Hoo rah, hoo rah to NYT columnist Frank Bruni for writing a fucking brilliant piece on the net-net of Facebook and social media, both of which I’ve said for years are a social disease, to our society.
How Facebook Warps Our Worlds
Look, folks. Facebook isn’t a great invention. It’s a major setback. Facebook is the great dumb down of our minds. But like Frank writes — it’s not Facebook that’s doing this. No, all they’re doing is feeding the Jones. We’re doing this to ourselves, while recruiting others to join in on the joke.
I know this is harsh. But if you’re on Facebook or social, you promote either in anyway, you’re guilty of groupthink. You’re following the herd off the cliff, adding another brick to the wall.
I started zeldab.com in 2007 because never in my widest imagination did I think what’s happened, which I saw coming then, would happen. When Zuckerberg the clown showed up, I thought for sure people would see through his con. How could they not?
Surely, I thought, once people figured out that they’re the product being sold they’d be furious and Facebook would be toast. I thought the government would come after them for breaking the law. I thought once people got they’re being tracked, all day every day, they’d throw a tire through Google’s front window. I never, ever, thought the Internet would be taken over by soulless fuckwads such as Mark Zuckerberg and company. It’s happened. And every time you tweet, post on one of the big social sites, you’re an accomplice.
It’s time for a new Internet. God, I hope somewhere out there are kids who get it. Please tell me they’re there. Please tell me there are kids who don’t wear white socks, who see what’s happened and are making a pact to turn the wheel the other way.
Fuck, you, Mark Zuckerberg – and your kind.
blacwellspace chimed in with some great copy, he’s always got great copy.
“twas a great read! try this one: http://motherboard.vice.com/en_uk/read/why-does-a-startup-want-to-pay-teens-for-selfies-so-it-can-sell-their-data-pay-your-selfie
‘Cause the big problem I see with all of this – is that young people are coming up with zero understanding of online privacy and it’s going to get them exploited – digitally AND physically. Facebook + Google, scary as it is, are the gold standard compared to these scrappy startups! “But for users, sensitive geolocation data can expose them to malicious hackers who have been known to use this type of information to coordinate attacks.”
These dipsh*ts – who actually DON’T believe their own bullsh!t – are figuring they can sell it: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-16/tech-startups-come-up-with-some-creative-definitions-for-profitable
What he’s eluding to is that with a couple of exceptions, startups are dotcon era, redux. Because the dotcon era was all about bait and switch. Put out free websites and services — the bait — so the company, all of whom were funded by venture capital, could collect users’ data then sell it to anyone who’d write a check — the switch.
Then I wrote that if young people saw what the Internet was in 1989, when I started, they’d fall in love with it. It’s my hope, that young people will fall in love with yesteryear.
– PK:
Right. Good points. But I think young people also need to understand what the Internet was in 1989. I think if they did, they’d fall in love with it. I wrote this to Brook: What started out as a wonderful, free space inhabited by revolutionary types like yours truly has been taken over by greed and men with white socks. We all knew it was over when our saying of “On the Internet no one knows if you’re a dog” changed to “They know everything now”.
The white man came and ruined the Internet. Tech is killing way more jobs than it’s creating. Don’t believe the hype.