Facebook: My favourite mistake

The newspaper today was boring. It seems that nothing is happening in the world.

But just as I was about to put it down, I found a great opinion piece by Giles Cohen sharing his views on Facebook (and later completely contradicting himself by talking about Twitter).

He said:

“Zuckerberg has impoverished humanity. He has made staying in the new going out. He has emptied the outdoors of real people, hunched one third of the developed world’s population over its laptops 18 hours a day, “poking” each other, and made our streets a no go zone where only rapists and muggers thrive.”

…

It was fun while it lasted, it’s nice for kids. But it has now reduced half a billion adults to the functioning level of 12-year-olds by creating a structure for living that precludes any sort of personal, social or sexual development. Facebook drains human interaction of all suspense and subtlety, imbecilifies everyone who touches it, and has had the global effect of hitting a brain with a brick. Splat. All over. The world has been retarded by Zuckerberg, the Arch Retard, so that he might rule it all.”

Generally, I find Giles a bit annoying in comparison to his sister (who I have a secret crush on), but today he hit upon a pertinent point. I’m acutely aware that people have started to live their life through Facebook and often wonder if this is about to ruin the world.

However, although I admired Giles and his opinion, I can’t quite force myself to agree with it. You see I am one of those people. The fact is, it’s 10pm on a Saturday, Facebook is open and I am writing on my blog. What's more, I'm unashamed to say that I absolutely LOVE Twitter. Thanks for the read though Giles.