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Facebook- A Pathetic Den of memers!
By Phil/Kords | Published | No Comments
Word Count: 999
Time to Read: 3 min 59 sec
Facebook is the social media site with the most number of subscribers. It requires little to no introduction so I won’t get there. There are also strong chances you are already aware of Facebook and probably have an account.
Well, I don’t need to mention that I have 3 accounts too. One personal and two for business, one is for my Youtube Channel and other for this site.
But what prompted me to write about this social media site all of a sudden? I go to Facebook to check out videos and news feeds I follow. On rare occasions, I catch up with friends.
The ‘problem’ that I want to talk about is memes. It is not a problem per se the quotes should convey that. There is a lot of meme culture going on. What is the problem (no quotes!) with that?
The memes generation have outlived their time. I firmly believe that it is time for them to move on. But something tells me that as long as there are social media, memes are forever here to stay. I don’t blame social media for its proliferation but the memers are the ones to be blamed directly.
Memes have become tasteless and saltless disconnected humour. It no longer evokes laughter, sarcasm and connection that they previously used to.
Isn’t that a surprise that most Facebook pages are filled with these tasteless humour?
The Meme Culture!
Memes are made across a variety of subjects, languages, professions and mostly they catch up on trending topics. It makes sense to follow trending news to make it go viral. The level of disconnect I feel does not evoke any emotions from my end. Is it just me or do you feel the same?
It is true for people who do not find social media attractive a place to hang out. The only times I hang out is when I have to do promotional work for GamerPhoenyx and Xyneohphoenyx. I do log in to Facebook as many a time I check YouTube Studio app.
I am certain Facebook has got more advanced since it’s inception over a decade ago. The technology incorporated in running them may also be state of the art. But wouldn’t it be nice if they make the interest-based selection more specific.
For example, I hate cricket – not the insect but an utterly disgusting, illogical and boring form of entertainment that is an insult to call it a sport. I have around 200 plus FB friends which include relatives. Some of them are fond of this idiosyncrasy. Time and again whenever my feeds display any cricket related junk, I instantly block it.
By this act, Facebook algorithms should have understood that this user, in particular, hates this entertainment so in the future his feeds will not be populated with cricket related junk. But unfortunately, Facebook does not seem to be as technically advanced as envisaged.
Here’s a suggestion, suppose I block one page which shows cricket, I block it – Facebook usually sends 2-3 prompts to understand the level of block the user has requested. Why not add a 4th prompt asking the user if he or she wants to block all pages related to cricket? Now wouldn’t that be nice!
The same feature can be incorporated for memes and other things as well. Simply unfollowing that page does not always help.
Facebook targetted ads and suggestions are pathetic! It is true in my case because I am super finicky about online privacy. I use Mozilla Firefox, not Chrome on my PC. On my smartphone, I use Chrome because I minimally browse the internet.
For the uninitiated, Firefox has a feature which can proactively block tracking cookies and anything that is FB related. Perhaps, that is the reason why I don’t get ‘accurate’ targetted ads. My web activity in Google settings is also turned off.
Why memes?
A simpler explanation – monetising and the simplicity of making one (Let me make it clear I am not that well versed with monetising on FB). It does not matter if it is meaningless, senseless, unrelatable or even offensive. As long as there are people who like it, follow it and can relate to it the memer will gain traction sooner or later.
The short term solution only relies on the fact that you have to continually unfollow and block pages as I adamantly did for cricket pages. I put in that effort because of the hatred I have for it.
Same cannot be said for memes. I do not hate them but they are getting annoying. Besides, out of 10 memers out there, one of them makes a meme which relates or feels with the user. Then all goes downhill.
I have unfollowed and blocked meme pages which are in bad taste. As unintentional it may be, the memers would not know unless they get a reaction from their audience.
The more Evil of the two types of memers:
In case you weren’t aware, there are two types of memers- the first one are the general type who wants to cash in on the trending topics. The second type is rare who are hell-bent on spreading disinformation.
The so-called educated illiterates fall prey to such memes easily. Since people have become more aware of fake news and how to spot them, half baked news has become the norm. This is true for politics.
Some geniuses can word their memes so intelligently that even people innocently fall prey. I have- I won’t deny that. Have you innocently fallen for such memes? Let me know your story in the comments.
For now, ignorance, avoidance and blocking are the only alternatives that exist. I do hope shortly Facebook and the likes of such implement a system in which I am in control of what information I wish to see on my news feed.
Will FB incorporate such a feature giving users more control? Only time will tell. Until that happens – ignorance is bliss!
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