{"id":77858,"date":"2014-08-17T15:30:21","date_gmt":"2014-08-17T05:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=77858"},"modified":"2020-08-25T17:45:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T07:45:45","slug":"facebook-or-farcebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/08\/17\/facebook-or-farcebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Or Farcebook?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>August 15, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Anne Miller<\/strong><\/p>\n

Has anyone noticed a new Facebook page called Tick South Burnett?<\/p>\n

I don’t know who started it, but it’s like a breath of fresh air while wading through a sewer.<\/p>\n

Visiting Facebook often feels like standing in a public bar five minutes from closing time. If you’ve gone there for reasoned argument and civilised debate, you’re at the wrong place, mate.<\/p>\n

It’s the negativity that chips away at my soul.<\/p>\n

I have seen every school in this area targeted by whingers – usually by a parent who can’t spell. <\/p>\n

My guess is they didn’t like school very much when they were younger and are now “getting even”. <\/p>\n

Who would want to be a teacher? <\/p>\n

Our hospitals also cop abuse. You would think local hospital staff were conducting amputations with a blunt butter knife.<\/p>\n

Who would want to be a nurse?<\/p>\n

Likewise … who would want to be a police officer? or a councillor? or a politician? I could add journalist to this list, too.<\/p>\n

In the olden days – before Facebook, that is – if you had a complaint, you had a few simple choices:<\/p>\n

1. Actually complain. You could do this face-to-face, in which case I suspect you would refrain from calling him\/her a moron (or any x-rated noun) to his\/her face. Or you could even write a letter … a quaint concept that requires time and effort.<\/p>\n

2. If it was a business, not shop there any more. You might even advise two or three friends not to shop there any more either.<\/p>\n

But these days if a shop assistant doesn’t respond with the alacrity of a super hero, customers whip out their “dumb” phones and let rip with a tirade of expletives on Facebook to hundreds of followers who take everything they read as gospel truth.<\/p>\n

Don’t like someone’s driving or parking? Take a pic or video and shame them! Be a self-righteous dobber. It’s your right! <\/p>\n

Remember your mother telling you not to hang out your dirty washing in public? What an old-fashioned concept!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Confused? Well think about this:<\/p>\n

In the “olden days”, if you were arguing with your spouse, ex-spouse or children only the neighbours heard the yelling.<\/p>\n

Now readers in Turkmenistan can read all about how much you hate your “sperm donor”, a charming term used by some locals on Facebook to describe the father(s) of their children.<\/p>\n

Australians used to be known for their stoicism and laconic wit. <\/p>\n

Ask an Aussie whose home had just been burned down in a bushfire or washed away in a flood how they were going, and they’d generally reply “OK, how are things going with you?” <\/p>\n

But raised on a diet of American TV, movies and “social” media, Australians these days seem to think they have a First Amendment right to spew out cruel observations and business-destroying tirades with no thought whatsoever about the consequences of their actions. <\/p>\n

How is this making life any better for any of us? <\/p>\n

PS: Of course, Australia has no “First Amendment” to the Constitution. That’s an American concept, too.
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