Posts Tagged social media
Headlines ahead of the facts
It is amusing and annoying that internet news coverage seems to be driven by creating the most sensational headlines to serve as “link-bait.” It hardly seems to matter what the content underneath that link is. Someone out there is being paid to find the most enticing phrase of 15 words or less that will get you to point your browser there.
This article from Time is a case in point, proving that even supposedly more respectable providers feel the need to compete with Buzzfeed and Upworthy. The article claims “everything you know about breakfast is wrong” and then goes on to describe how two studies described in recent journal articles prove nothing of the kind, certainly nothing that warrants the mega-sensational headline.
I am inclined to think of Nassim Taleb’s proposed newspaper format: it would contain lots of pages when there is actually relevant news and be empty when there is not (which would be most of the time). We are moving ever further from that ideal.
Fundamental Atheism on the internet
Posted by johandp in Christianity on 30/03/2014
I recently “liked” a group called Anti-Theists. Pro Active Atheists. Opposing Religious Harm. on Facebook, and also one called Atheist Uprising. I “liked” them not because I am an atheist (I am a Christian), but because I like to hear what atheists, particularly the passionate ones, have to say. These facebook groups use memes (and, to a lesser degree, links to articles, and Youtube videos) in order spread their message.
I have always enjoyed interacting with atheists (I have many friends who are atheists or agnostic), but this is the first time I’ve actively sought out Atheist opinions on social media and allowed them to flood my news feed. Being constantly confronted by anti-theists isn’t always easy, because it forces you to confront your beliefs. But it is important. The more I see the more I realise that fundamental atheism, the atheism that deliberately opposes all forms of religion, is really just a religion itself, with all the attendant harm and nobility. I want to illustrate a bit of this by having a brief look at some of the memes that show up. (I will, of course, be cherry-picking the ones that suit me. Go have a look at the Facebook pages if you think I am not giving a fair account).
By the power vested in me by the State, the Church and Facebook….
Some of my friends have gotten married recently. And soon after (within hours) they changed their relationship status on Facebook. It’s almost like with dating, it’s not really official until it’s “Facebook official.” Facebook seems even to have changed the way we get married and how we announce it to the world. No longer in the newspaper, but in a relationship status.
Perhaps weddings should start including a relationship status ceremony in which the couples change their relationship status (perhaps there are people who have already done so). I can just imagine the minister saying something like “By the power vested in me by the state, the Church and Facebook, I pronounce you ‘married’. You may now change your relationship status.”
There is nothing wrong with the effect of Facebook on marriage. It’s efficient and adds another social dimension, the online dimension, to marriage celebrations. But, as I recently reminded a newlywed, when you’ve gotten married you should go on your honeymoon and leave Facebook alone.
Meditations of Lambchop 