last year with the data leaks through Cambridge Analytica, resulting in Marc Zuckerburg being dragged into Congressional hearings and a big reputation hit for the company. Yet, I still use it and many still utilize it as their main platform to reach out to others.
This last week and a half have been monumental, a historic time for activism in America. And it's justified: the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others are just the latest in police brutality against black people, as well as a pervasive system that has black people feeling like the deck is stacked against them. I think many people like myself know that racism exists in the world and that African Americans are victims of prejudice, but it's difficult to do anything productive as I have treated black people the way I'd like to be treated, but is there a little bit of underlying racism even in my thought process? It's possible, and it's worth evaluating myself as well as discussing it with people who still don't understand.As the Black Lives Matter movement has gained steam the last week and a half, Facebook has seen a flurry of activity due to the viral spread of the anti-racism messages. While I sympathize with the movement's objectives and the anger and passion driving the movement, I haven't bought in entirely to the idea that "silence is violence," or that if I don't post something on Facebook that means I'm part of the enemy. That sentiment leads to a lot of groupthink and posting by people who are pressured into it through peer pressure, which shouldn't be what fuels a movement.
Great things about Facebook:
1.) allows me to keep track of people I haven't seen in a long time.
2.) Happy things like weddings, dog pictures, marathons, concerts, and general merriment makes me feel warm and fuzzy about the world when I need it.
3.) People from various countries post messages in their native language like Chinese, Korean, or Japanese, (and often have an English translation next to it) that helps me learn the language as well as read their insightful posts. Also makes me appreciate their commitment, because writing in 2 languages is tough and time-consuming, and I can tell they're not just using Google Translate.
4.) Helps me to keep track of events that I need to go to.......which recently, has been none. I feel pretty lonely, actually.
5.) Allows me to message people I don't have any other way of contacting.
6.) I post in a group called "Wolfpack Stocks" that allows me to get others' take on the market (right or wrong) and allows me to post my predictions/ analysis of the market (right or wrong) and pretend to be my own Jim Cramer for a little bit.
7.) If you post something, you get likes and comments, and that can boost your ego just a tad that you actually matter in this world, that someone is actually paying attention to what you say.
Not-so-Great-things about Facebook
1.) It's addicting- whenever my mind needs a break, I'm tempted to hit the blue "f" button on my phone; classic token economy of getting new "hits" every time you refresh. The most recent, new-and-improved version of Facebook with various algorithms capturing what you want at all times really has your mind on a
2.) Only a certain amount of people u
3.) It facilitates cyberbulling- This is not exclusive to Facebook as it's happening on Youtube, Reddit, and other social media as far as I can tell, but people have become more aggressive and nastier, especially during a pandemic/ social activism times. Just 2 days ago a member of a large "family" group shared a video on her own page from Candace Owens, a conservative commentator who said that George Floyd would not be her hero and martyr. Another member of the group commented on her page criticizing the post, and the original poster deleted it, but the screenshots ended up in the family group where everyone could see it, which was the equivalent of dropping a bomb on the whole community. More than 300 comments piled up in the span of a few hours, criticizing the post and calling the original poster, who had posted it on her own page, a variety of different names and denouncing her in general as a person. While I thought the sharing of a Candace Owens video was somewhat untimely and done with the knowledge that it would probably anger a lot of people in the group, especially on Facebook, I thought it reflected a bully mentality to gain up on one person online, especially for just sharing her own viewpoint. I may not like what someone says, but I'll defend her right to say it. (paraphrasing Voltaire) This mob mentality has become pretty common on Facebook, especially in certain circles where everyone thinks in the same echo chamber.
4.) It's now become a political platform. I personally don't go on Facebook to read everybody's political ideas about everything, and especially not to hear people lecture others on where they are wrong, or tell me that I'm a bad person because I don't feel a certain way.
5.) And finally, "silence" on Facebook doesn't necessarily mean I don't agree, or am not doing things outside of Facebook, just not posting it. Some conservatives call it "virtue signaling," which doesn't give enough credit to the people who post who have genuine ideas and feel strongly about them, which I applaud, but asking everyone to write something in support of the cause "or else you're against us" just forces people to choose a side and pit people farther and farther away from each other. I also might not be on Facebook as much as others, or feel like posting political thoughts on Facebook. And what happened to this idea of "listening" first and understanding? Facebook seems to give the most weight to those who express their ideas the strongest and most often, further pushing people to the extreme in their opinions and leaving those towards the middle trying to understand both sides.......silent and speechless.
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