I'm just going to come right out and say it ... I HATE Facebook. Didn't use to, in fact I used to love getting on there, catching up with friends from high school, seeing pictures of my cousin's kids, sending a cute post to my sister just so she'd know I was thinking about her. But lately Facebook has become a cesspool filled with idiot armchair activists who think the greatest contribution they can make to this world is to vehemently show their ass in outright fury over an issue they had no idea existed until they logged in earlier that day. What I mean is, how many of the MILLIONS of people who were absolutely up in arms over the death of Cecil the Lion, had any idea that the damn lion existed the day before?? It is fine to be upset over how it happened, and especially with the apparently illegal aspects of the hunt, but boohooing all over Facebook and making random threats because there are people out there who weren't as upset about it is simply ridiculous. It doesn't make those people animal rights activists, it makes them hypocrites, band wagon groupies who want to be mad about something because "everyone else is doing it!". Facebook is creating a generation of blind followers, muddling idiots who take 5 seconds to read something on the internet and are suddenly ready to kill over it, BEFORE doing any type of research to make sure the claim itself is actually true. I had one instance where a friend of mine posted a link to a craigslist ad "Girlfriend says dog has to go". If you opened the link and read the post, it was actually a joke, offering up the girlfriend to a good home rather than giving up the dog. But one after another people jumped on the thread, crying over the injustice to the dog, what the hell was this guy thinking, here we go again with people not taking responsibility, blah, blah, blah. Care to take a guess at how many people responded without ever reading the actual post?
Go ahead, I'll wait.
Ready? 15.
THAT'S RIGHT, FIFTEEN!
Fifteen people who took something sight unseen off the internet and treated it like gospel without even reading the fine print.
All I'm trying to say is, take a minute. If something makes you feel strongly, spend the five minutes to do a little research. Make sure it's actually true, or actually current (have you seen the post about the kid who died because the babysitter left them in a hot car while they went into a bar for 5 hours? While that is horrifically tragic, it also happens to have occurred about 8 years ago). If you want to protest something, or help create a greater good, get off the couch, go volunteer in your community, find ways to support your chosen causes that involve physically making an effort, not just hitting a 'POST' button.
And for chrissakes, please post cute pictures of your kids or your pets for us 'old schoolers'. :-)
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