Sue’s Views: The insidious side of Facebook
Sometimes sharing is not caring. Think twice before pushing that like and share button.
A pet peeve of mine when scrolling through my Facebook page is the amount of drivel that people feel motivated (for reasons I cannot fathom) to post or share.
Highly respected and well-educated people who by the single stroke of a finger on their Facebook ‘post’ button chip away at their image and integrity and clutter up your Facebook page with trash.
Here are my top two:
The emotional appeal. This normally pops up in your feed with a woe-begotten animal, mentally challenged child or even a person missing a limb or two that is meant to pull at your heartstrings with the tagline urging you to like the post to let them know that they are beautiful, wanted etcetera.
Even more annoying are the religious posts asking for an online ‘Amen’ normally involving somebody with a terminal disease. They go along the lines of ‘Type Amen to heal me’.
ALSO SEE: Why you keep using Facebook, even if you hate it
Now good old common sense should tell you that no amount of typed online ‘Amens’ or even hitting the like button is going to miraculously heal the person or help that woe-begotten animal. If anything all you have done is open yourself up to cybercriminals using Facebook as their platform from which to operate.
Yes, you are assisting some scammer somewhere in the world make some easy money by putting your personal information in the hands of unscrupulous marketers or even help spread computer viruses by your well-intentioned show of support. And to make matters worse the photograph that accompanies their post is more likely than not stolen material.
Facebook policy forbids ‘like-farming’ but we all know how that goes.
Another shared post that keeping rearing its head on my feed is the valuable prize up for grabs such as a consignment of the latest cell phones that have arrived in the country (point to note scammers tend not to be place-specific) that were in excess of what was ordered and they just want you to get your hot little hands on one of them so please like and share. Folks never has the old adage ‘If it’s too good to be true then it probably is’ been more apt.
So think twice before pushing that like and share button in future.
HAVE YOUR SAY
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