A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch
You may think that using Facebook is free, but it isn’t. Facebook is a business, and in business to do just one thing – make money. You pay by giving personal information which you agreed to when you created an account. The only way to not do this is to close your account. All your previous postings will remain forever.
You’ve just read one of my many “copy and paste’ responses that I sometimes post on Facebook. My Facebook usage is usually about ten to twenty minutes each morning. My friends list is mostly relatives and a few long time Yankee friends. Some of them spend hours everyday re-posting many rumors on their time line. I’d guess that at least sixty percent of my posts are links to Snopes articles that tell the truth.
It seems to me that Facebook has replaced some of our previous institutions. You hear something about Facebook nearly every day. When was the last time you heard about the “National Enquirer”, “Weekly World News”, “The Weekly Gazette”, “Star Magazine” or any of the other tabloid magazines.
On your weekly grocery shopping trip, you could find out where Elvis was. If you didn’t believe that Elvis was still alive, you could always read about the latest sighting of an alien.
Facebook has become the tabloid of the new millennium. Now I can read the latest news about how our president isn’t a citizen. Although I haven’t noticed any Elvis sightings on the service, there have been a lot of reports of celebrities that were killed by a crazed gunman, died of an obscure disease or were obliterated in a highway wreck.
You don’t need to read your weekly tabloid anymore if you want to get rich by filling envelopes or answering calls for various companies. Facebook has made it even easier for you.
There are so many people like Bill Gates that are giving away millions of dollars that I think they may put Nigerian princes out of business. Apple has found so many warehouses full of unsold tablets to give away that I find it hard to believe they even sell any. One of these days, I know I’ll get lucky and be one of the first hundred people to like the post that is giving away a free car.
Luckily, I can do the same thing on Facebook that I do with the tabloid magazines. I just read the headlines and ignore the articles.
Thanks for reading.