A SPECIAL REPORT-PART I: 062313 - DUSTYBEAR MUSES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

PREMISE: SOCIAL MEDIA, SUCH AS FACEBOOK, DEHUMANIZES PEOPLE _____________________________________________________________________ Have you ever made a 'friend' on FB. Gotten really chatty, talked every day, shared things... And then it all just... STOPPED? Without explanation? You just literally tossed them away? If so, then that 'friendship' had come to mean NOTHING to you, and it probably never did. THEY meant NOTHING to you. Probably never did. If they HAD, you couldn't have done that. You made them feel as if you cared when in truth you did NOT. No relationship worth ANYTHING just ends that abruptly if it had not had any value. AT ALL. Do you ever say things to people ONLINE that you would NEVER EVEN THINK of saying to them OFFLINE. To their face? IN PERSON? If you can and do, then you have been dehumanized.  People mean NOTHING to you if you can say things to them online (disconnected presence) that you could not say offline.  This is one of the biggest dangers of Social Media. Human beings becoming virtually meaningless to each other far more and far faster than ever happens offline. What DOES friendship mean to you? ANYTHING? Maybe in-person relationships are far more frustrating and far more of an inconvenience than the online version. Because online, you can dump people willynilly with far less consequences than in person. You can block people online. Harder to do offline. BUT there are trade-offs in truth that are far from desirable unless your ultimate aim IS to become more and more isolated from real people and eventually wind up lonely and alone. I have met people online that I AM STILL friends with after more than ten years...but, I have also met hundreds and hundreds of people many of whom sought ME out that have disappeared faster than I can process breakfast. Facebook and the rest of Social Media throws around the term 'FRIEND' like a party favor after the party is over...to the point the term is and maybe already has become almost meaningless. Sad. Well, boys and gerbils, this is what the elites want. The Koch Bros. The Waltons. Art Pope, Karl Rove et al. They want a disconnected disengaged society because it makes US far more manipulatable and easier to control. They can pick us off like fish in a barrel...and we are headed in that direction at a raucous clip. To be continued: FUNNY:  I wanted to be a farmer until all my artificial plants died.