by Bob Sparrow
When ‘thefacebook.com was first introduced in February of 2004, it was only available to students at Harvard. A month later it was open to students at other universities like Yale, Columbia and Stanford. In other words, average to stupid people were not allowed – very different than today. In 2005 it was open to high school students and the name changed to Facebook. In late 2006 it was opened to the public; so average and stupid people were finally allowed access. It caught on. By 2008 it had over 100 million users. I must admit to being one of them, as I thought this was a wonderful way to connect with family, friends, former classmates, etc. who were not local. So, I could see what they were up to on a regular basis, and they could see what I was up to. I thought it was a cool concept!
But something happens when you give EVERYONE access to EVERYONE else. Which is a nice way of saying that Facebook gave idiots a platform. So, content is not fact checked, in fact, it seems the less factual it is, the more hits it gets. Which is all Facebook cares about, because it’s free to the user and is paid for by sponsors.
Speaking of sponsors, recently an ad popped up, of course it was based on a previous search I had done looking for a particular health benefit. A well-known physician that I respected and had recently read on of his books, came on Facebook talking about a simple cure for my ailment. Yes, they wanted me to buy something, but it wasn’t that expensive and because it came from such a reputable source, I was ready to buy. But I knew enough to make sure it was legitimate, so I asked Google if it was a scam. It was. The image and the voice simulation was recreated with the help of Artificial Imaging and Artificial Intelligence. So this influential physician appeared to be saying things that he really was not saying and, in fact, didn’t believe. It’s not just Facebook, it’s everywhere. It doesn’t matter who you see or what they are saying, it all could be artificially generated, just to get you to buy a product that is not endorsed by anyone who might have any knowledge of the subject. We might catch on if we see a bodybuilding ad done by Barney Fife or marriage counseling done by Elizabeth Taylor., but they know we’re not that stupid . . . are we? Demographics today show that 74% of users that go on Facebook to connect with friends and family are seniors between ages 55-65; sellers know that this demographic is the easiest target to fool. (I’m so glad I’m out of that demographic!)
So, yes of course, I’m still on Facebook, as that’s where our blog posts every Monday; but when you juxtapose our low subscriptions with the multiple comments we get, it tells us that most of you read our blog on Facebook, as we only have about 225 ‘Followers’, meaning that those ‘Followers’ have our blog sent directly to their email and read it there, not on Facebook. And yes, we know who you are – THANK YOU! Just to compare our 225 number, the top person being followed on Facebook is Christiano Ronaldo, who has 170 million followers; so, we have a long way to go. He’s a soccer player from Portugal in case you aren’t one of his followers. The top U.S. person being followed is Vin Diesel (not even his real name) with 98 million followers. So, because most of you read our blog on Facebook, we feel like we’d be abandoning you if we took it off and delivered it only to our subscribers email. However as our disgust with Facebook grows, we still might consider the possibility of taking it off. If we do, we’d give you plenty of warning and plenty of opportunity to subscribe, so that the blog would come directly from our website to your email – no middleman or flimflam man, no Facebook.
To the right of each weekly post is a place where you can ‘subscribe’, it’s free! And don’t worry about Facebook getting along without us; they are currently valued at a little over $1 trillion.