Remember about ten or fifteen years ago when chain letters/email were the bane of our inbox? Well, them and that poor Nigerian Prince who needs help transferring an enormous sum of money to your bank account. Last weekend I reached my breaking point and it wasn’t because, brace yourselves, I found out that the Nigerian prince is a scam. No, it was because not one, not two, or not even three, but several of my Facebook friends posted the “Facebook Chain letter.”
No, that picture below is not it. That I did copy and paste. We’ve all seen the Facebook chain letter. I tried to find one on someone’s “timeline” but couldn’t. It’s almost as if someone removed or hid them. I smell Zuckerberg! That little weasel has been hiding and deleting evidence ever since me and Snowden caught on to his little scam. What’s his little scam? First, he’s the Nigerian Prince. That’s how he got the seed money to start Facebook. But secondly, once Facebook became popular he signed a very lucrative agreement to allow the government’s Central Intelligence Agency to monitor and harvest our information. You think that’s a crazy conspiracy theory? The cell phone companies were giving our info to the government, why wouldn’t Facebook?
The Facebook Chain Letter goes something like this: “I know most of you won’t re-post this, but I know that my true friends will. If you really care about others…” Really? That’s how we show we care, by copying and pasting? How does the other person even know? Because we “tag” them?
Is this what our relationships and self-esteem have come down to? A copy and paste? Is that how we show we care? Thank God it’s finally defined. For years men have been trying to find ways to definitively show people that we’re thoughtful and sensitive. Now, thanks to Zuckerberg we can! Man, how did we meet and have relationships before Facebook? Geez, I may have to Facebook stalk my wife to see if she had a secret life before she met me. If she didn’t I’ll wish her a Happy Anniversary on Facebook.
All these years I thought Zuckerberg was a complete tool! Oh wait, he is. But he’s a complete tool with about a billion dollars of government money in exchange for our lives. He created a website because he didn’t know how to have real, human relationships. He has single-handedly ruined the world. Now relationships are created and judged by likes, shares, and comments. Maybe that’s the way it should be. How many of us have had relationships where we wished we could have researched our partners history first? See? We’re all acting and thinking like Zuckerbergs now! (also, I am hereby copyrighting the phrase “Zuckerburger” just in case I decide to open a Facebook themed burger restaurant)
But back to the chain letter…I’m pretty sure that some code is woven imperceptibly into the text that allows a government server to reach into and monitor our Facebook posts, connections and activity. No, they don’t read everything we write or do. They have filters that are set to detect certain words or themes. Don’t worry. If you’re not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about!
How do you feel about the possibility of the government monitoring your online or electric communications? Some people that oppose it talk about our civil liberties and privacy. I don’t really mind. If it keeps another 9/11 from happening I’ll cc all my texts and email straight to the government if they want. I’m pretty sure that my life probably bores the crap out of the people looking for terrorists or criminal activity. Of course the fact that I linked to the C.I.A.’s website and followed Edward Snowden on Twitter today probably raised some eyebrows somewhere. I just want to say a big Happy Saturday to all my new readers from the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and the N.S.A.! Thanks for all you do to keep us safe. Just don’t let your supervisor see you reading #ThePhilFactor at work.
If you enjoyed The Phil Factor and wanted to spread it like a chain letter please share by hitting the Facebook, Twitter, or re-blog buttons below. Have a great Saturday!
The best FB chain letter I’ve ever seen:
Please copy and paste this to your status if you’re constantly being asked to copy and paste things to your status by friends who copy and paste things to their statuses.
Many people won’t copy and paste this, but my truly sarcastic friends will copy and paste it because they’re sarcastic by nature.
If you don’t copy and paste it, then this means you hate bacon. And if you hate bacon, the terrorists win. And a unicorn dies.
I just had to share it. Happy Saturday 🙂
LMAO! I just posted that on Facebook last night.
LOL!!!! Love it 😀
And so a valuable lesson learned
Illuminati is confirmed.
I do object to invasion of privacy. I object to computer-generated sales phone calls too. If someone were to appear at my door with the same regulatory as the calls I’d have them up for harrassment. If someone were poking through my bins to harvest any useful information I’d expect to be able to press criminal charges. Just because those doing the poking about are ‘official’ doesn’t make it in less offensive or intrusive. I’m not convinced about the security reasons cited as the purpose. Sounds too much like an excuse given to grant license.
If you post publicly, fair do’s but I expect private conversations and information to be respected. Now I sound like I have something to hide! But I also object to CCTV coverage (it’s everywhere here). I object to cookies that track my browsing habits then send little pop ups to guide me back to the dress/shoes/TV/washing machine I was considering. I hate being trawled. It’s creepy and I suspect the reasons are pressure based and power driven.
Apart from that, I’m okay with the odd meme although I hardly ever copy and paste. I am not a robot. Please copy the code you see here:- WxT8FZ.
I hated snail mail chain letters years ago that threatened me with death or disfigurement if I didn’t send them on to my 10 best friends (long before the days you could be unfriended in a click). And I hate all the versions of the Facebook chain letters too, especially the whiny ones saying “No one ever reads my wall so …” What I know I’m really going to love, however, is that DISLIKE button that I hear is coming soon … Anita