Tea at Trianon: The Dark Side of Facebook

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, March 8, 2012

The Dark Side of Facebook

The very dark side. Not that any of this surprises me. I have never experienced so many misunderstandings that lead to the sundering of relationships as I have since being on Facebook. There is something about the immediacy of Facebook that triggers emotions. I find it very disturbing. On the brighter side, I have made so many wonderful friends through Facebook and it is a great way to keep in touch with long lost friends and relatives. To quote The Telegraph:

Some four billion pieces of content are shared every day by 845 million users. And while most are harmless, it has recently come to light that the site is brimming with paedophilia, pornography, racism and violence – all moderated by outsourced, poorly vetted workers in third world countries paid just $1 an hour.

In addition to the questionable morality of a company that is about to create 1,000 millionaires when it floats paying such paltry sums, there are significant privacy concerns for the rest of us. Although this invisible army of moderators receive basic training, they work from home, do not appear to undergo criminal checks, and have worrying access to users’ personal details. In a week in which there has been an outcry over Google’s privacy policies, can we expect a wider backlash over the extent to which we trust companies with our intimate information? (Read entire post.)

Alan Phipps said...: " I have never experienced so many misunderstandings that lead to the sundering of relationships as I have since being on Facebook"

Ditto. I am fasting from Facebook during Lent, but I am seriously considering not going back after Easter, especially since the election season is heating up. Much of the time, I have to sift through people's emotionally driven rants on everything they don't like, and I've gotten to the point where I engage them at my peril.

I do like Facebook for keeping in contact with some friends and family, but I generally keep in touch with them anyway, particularly if they're close. It can also open up avenues for evangelization, but one has to tread carefully there.; March 8, 2012 at 12:26:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: I agree with you, although in my case FB has brought me back into contact with some beloved friends and relatives with whom I was sadly out of touch for 30 years. However, I find it a little like high school. I never thought I would have to deal with snubs and squabbles and cliques again since leaving high school and college but FB plunges one into the thick of it. It is like trying to navigate the French court, except that often people don't even pretend to be polite. I even had a lady unfriend me for talking about the outcome of Downton Abbey, which had just been shown on PBS; she had not seen it because she was planning to borrow it from the library. I was supposed to know that? She broke off what I thought was a pleasant and growing acquaintanceship. I think we need to value people and relationships over television shows but FB can show how confused people's values are.; March 8, 2012 at 5:55:00 PM EST