So here's the thing about this deal called "social media"...
The need for government workers to communicate originally begat the shell of what eventually became "the internet". In the middle part of the 1980's many of us were already pounding away on our Tandy Home Computers, trading information and tips, photographs and ideas -- as well as making friends --
through a system of BBS (bulletin board system) pages and (later) enduring the annoying screeching sound of the AOL dial-up and waiting for a connection.
Things have changed. When I first starting going online through the BBS dial-ups (you had to call a different number for each BBS) there were about six or seven you could connect with locally and the information you could access was usually pretty specific to the BBS you were on, and very limited.
Most of them were themed --role-play gaming, computer programming, HAM radio and other "nerdy" stuff was the norm. It was a tight-knit, often misunderstood and maligned, group of loosely banded individuals who were "Faceboooking" before Facebooking became a thing.
I remember the first time I stumbled onto a toll-free number for a BBS that had six-hundred members, most of whom were aspiring writers looking for and exchanging ideas. Six hundred members. I thought I had died and gone to online heaven.
The bottom line? Facebook changed it all. It took me a long time to cotton to the idea of a place where anyone in the world could go and just access your private and family information and I remember laughingly saying (out loud) "this Facebook deal will never replace MySpace as the go-to social media platform". (This coming from a guy whose parents passed up buying three acres of Highway 76 frontage in Branson for peanuts in 1968 because (as my Dad told my Mom)"this place will never amount to anything.")
It also took the wife a long time to get with the program. She endured years of me playing with my "computer-nerd friends" before she finally sat down one day at the (then) desktop and started playing with "Google". After a couple of hours, she looked me straight in the eye and with all sincerity said "I bet you could 'Goggle' "turkey poop' and find out everything you wanted to know about turkey poop!". And she did. And she was right.
After I finally came to the conclusion that Facebook wasn't going away, I used that baby like a push broom on a dusty day. I used it for my professional contacts in radio sales, joined all of the (and eventually started my own) local sales pages, buying stuff and selling stuff. That evolved into a Facebooked-based travel and vacation service and I even started an online auction that was a hoot.
I would go out and hit the yard sales, buy stuff online, go to estate auctions and even got into making some wholesale buys. I would put forty items up on my auction page, name an opening bid and let it rip for three days. That evolved into me buying and selling vinyl vintage toys. I used eBay and other outlets, but Facebook was always the go-to platform.
I still have three sales pages I actively (but loosely) moderate. The travel page and the auction page is still up but I don't have the time or the energy (after the heart attack) to pursue either. But Facebook as a "business" provided us with a lot of extra's during the good times and kept us from starving during the bad times.
Today in Fort Smith is a webpage that is fueled by the portal of Facebook, so Facebook is an important part of our business model.
I used to sell radio, television and newspaper advertising on the premise that "X" number of people would see it or hear it if you advertised with me. In the hands of a skilled marketing person, you can (and I have in the past) make those numbers say anything. And I was also one of those guys that used to scoff at the idea of 'digital' advertising as opposed to the more traditional outlets. Just like I thought satellite radio was a "fad".
So Facebook is good when it is good. But it's also extremely bad when it's bad. The notion that keyboard warriors -- often fighting their battles against windmills behind fake profiles emboldened by brains clouded by alcohol and borderline mental illness -- can say anything they want about anybody they choose basically without fear of repercussion is a flesh wound on our society.
The stereotype of the 30-something-year-old loser living in his parent's basement or garage and lashing out at the world while wrapped in a haze of online gaming, Hot Pockets and social awkwardness has evolved into Susie Homemaker going on a tirade, stalking people online and trying to ruin people's lives and reputations of someone who took umbrage at something Whoopi Goldberg said on the 'The View".
I speak from experience. Social media is not always real "social" anymore.
We offend a lot of people who should be more offended by their own actions and attitudes. There are people out there that don't like 'Mugshots' because they say we are putting people's personal business on blast. I counter with when you are out there driving while drunk, robbing convenience stores, committing sex crimes,(especially against children), beating up your spouse and stealing from and assaulting and killing people, you waive your right to privacy.
There are others out there--public officials-- that don't like their malfeasance and misdeeds exposed. And in their tiny little minds, the truth is the enemy. But the truth is out there somewhere and the days when you could bribe, cajole and smother someone in the media shining a light on your actions are dead and gone, at least when it comes to this place.
When you are madder at me for posting a "Mugshot" or for exposing waste, lies and low-shelf conspiracy on the local government level, you're part of the problem. Part of the problem that isn't looking for a solution.
We're nine-months-old as a news source. We have made some missteps and some mistakes, but we have also shined a lot of light. And we're just getting started.
Don't believe everything you read on the internet.
But the truth? It still matters.
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