I am, of course, a big fan of social media and a bit of a facebook junkie. I think it’s great that such a huge volume of words is being written, that something approaching the proverbial infinite number of monkeys is sitting at something approaching the proverbial infinite number of keyboards, and I believe it is not only inevitable that it will lead to works of genius, but has already done so.
THIS IS FAKE!!!
Nonetheless, it comes at a price, and that price is that there is a whole lot of garbage out there. On Kindle, I am in the routine of downloading only stuff that’s free, because there is such a great amount of stuff for free, and some of it is the classics. I have read Don Quixote, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, Thoreau’s Walden, and The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde. I am now reading The Secret Garden, but also a science fiction thing, just for light entertainment, and it is truly a poorly written piece of crap. It is something that would just not have been available to the public 10 years ago, because in a system where not everything gets through, it wouldn’t have gotten through.
That’s O.K. Caveat Lector, I think would be the correct phrase. It’s a thing about artificial intelligence, and there are shootouts with plasma rifles and robot cops, so I’ll probably read it through to the end because I’ve never been above reading a bit of trash. If books are food for thought, I’m far more of a glutton than a gourmet.
On facebook, where most people are saying the first silly thing that comes to their minds, more or less like a real time conversation, and posting any articles and photos which appeal to them momentarily, there is a similar risk. People will post things that aren’t true, or that are obviously photoshopped, and then when it’s pointed out they’ll say “Yeah, but it’s funny anyway, I don’t care if it’s true.”
I disagree. Something that’s not true, but looks like it could be, is not what funny is.
Two examples from my facebook page today: The Currant, which calls itself a parody site but really isn’t funny at all, did a story about a woman who stabbed 3 people to death in a Wal-Mart on Black Friday. This is not funny because it actually could have happened, and there is no doubt lots of people who read the article, thought it was true, and will use it to inform their opinions and direct their ballot.
The second example was a photo of Paris Hilton* with a T-Shirt that said “Stop Being Poor.” Even though somebody pointed out that it was photoshopped and showed the original photo, which said “Stop Being Desperate,” a bit of ironic self-awareness that was actually rather funny, people continued to comment as if it was real.
I don’t want to lose my sense of humor, but that strikes me as wrong. Character assassination, slander, bearing false witness, that kind of thing.
*Disclaimer 1: I’d do her**
**Disclaimer 2: If I weren’t married***
***Disclaimer 3: I had to put in disclaimer 2, in case my wife reads this.
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