Facebook and the internet

As the opening credits of the Holy Grail scroll by, moose and all, I am writing this.  It took me some time to make the decision that this movie was one that would only moderately distract me as I tried to write my blog post.  That said, coconuts blaring, I will continue on with this morning's thoughts.  Actually, they are more of yesterdays, but after percolating a bit, they get written today, and as such become today's posting.  That said, it occurred to me today how Facebook has become the sharing medium of choice.  People jot down their thoughts, post their pictures, and share news stories there, while blogs have become something a bit more focused in regards to theme.  People decide their blog will be about "something" like their exercise regimen or cooking experiments, and focus the blog on those.  Mine is still a sort of hodgepodge, with really old posts showing drawings, while the newer ones mention poetry, and throughout it all there has been a bit of my opinion on the news of the day.  I have posted many photos of art over on FB that did not get shared here, and I know people tend to post family all over the place there, as well as news articles they find interesting.  Facebook has in a way taken the place of the half-filled, periodic blogs that people otherwise busy might once have had.  In addition, with the share feature offered by so many news sites, there is a fair amount of news there as well, so people really don't need to venture away from there.  It is as if Facebook has become the new AOL with the walled garden being decided upon by their friends rather than a corporation.  If you have a limited amount of time in a day, all you need to do now is log into FB, check your feed, and then you think "you know what you need to know" for the day.  The newsfeed on FB has become the web, though factor in a few favorites as well, and people don't really explore past that.

With the spate of "fake" news everywhere, and the fact that people don't seem to be able to differentiate between fake, satire, and unfavorable is a sad reflection of our society.  The fact that FB hasn't traditionally cared if "fake" news fills the newsfeed or not reflects the short-sightedness of its managers, and the naïveté of the same, in thinking that people aren't influenced by what they see online.

Eventually I think folks will repeat the past when they broke away from AOL and invigorated all those sites that didn't try to "curate" the web for you.  Perhaps they will discover that in allowing their friends to be the curators they have missed out on too much.