Random Topic Generator: Facebook SPAM

This article is going to focus on what I’m sure many people have already ranted about before, but I need to get it off my chest. It’s understandable that ranting about Facebook is unnecessary, because everyone does, and because the part of Facebook that I’m complaining about is so menial, it’s almost a waste of writing something about it. However, Facebook is a social networking site, designed to bring people together, from all over the world, and nowadays, that socialism has become tainted with SPAM. Unnecessary statuses specifically written to give the impression of pressurising you into sharing it or you’re automatically labelled as someone you’re not.

I’m talking about those statuses you see littering your news feed that use the particular vernacular, “share if you care”, or “share if you care or ignore if you’re heartless”, or “people say this is offensive, share this post to show that you don’t care”. Anything that wants you to share it, is SPAM. I never share anything of the sort, because it’s unnecessary. It’s getting you to prove something you don’t need to prove. I do care, but I don’t need to share this post to prove that, but if I don’t I’m heartless; where’s the logic in that. But then again, where’s the logic in any type of SPAM?

The other type of SPAM, comes in the form of “quizzes”. This questionnaire that if you take you can find out what Disney Prince you are, or find out what Harry Potter character you are. Why? I found a quiz that takes your profile and works out what IQ you have. Unfortunately, I was curious. How would it take my profile and work out how intelligent I am? So I clicked on it and let it do its thing, and turns out, my IQ is 217. Awesome. Except, that it’s not even slightly true. The only thing I achieved was adding to the traffic to that page, so it can use that popularity and spread even further, infecting more of Facebook. Well done me…

That’s the problem, and how easy it is to fall for SPAM. Anyone can get tricked, in my case, it was because curiosity got the better of me. SPAM relies on triggering your curious side, get you questioning, and the only way to quench that notion is to click on the post. After my supposed IQ was presented to me, I came to my senses and I am proud to say that I haven’t fallen for anything of the sort since, because for what purpose does the knowledge of comprehending that if you were a Harry Potter character, you’d be Severus Snape, or grasping the fact that because you shared this one post, you did good, when in reality, it does absolutely nothing. Sharing a post to show that you care is not and should never be considered as your one good deed for the day, because you’ve done nothing significant.

“Share that you care about global warming.” That’s contradictory. One, I do care about global warming, and it is something that definitely should be thought about more, but if you share that post, you’re actually contributing more to global warming than if you ignored the post. This example should be applied to every post that wants you to share if you care. Instead of sharing and then moving on, how about actually doing something about it. Sharing something only proves how much you don’t care about something, because all you’ve done is shared a status, giving into the pressurisation of the SPAM – it’s very intention.

SPAM in general, in all it’s contagious forms, should be ignored. If people can ignore the SPAM they get through E-mail, then why are they unable to on Facebook?

That’s all I have to say on the matter. I did tell you it was menial… wait… have I created SPAM?...

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)