Real quick, open up another tab – go to your Facebook account and count how many random, ridiculous posts you see in your news feed from pages, and ‘friends’ alike that ask you to like or share. You know the ones. Like this page if you are against bullying. Share this post if you love your mother. Like this post if you are against childhood cancer, leukemia, or want to see Obama taken out of the White House. Or the ones that beg of people to like for yes, and comment for no.
The sad thing is that so many of these posts, most of which carry the creative spirit of a cup of water poured from a tap, receive hundreds, thousands and even millions of likes, shares and comments. Often times the spelling is incorrect, the pictures and graphics are hideous. Many aren’t funny. And some are just so plain stupid, such as Like if you want to see no kid go hungry, that it is amazing that so many people actually take the time to read, and/or click the like button. If we were smart, we would be so angry that people would actually ASK or POST this crap, that we would ban and delete rather than like and share.
For one thing. Isn’t there something better we could be doing with our time than reading the meaningless and idiotic posts on Facebook from perfect strangers that are trying to do nothing more than promote a state of nothingness online?
If you really want to help a cause, or not see another dog killed in a shelter, or tell your mother you love her, or advocate for cancer awareness, or help a disabled child, then why don’t you actually DO something beside sit around on Facebook.
It seems that we, as a society, have become so complacent, that in those few moments when we share or like one of these ‘chain letter’ type posts – we actually feel an immediate 5 second boost in our self-esteem. We think, “Wow, I must be an awesome person because I pressed like on the LIKE if you love Jesus post.” You feel affirmed, or helpful, or something. But what? And what exactly did you do aside from boost the analytics of an anonymous page administrator who uses these posts to make money somehow someway selling junk and spam online.
It’s also important to note that NONE of the posts that say, “One like equals one dollar to such and such cause,” actually donate any money to anyone. Facebook doesn’t work like that. It’s a scam. A big scam. A scam that so many people are falling for second by second in the world of social media. Have we become completely stupid?
And it’s not just on Facebook. These meaningless posts linger all around the internet on other social media sites such as Twitter.
And they mean nothing. And they do nothing. And your mother will likely not know you love her because you “liked” a post that said “like this post if you love your mom.’ If you really want your mother to know you love her, do something like pick up the phone and call her. If you want to donate a dollar to an animal shelter, then stop in and do it – or better yet, buy a bag of dog food.
This like and share whoring on Facebook is just another example of the kind of society we are becoming. Most people are satisfied with simple gratification, a quick press of the like button to prove they are a good and wholesome person. Another way to bolster your online presence. You press like or share in the hopes that someone will see that you did and think, “Wow, that DAVE sure is a good guy and must really wants to help kids with childhood cancer because he pressed LIKE.” Truth is, Dave’s a scam. And according to statistics, Dave probably didn’t even read the post. Dave was sitting at work twiddling away the last few hours of his day trying to look busy, scrolling Facebook on his phone, and just pressed the like button because he had nothing better to do with his time. In fact, Dave’s news feed is so cluttered up with useless information and advertising, that Dave may not even realize he just liked a post from a page that promotes porn.
Truth is, there is a lot of good things that can and do come from technology. This article for one thing. There is a lot of information at our fingertips. Social media too, has many many good aspects. But what happens to too many of us, too much of the time is that we get sucked up into a time warp of meaningless online interactions that do little to enhance our lives. We should remain discerning and smart. We should be able to separate fact from fiction, realizing that just because it’s online, or Facebook – doesn’t mean it’s true, or valuable. Social media was invented as a hobby – NOT as a lifestyle.
And before you go – how about you like or share this post on Facebook! LOL (But really, you can if you want to!)
