Meditation for November 23rd, 2016
Facebook’s Spiritual Plague
People are dreading having dinner with their family for Thanksgiving and discussing politics. Part of the dread comes from not being behind the protection of a good Facebook comment argument.
Facebook is like a vacuum for a gentle spiritual life. It sucks.
Even the Bible foresaw the dread that is Facebook. Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians 5:25-26, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
Peter Theil is on the board for Facebook. He gave Donald J. Trump $1 million dollars. Every time you click on a quiz on what ficictional character you are, Peter Theil is making money. He also hates journalism because he spent millions of dollars to take down Gawker.com.
You get all your news from Facebook. Most of the news sites aren’t even real, it’s fake. It feeds on your emotional knowledge of what you believe to be true. It is so bad, it has caused mainstream media to cut their fourth estate responsibility to compete.
Everyone has a statement to make. This becomes the most important statement. Then the comments go against the statement. People that don’t even know the person somehow jumps on and makes an argument.
No one will actually have their opinions changed. A strong statement only feeds into the psyche of those that feel the exact same way. The people who don’t share your view of the world don’t even follow you anymore because of how annoying you are, so the people you are thinking you might be changing with your hard hitting statement or the link that will change everything isn’t even getting your posts – except the assholes waiting online for a post to comment an argument on.
Facebook has ruined the element of surprise.
“Hey.”
“What’s up?”
“Not much, having a kid.”
“Yeah, read that.”
“Oh, yeah. Anything new with you?”
“Moving to Florida for a new job.”
“I read that, congratulations.”
“Thanks. Hey, that spaghetti with meatballs you are three days ago looked great. Was that garnished with sage.”
“Oh yeah, that is sage, thanks! Oh, yeah, what’s up with your cancer? I saw you were doing a fundraiser, but I couldn’t give any money because I’m having my own to travel to the Congo to fight poachers.”
“It’s cool, I already gave you $20 for your African trip. I’ll be fine. See you…”
“…on Saturday at that event we both said we were going to.”
There is no mystery between two people anymore. When you stalk someone on Facebook and you finally meet them, you have to pretend they are a mystery, but they aren’t.
It has ruined communication between people. It might have raised the voices of the marginalized, but we have to deal with the big mouths who have had all the already. People sit at dinner looking down at their phones.
It has become almost inpossible to not have Facebook. Everyone uses it to set up social lives. If you aren’t on Facebook, you won’t get any invites anymore. You will become out of sight, out of mind. You will cease to exist. People that you don’t live near will fade away from memory. Your childhood will become a foggy nothing.
Do I quit Facebook, or do I perpetrate a billionaire white supremist and his desired culture, live as an anonymous asshole using fake news to spit my venomous hate on other people’s profile pages, and walking away from all that is real and decent when it comes to human to human interaction?