FACEBOOK: THE ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA

Face book, "Social Media" seems to be a straight forward concept. In the beginning it seemed to work as intended. Connections with old forgotten friends and acquaintances were re- established. Families were organizing family reunions and opportunities for employment were discovered. Now today in 2018 it's become a cesspool of hate speech and narcissism. As a result, this blogger hesitates to even log onto what has become 'Anti-Social Media'. More than that a strange phenomena has arisen. The people that I have reconnected with (including family) are mostly opiate addicts. those who do not suffer from addiction to opiates, are addicted to Facebook. It baffles my mind to find so many friends and family on Facebook falling all over themselves to befriend me. After doing so there is no meaningful conversation or there is post after post of the same woe and grief. Lately there have been reports of people deleting Facebook accounts in droves.
The popular online culture site "TheVerge" reports, "The Facebook exodus among young people is real, and disenchantment with the leading social media platform is extending to older users, too. According to new data from Pew Research Center that sampled US Facebook users aged 18 and up, 4 in 10 (42 percent) of those surveyed have taken a break from the social network for “several weeks or more” in the last year; a quarter of respondents said they’ve deleted the mobile app entirely from their smartphones."
I am still, however, noticing that there are some hard core users who are still there posting insipid minute by minute accounts of their day. This blogger does not like to mince words so I'm going to state that the majority of the users clinging to Facebook and other 'anti-social' media are people whom no one wants to talk to in the real world. In the real world where I live, Facebook is a joke and so are the users I spoke of earlier. I am compelled to write this blog post because I actually need to use "Social Media" for that which it was intended. The person on my "friends" list never respond to any of my attempts to reach out and accomplish particular tasks that will benefit the majority. I have been feeling a strong urge to join "Big Brothers" Atlanta Chapter. When it comes to one's "calling" to make a lasting contribution to a minority group in my community (at risk youth) joining Big Brothers is mine. Since I do not own a car and a car is a requirement. As a retired teacher my resources are limited. I initiated a fundraiser on Facebook explaining in detail the purpose. Not one "friend" responded. As a budding comedian, the humor of this phenomena is not lost on me. I do not post pictures of myself taken every minute on social media, others do and not many of them have aged well. For me there is a semi current pic of myself and the rest of the content focuses on social awareness and movements aimed at correcting some of the many wrongs in our society, race relations being #1.
In fine, if I could have my way the people I am connected with on Facebook (or any other platform) would stop with the narcissistic photos and insipid babble. Instead I would rather select a cause to be passionate about making sure that cause is beneficial to the majority.

The case for reparations has been eloquently stated before, yet still the request is not being taken seriously. This is my plea for that discussion to continue. I will appeal to human decency and compassion. I am a 53 year old African American male with no criminal record, no addictions and my work history started at the age of 12. By the time I was 30 yrs. I had 3 jobs. My ancestors never intended for me "us" to work like that. In fact I would wager that my ancestors never intended to provide "free" labor in the midst of extreme conditions. That alone would be grounds for paying my ancestors, which will mean 'African Americans today', what is rightfully and righteously owed to us. I'll mention that African Americans where not the only victims of our oppressors. The treatment of Japanese and Jewish immigrants is yet another stain on our flag. SHOAH Resource Center states "While World War II was still raging, Jews around the world began making plans to demand financial indemnification for Holocaust victims."  99% of the world agrees the Holocaust was horrendous; you have no choice but to say the same for slavery. Therefore without further ado; pay us for all of the free labor, the lynchings, the rape by plantation owners and the cold blooded murder by police in 2018. Many of the police officers in those incidents were given paid leave essentially for killing a Black person. The subjugation of Black people continues today in too many ways. African Americans who are "Dark Like Me" are often allowed to complete the application process all the while Human Resources plans not to hire us. When we are intelligent, we might become too valuable to the company. Incarcerating Black men for 30 years just for possessing 1 marijuana cigarette. There are far too many more to mention here; but stopping this behavior and reparations would be a step in the right direction to our self-sufficiency. Of course when YOU are the oppressor, the last thing you want is for your victims to become self sufficient. So now I appeal to your ferocious Capitalist nature. With African Americans being made whole; a massive influx of consumer dollars will come from African Americans. The only question is who will get paid and how much. Ta-Nehisi Coates was the author of 'The Atlantic's' cover story on this issue. Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates is an American author, journalist, comic book writer [Black Panther], and educator. Coates is a national correspondent for The Atlantic, where he writes about cultural, social and political issues, particularly regarding African Americans. Coates has worked for The Village Voice, Washington City Paper, and Time. Mr. Coates states " that the U.S. has paid ethnically based compensation before, to Japanese-Americans interned during World War II. It will therefore be “radically practical” to pay again, this time to Black Americans