Welcome to Buster's Blog

Irregular commentary on whatever's on my mind -- politics, sports, current events, and life in general. After twenty years of writing business and community newsletters, fifteen years of fantasy baseball newsletters, and two years of email "columns", this is, I suppose, the inevitable result: the awful conceit that someone might actually care to read what I have to say. Posts may be added often, rarely, or never again. As always, my mood and motivation are unpredictable.

Buster Gammons















Thursday, November 17, 2016

Real Friends Don't Let Other Friends Read Facebook


Excerpted from a column by Froma Harrop, Creators Syndicate.
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Dear Facebook Friends,

If you don't see me gushing over the pix of your Thanksgiving pies, take no offense.  It's not that your pie is a bore (though, frankly, it is).  And it's not because I unfriended you.  It's because Facebook has become a platform for the sort of fake news stories that helped elect Donald Trump.  In doing so, Facebook undermines our civic culture -- its creepy smile floating overhead.

I'm so out of there.  I've wanted to quit for a long time, having wearied of my friends' pictorials of their idyllic family and personal lives.  I know for a fact that some of the most glowing portrayals come from (mostly) women who couldn't make it to noon without a fistful of meds.  I still love them, and if they wish to connect, they have my number.

Though hyper-partisan fake news stories have come from both the left and the right, Facebook entrepreneurs know that the money is in plowing the Trumpian fields.

Zuckerberg says he doesn't want Facebook making judgments about what "news" is acceptable for its site.  Funny, Facebook bans pictures of female breasts in the name of decency but sees nothing indecent about putting lies into the mouth of Pope Francis.

I'm leaving Facebook.  Follow me!

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2016/11/17/real-friends-dont-let-friends-read-facebook.html












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