The more things change, the more they stay the same. In the late 70’s there was discovery by a whole lot of folks, of a mobile communication medium that could put you in touch with folks all over. Citizens Band Radio. Primarily used by truckers for passing information along, like road conditions, presence of the smokies, (Cops and Highway Patrol), accident reporting, and bits of wit and chit chat.
With the release of the movie Convoy, and a song to go with it, suddenly folks discovered that for a few hundred bucks they could join the party. And they did, without any thought or common sense. Suddenly everybody was driving and saying “Hey Good Buddy, got your ears on?” Being a Good Buddy was the standard greeting on air. It took almost no time for the signal to noise ratio to take a nosedive as every damn fool, with a few bucks got themselves a CB Radio and got on the air.
It didn’t take long before the truth came out. Having a CB Radio would drop your IQ 50 points and make everyone within the sound of your voice your new best friend.
Facebook is the internet’s CB Radio. Instead of an antenna sprouting out of your ass, you have a mouse welded to your hand, and millions of folks who are standing by to be your good buddy. Just like CB Radio, the signal to noise ratio is an inverse relationship with thousands of things posted by folks who last week discovered online, and can get thousands of friends with the click of a mouse.
If you think your thousands of new friends really are, try this: get them to send you a buck. One dollar. I thought so…..
Popularity always kills these things. It just happens faster on the web. When was the last time you saw a CB Radio?