Dec 21 2016_1

In my previous post, I never got to the point. Not even the starting point. This is my urge to write stupid, and possibly funny controversial things on Facebook. This is because I have no other outlet for this.

This all revolves around Facebook posts that say things like “three real friends will share this”, or “copy and past this to three different friends”. They normally are based around helping understanding mental health, or help line numbers for domestic abuse, and the Samaritans.

The post I will not post would be similar to this:

“I don’t write down the number for the Samaritans. If I need it, I visit a train platform, or a high bridge.”

It’s a bit dark and it’s probably the reason I need to write things down.

Stuart Lee described Twitter as voluntary state surveillance for the stupid (or something very similar), which is almost is. Although, I don’t regard anyone as stupid. More like sub-optimal intelligence, or people with restricted mental ability.

Perhaps we think that there is so much data out there, no one is looking at us, or that we have nothing to hide. Or even, you want to be seen a little bit.

Everything we post is available to be seen by people who want to see it, and many times by people who don’t. A friend has liked a post of someone who isn’t even your friend and I get to see it. The same goes with my posts. These things don’t have an intended audience, they can go around the world. And judging by the uproar of some of the innocuous posts, it’s not the security services we need to worry about.

Take the example of Jamie Oliver and his Paella with chorizo. This lead to death threats from Spanish people. Really? And how many people were prosecuted? None that I have heard of.

There are stories of female MPs receiving awful abuse. And how dare a woman suggest that there should be a woman on the £10 note.

So here’s a tip if you want to abuse someone. Either:

1. Get loads of other people to join in. Given the frequency of these incidents, the police won’t bother. Especially, if the offended  sending the abuse can fall back on victim status.
2. Create fake accounts, and make sure the police can’t locate you by IP address
3. Just don’t. Keyboard warriors can say bad things because it’s easy

My advice would be to be a consumer of social media instead of a contributor. But keyboards are everywhere, and so are millions of people waiting to be offended.