Today is the anniversary of the launch of FACEBOOK. It was in 2004 that Mark Zuckerberg, a 19-year-old college kid from a small town in New York state, while studying at Harvard set the phenomenon known as Facebook into motion. Within 24 hours of its launch he had more than a thousand students signed up. The rest, as they say, is history!
I am a Facebook user. It is a great way to keep in touch, to see what people are doing, to read thoughts and reflections that can range from inspiring to despicable. Not only am I a Facebook user, I WASTE way TOO much time on Facebook scrolling aimlessly to see what is happening or just scrolling aimlessly. I can’t believe that in 20 years it has shaped our means of communication and our way of keeping in touch. But it is definitely click-bait. One click leads to another and to another and to another and before I know it half an hour has been wasted.
I have also started to have qualms about Facebook since I saw Zuckerberg lined up with the other billionaires at the recent inauguration of the American President. I am even reluctant to type his name. My friend just calls him the orange man. I am tempted to call him much worse. Zuckerberg has made his billions on people like me who spend time on social media or is that waste time? But it feels like a dilemma – I consider giving it up but I also want to know what people are thinking and saying and it is a good way to stay connected.
I looked up the word dilemma – there was a time I would use the dictionary for that – now I google it (yet another example of technology creep) – “Dilemma – a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially equally undesirable ones” should I give up Facebook and lose the connections, the insights, the chuckles or hold my nose and stay knowing that Zuckerberg and his ilk are making money off sad sacks like me?
His development of such a program was admirable. It has changed the world and how we connect. During Covid is was a source of community when we could not meet in person. I guess the struggle for me is in the fact that he is now using his power and influence, as he joins with all those other billionaires on the dais to reek havoc in the fibre of not only the USA but the global community, as they support the reckless and unethical behaviour of a President who cares for no one but himself and his rich buddies. What is happening in the USA, and as a result of their dismantling, the world, is despicable. The man who built a social media platform to keep people connected is now aiding in the tearing apart of community bit by bit. It is a dubious anniversary as we remember the meagre beginnings of Facebook in 2004.
Sunday’s reading was I Corinthians 13. Guess who we were all thinking of during the section about “Love is not. . . “
There is nothing wrong with connectiveness, but as C S Lewis pointed out, change alone is not progress if it doesn’t have a core. We have another sort of connectiveness when we pray, particularly when we pray collectively. As for the orange man, well, we can stop buying his oranges and his orangeness. He will untruth himself into a corner eventually. Having raised the ire of the police and 600 FBI agents fired for simply doing their job would certainly give me the willies.