Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Facebook Rage Onion Ring Version

Peer pressure and social media can be a force of intense trivialisation.

So now I'm supposed to join 2-3 facebook groups per day to satisfy the demands of being a good network member.  After I join and click the button, then what?  Sit around and wait for messages, updates, witty banter. Do I have to do anything? Show up anywhere? Help organize something? Of course not it's just Facebook.

Here's an idea I came up with. Put down the mouse and go do something useful in the real world.  The one where you actually have to show up instead of clicking on an event you don't really plan to attend.

Making an onion ring more "popular" than Stephen Harper implies that a) you have too much time on your hands, and or b) you can make people do almost anything on Facebook regardless of how trite, meaningless and time-wasting it is. Onion ring popularity is the activist's version of Farmville.  Pardon me for believing that everything on Facebook is an onion ring contest and nothing is really serious.

Call me when someone starts a group called living in the real world is more important than how popular an onion ring is. Please recommend this post

2 comments:

CK said...

Well! Considering how apathetic most Canadians were up until that CAPP group on Facebook, it's already a step up.

I don't know if you read Montreal Simon's rebuttle to your post, it's very good.

Because of Facebook, we managed to coordinate rallies across Canada and some even outside of Canada in support.

Even Craig Oliver of CTV news, who's been there, done that and see & heard all throughout his career was impressed.

What do you suggest? That we continue being Apathetic and allowing Stevie to continue roughshod? Don't forget, he committed all of those nasty deeds because we (Apathetic Canadians) allowed him too.

In addition to social media and blogging, we have written our MPS, leaders of Opposition, and of course, St-Stevie himself.

Most of us don't want to simply allow the Harpercon cheerleading corporate media to continue shoving what they want us to think, feel and vote for down our throats.

I agree that since the rallies, we have hit a plateau which I hope will end soon.

I understand there are supposed to homeless advocacy groups as well as the homeless themselves who are going to protest during the Olympics.

If the homeless can do it, so can we.

Robert McBean. said...

Thanks for the condescending lecture CK. I was the original organizer behind the Calgary CAPP rally and was very pleased how it turned out.