Getting bored now.
In the old days you’d get an email from a friend of your parents who had forwarded it to you stating that there was a virus going around that would delete your computer if you opened it, that would be sent from someone you knew, exactly like the email they had just sent you in fact. I got more of these friendly warning emails than I ever did actual virus emails (none, if you’re counting), and this was back before smart filters like Google and other providers now use.
At least with these it would be once in a blue moon and, after advising you’re folks that not opening unexpected attachments was generally a good idea, and mindlessly forwarding this kind of thing was just a waste of time, you’d be fairly certain not to receive any more from them for a couple of months at least.
Now we have the hive mind that is Twitter and Facebook. Oh, dear good, someone put them out of my misery.
There’s nothing wrong with these social networks themselves, but to paraphrase the words of Dr. Emmet Brown, something’s gotta be done about their users.
Again, it started out harmless and inane enough, people would forward emails claiming that if you forwarded it too Bill Gates himself would know and either give you $5 or if it reached 500,000 people he would donate a million $ to charity, or something quite implausible if you actually spotted for a second to think about it.
No-one even then thought ‘what could someone do if they get this list of hundreds of your friends and their friends email addresses?’ I swear this is where a majority of spam comes from.
But that’s the problem, now we have Twitter and Facebook, why stop and think?
The internet has hit critical mass, it’s been there for a while now, and it’s now so ingrained in our society TV programs have hash-tags in the opening credits. All that means really is that this network of universities and geeks who went out of their ways to get online had been replaced usurped by a hoard of unthinking sheep.
It used to take days/weeks/months for a completely unfounded rumour to gain traction and get completely disproved mostly before it had gained much ground. Now in a matter hours a rumour can be around the globe twice by people ‘thoughtfully’ passing on something they heard from someone else they don’t really know. It’s ludicrous.
There are still Facebook campaigns to keep Facebook free, Facebook has never, and I’m confident in saying, will never charge for it’s use.
There are campaigns saying to turn off your timeline as hackers can use it to access your account.
These are by the same people that are playing mind numbing games, allowing their programmers unfettered access to their Facebook profile and friends lists without a care in the world and inviting their friends to do the same.
Now Kik messenger is being ‘reported’, and I use the term in the loosest possible way, as a virus created by Japanese hackers, trying to access your personal information. I can think of nothing more ridiculous than a bunch of Japanese hackers writing a well put together bit of software, on multiple platforms over the course of several years, releasing multiple versions and improving both usability and design over several iterations whilst circumventing the phone carriers text message charges, to gain access to your phone book.
Surely it would be easier to create some Facebook app that automatically does all the work for them and stick a picture of a kitten on it so everyone installs it.
Just remember, don’t believe everything you read and before forwarding that friendly warning to everyone you know, stop for a second and engage your brain, maybe even do a little research in to what you’re saying before you say it.
I dare say a lot of people who would have quite happily used Kik have now been turned off the while idea because about half a million unthinking sheep have forwarded lies and misinformation.
Also, while we’re here, the world is not a popularity contest. Anyone who has over 300 ‘friends’ on Facebook is a douche.