Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Who In The World Isn't On Facebook

All too often CNN lacks real news to report, so they make stuff up. As a classic example, they ran a story entitled Who In The World Isn't On Facebook, the first line of which reads:
Seriously ... at this point, who's not on Facebook?
Seriously: That was the lead line.

Did you hear that? That was the sound of Edward R. Murrow coughing up a lung in disgust at the state of what is now called journalism. (And don't even get me started on Fox!)

The article reports that "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the site hit a half-billion active users" which is a total lie. Did they not notice his pants on fire? Half a billion active users? NFW. Half a billion accounts, 30% of which haven't logged in a year, 20% of which are fake profiles used by thieves, and 10% of which are husbands claiming to be single. That leaves maybe 200 million, and that's being generous.

I though about my friends--
  technical people, hackers, nerds: not on Facebook
  professionals contacts: not on Facebook
  the six siblings I acknowledge: only one on Facebook
  mother or father: not on Facebook
  step-mother or step-father: he's on Facebook
    (he friended my brother, never used the account again)
  kids: on, one has four posts since 2009, the other six

So, in the end. Maybe 3% to 5% of all the people I know are on Facebook. As for CNN? I think they've just let the 995,554 people that like their page go to their head.

1 comment:

  1. Well, I had a facebook account until last week. Used it to keep up with my children's exploits. Started getting all kinds of friend requests from the past...I had only activated an account because it came as an app on my phone. Discovered that it wasn't what I wanted when I realized I either felt sorry for people or jealous of them. Who needs that, I've got enough aggravation in my life already. Ah, the shallow life is a simple one....

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