It’s all about what people Like [pun intended] to read versus what’s important, isn’t it?

As a kind of addendum to what we said about Facebook withholding conservative news, Zuckerberg issued a statement May 13th, beginning: “Facebook stands for giving everyone a voice. We believe the world is better when people from different backgrounds and with different ideas all have the power to share their thoughts and experiences. That's what makes social media unique.”

Let’s forget about the real point. I mean that: Let’s forget that “the censorship is so blatant at Facebook that the company even has a document that justifies its ongoing reign of censorship, and that’s called the Facebook Community Guidelines.” That line is from Duncan Riley of SiliconANGLE.

...And let’s go back to what Shakespeare — sorry, Zuckerberg — said: “The world is better when people from different backgrounds and with different ideas all have the power to share their thoughts and experiences.” But what that comes down to is, the stupid and the brilliant can both share their views. And influence people. And that’s what Facebook is all about, anyway. Not just FB, of course — all of social media and the new Web.

The good part is, the rich and the poor have an equal opportunity.

But wait. Do the poor have Internet awareness? Facebook awareness? I think not.

Let’s not make this too complex. On the one hand, Zuckerberg is saying it like it is: It’s now democracy. [So even if Facebook has been suppressing conservatives, it’s in the spirit of the times.] On the other hand, we can have total imbeciles influencing your thought processes.

Facebook is the Zeitgeist. People want to read about murders rather than scientific discoveries. Look at your newspaper — or any major news site.

There’s an old English saying: “When the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit.” It’s creepily funny, but it’s logically true.

On social media in general, you’re following people you want to follow, and you’re writing stuff and Liking and linking stuff for them. Ah, I remember this article from 2009. “Login to Facebook. What you see is a world that you've constructed. These are YOUR "Friends", the people you've chosen to follow. Or at least the people you've been guilted into following. These people shape your experiences of social media.”

“What social media does is allow us to... see the traces of one aspect of their life. Public genres of social media give us the ability to access worlds that are different than ours. Regardless of where we are in the world, we can see the experiences of people who are different than us. But are we even looking?”

All this seems disconnected, so I should sum it up in a few bullet points:

• Facebook is the face of “consume what you want.”
• Social media is not social in the least; we construct our communities based on people we already like — and we write for people who we think will like what we say.
• And in that sense, holding back conservative views — the current Zuckerberg controversy — is very democratic, with the times, and correct.
• ...Because the conservatives tell us what it should be rather than what we’d like.

We’d all like to own a resort in the South of France. But should we?

Tags : Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg