OK we all use Facebook these days. As a species, a massive percentage of humans on this planet use Facebook. As of April 2017, 1.86 Billion of us use the social media platform. That’s a staggering number really.
According to internetworldstats.com there are about 3.7 Billion people with internet access in the world so roughly half of the internet using population use Facebook on a daily basis.
The Internet
noun 1.
a vast computer network linking smaller computer networks worldwide(usually preceded by the). The Internet includes commercial,educational, governmental, and other networks, all of which use the same set of communications protocols.
Facebook, an Internet within the Internet
So, to the point of this article. I’ve noticed this more and more. A news website posts a news item on Facebook and the comments pour in but as you read the comments you begin to see that few people have actually bothered to click the link to leave Facebook and read the article. They just read the headline and byline, which is often clickbait (but not clickbait enough) and has atrocious grammar and spelling. They then comment with their infallible opinion, usually showing their ignorance both of the story and the topic.
Facebook is a little like a Sandbox in some ways although it’s closer to an Intranet that’s connected to the Internet but people just choose to stay in the sandbox rather than venture out into the wilds of the internet. I could say something similar about other social media platforms but really it’s all about Facebook. Nothing else comes even close to the numbers it commands.
If there ever is a Skynet, it will start with Facebook.
I’ll leave you with this last bit of food for thought. According to this article on Quartz, there are actually millions of Facebook users who don’t even know they are using the internet. Wait, back that up again, what did I just say? You read it right. They are so absorbed with Facebook that they don’t associate it with being something that’s part of the internet. It’s a completely separate entity. The internet, that’s something that… other people do….
It’s a fascinating article and worth the read. Let me help you right out. If you are reading this, unless it was handed to you, printed on a piece of paper, you are on the internet!
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