Ok. Maybe I’m over doing it. It’s just that, I really thought, for years and years, that The Ineterwebnets was something beautiful. The reality is, it’s something ugly. Very ugly. Of course, it’s not ugly because it reveals the worst of humanity. No. It’s ugly because the cult of the entrepreneur (#americant) have found so many ways to turn something beautiful into something ugly. Perhaps that’s always what happens when something that was/is meant to be decentralised is then forced in to being centralised. Which means we’re probably not only in a time of greed run amok but also of ugly run amok. Can you say: #Trump? Or. If it works with industries like Hollywood (Harvey Weinstein & Co.) why shouldn’t it then work with technology?
Enter Facebook & Co. (Co. = social media.) Now don’t get me wrong. If FB or social media floats your boat, sail on. But that doesn’t alleviate the reality that FB is part of what has turned The Interwebnets into The Uglies. And if you don’t believe me, give the above pic a good look.
Here’s worst-writer’s translation to assist those who don’t speak the language of the last bastion of communism in the west, i.e. German:
- Top text: “Facebook has no real daily use for me.”
- Middle text: “Get really useful recommendations from friends that know what they’re doing.”
- Bottom text: “Make Facebook your Facebook.” (Italic mine.)
Note on translation: Although I have a FB account (and a Twitter account) and use the service to follow certain people, I don’t actively use it so I’m probably a bit out of the loop of what’s going on first hand with FB. Above the middle text is a red and white info-bubble icon with a star in it. I have no idear what this icon means. Nor am I interested in researching it to find out. Gee, am I missing (in translation) any redeeming quality from this advert because of that info-bubble?
I had to ask my German better-half what this advert is about. She said it’s about FB’s bad rep in Germany. She added that FB has had trouble getting users because of the Snowden revelations. Ok, I thought. And then added in the back of my mind: if she (the German) says so.
What is clear to me in the advert is that FB, either with or without knowing it, is revealing the thing that is not only inherently wrong with what it does but also that it’s partaken in making something ugly that is or was once beautiful.
Or maybe I’m just way off base and can’t really articulate what I want to worst-say.
Who cares.
Rant on.
-T
worstwriter 