…and irony is way above their heads too.
I joined Facebook in 2008, right after the mandate that users had to be college students fell to the wayside. For years before that, I had belonged to another large social media site, which, like Facebook, started out loads of laughs (that paid their users, imagine that!) but by 2007 the veneer had weathered through to reveal the true nature of social media – mean-spirited sniping, back stabbing, and all the trappings of antisocial dysfunctional behavior. So despite huge monthly payments, I fled.
Enter Facebook, in 2008 mostly filled with snarky college students. The biting wit was unique and fun. As when I joined Twitter (and everything else), the first year I was observing, not making many comments. Basically, I was trolling my college aged kids. I joined a few groups. When the other “social” site collapsed, most of them fled to Facebook, and we took up where we left off, with a lot of twisted wit.
I bring this up because the current “Community Standards” arm of the Book of Face has twice in one year flagged comments I made. Comments that wouldn’t have turned anyone’s head back in the early 2010s.
Twice? Only twice, you say?
Like many people, I don’t spend much time on Facebook anymore. It’s just no fun. Where I used to comment with wild abandon, when I do hang out for a minute, I don’t delve into commentary, nor do I throw linguistic Molotov cocktails. (Just in case Facebook pajama boys are listening, I don’t throw literal Molotov cocktails either. The best cocktails are served during happy hour, and we wouldn’t toss those.) The tide has turned, as has the worm, and “free” speech is no longer a thing anymore. Simple words can cause so much angst, it’s not worth the (Facebook jail) time to type them. Opinions are best kept to yourself.
The one sentence I typed (to a friend), was “If we don’t get together while you’re here (meaning in my city), I’m going to hunt you down like a dog (meaning I would force her to go to lunch with me. I would pay!).”
I don’t know what was offensive there. Hunting? Hunting her down as though she was a dog? Although she knew I was speaking in jest. I haven’t hunted anything for decades. Or was it ME the dog? Me the bloodhound and I would (literally) dog her to her hotel room?
It didn’t matter. I deleted the comment. There’s no Facebook tribunal. There’s no appeals process. You’re stuck with whatever they deem is the correct verdict.
Then last week, a friend of mine posted that her husband was finally getting his s*** together and was working on a project she’d been after him to start making progress with for weeks. My response was something like “some people need a kick in the derriere to get them going.”
This also was flagged for a violation of “Community Standards.”
(Honest to God, I can’t believe I’m writing about this.)
Did they (FB) really think there was intended violence in my comment? That my friend (who is small) would kick her husband (who is very tall) in the butt to get him motivated to start a project? Or that I would drive twenty miles from my home and do it myself? Do they not know we are all old people?
Does Facebook speak French?
Personally, I enjoy getting kicked in the butt every now and then. I’m basically a lazy person. If there weren’t someone cheering me on, or cattle prodding me into action, or leveraging my motivation with bribes of some sort, I would have never finished my first novel (or my second, or fifth, or ninth). Such phrases are ironic.
Definition: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning
My opinion writing is mostly sarcastic.
Definition: a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain (psychic, not physical) [my addition]
People who know the difference between language and a real threat of pain have a sense of humor.
Definition: that quality which appeals to a sense of the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous : a funny or amusing quality.
I then remembered that as a Facebook newbie, I joined two groups. I decided to look them up. One was “I am Fluent in Sarcasm”. Back in 2008, it was salty and fun. Now it’s a repository of scam ads and is no fun. The other rather entertaining group I belonged to was “I Hate Rachael Ray with the Fire of a Thousand Suns.” It still exists, although Rachael Ray is off the air, and the participants still hate Rachael Ray. How “hatred” can be tolerated in the post modern, bleeding heart sensitive current Facebook world is beyond me. I would have thought some righteous snowflake would have objected to a bunch of people who hate a celebrity.
My conclusion: Facebook is not fluent in sarcasm. Facebook doesn’t want anyone to have fun.
Another good reason to limit my time there.
