To speak or shout at length in an angry, impassioned way.
This Weeks Blogcast above, as always following the text below will lead you to a video, that isn't in the Blogcast... ;)
So i'm not going to lie to you, i have debated this with myself, pros and cons all week, i made some good points and in return i think i also made some good points. I discussed it as adults...yes there were some angry words, tears, maybe regretful remarks spoken in frustration, that now seem childish and irrelevant... but at the end of it, i come away with both sides respectfully acknowledging the other, but ultimately, and this is the point... i won... which was a surprise, because i don't normally... and so an agreement that i have already stated in Blog 2... stands firm.
There. Are. No. Rules.
Here we are, this is probably going to be a rant, so if you have your Rant Hats ready and your Safety ties on.. we shall begin.
As some of you may know, yes you... i post our updates on Facebook, even this, a blog denouncing its values... is posted on Facebook, so you... and i probably mean... you as a singularity... can read it, listen to it, and have a cup of coffee... there's some fig rolls in the tin.
We are going to talk about Facebook's 'Organic Reach'
What is 'Organic Reach'? i hear you think... it is very simply the amount of people who receive a post into their news feed from a like or follow of a page. Very simple, used to work really well.
The one thing about 'Organic Reach' (i'm bored of typing this, i think we shall call it OR until i can think of something better) is that it requires no funds, no passing of the silver coin, no bribe or lose of face, no unrealistic figures on your screen that shows figures disproportionate to the amount of likes or follows you have, no wage passing between you and the aforementioned big CIA based information capturing corporation (whoops did i say that... yes i did) it is what it is, you have 100 likes... those 100 people will see your post, common sense. What a good idea, some may say, not just a good idea a fairly decent approach, normality, perhaps. So what am i ranting about?
Well it has basically been turned off.
No longer can you have 100 likes and expect any of them to see it, no no, where is the value to the big pocketed trouser snake fondling controller of all you see think hear and require, if things were so easy, no, now to reach these people, who have liked and followed your page, who have done so, because... and sorry for being so simplistic, they have liked and want to follow your page... is to 'Boost' your post, which means of course simply bypassing the normal OR to get to the Real OR by way of making it more 'relevant'... you see that word... 'relevant' its an important one... You see posts have to be 'relevant' to the people who have liked and followed your page in order for them to see your post on their walls, or news feed... it has nothing whatsoever to do with money, god forbid i even mentioned the word.
No FB in its Glory decide what is 'relevant' because they know you have a busy life and there is no need for you to be slowed down by unnecessary 'irrelevant' posts, they know you better than you know yourselves... and we should thank them, they are great.
However to make it more 'relevant' you can pay £x so your followers can see it...
"oh i see, so do i have to change anything in the post, to make it more 'relevant?"
"No!"
"Err, so does that mean it is relevant?"
'No!'
"But..?"
"Look! It's 'Relevant' when you pa..., i mean 'boost' it"
So here we are, Brian Boland works for Facebook or did in some capacity, i could find out who he was/is and what he does/did but frankly...i couldn't care less about him... yeah Love and Peace...
Posted in Facebook Business in 2014, about Organic Reach, and i could link it, but to avoid his squirmy words of placation i'll pick and choose them, like they do with our feeds... and this is my blog, and
There. Are. No. Rules.
He said
" Over the past few months, I’ve read articles and answered questions from many people who are concerned about declines in organic reach for their Facebook Pages. ..."
blah blah
He continues...
"Why is organic reach declining?
There are two main reasons.
The first reason involves a simple fact: More and more content is being created and shared every day. "
This is an interesting point, i have a few words to say about this, but mainly 'Bollocks'
The traffic only increases when people like more and more pages, gone are the days of people discovering Facebook as a new form of communication with the world, if people want to communicate the majority do so and have done so for a long time on FB, so i say again Brian... 'Bollocks'
Unfortunately he continues...
"... The second reason involves how News Feed works. Rather than showing people all possible content, News Feed is designed to show each person on Facebook the content that’s most relevant to them. Of the 1,500+ stories a person might see whenever they log onto Facebook, News Feed displays approximately 300. To choose which stories to show, News Feed ranks each possible story (from more to less important) by looking at thousands of factors relative to each person."
So there's that word... 'Relevant' yes i wasn't making it up.
Relative?
So... Filter... control over what you see, because, no it isn't as simple as just money, this is darker... over the years as a political tool of communication people have posted news stories about events that are deemed unworthy or are labeled 'Fake News' some of this is true, but it isn't difficult for an intelligent person to see what is and what isn't fake, it only takes, well... a mind... so you see Fb is now controlling the views for the few while using the same filter for everyone, this is the point, the views posted by real people to real people is not controllable, as they are not paid to do so, the only way to control the passing of information is quite simply to block it. Media News Tv and Radio are used as a control system, as is the music industry, and film industry, they control what you see think hear learn and believe, and you only realise this when you step away from it, turn it off and open your mind.
Social Media was a place that was uncontrollable, so forward came the Trolls, many paid to be so, and the disinformation agencies and because now a lot of that is seen through, the filters are there to block unwanted content that doesn't fit the narrative... Shit but true.
Here Comes the Sheep is about this very thing.
Virus is the Corporation the controller the manipulator of what you see and hear... he controls what you see, tells you what to think, convinces you what is right and wrong and he captivates you to see more of it to believe it and not too see what else is going on around you..
This wasn't meant to include Here Comes the Sheep as that is a separate blog, but it seems fitting, to me, to add that link in.
FB is not by any means the only Social Media platform to do this, YouTube is the same, owned of course by another small business that goes to all the important meetings and controls what search results you get, yes... Google.
So how far do i go on with this, my rant is about FB but actually it goes deeper than that, far far deeper. Why are the Russians blamed for everything? Did they influence the US Election? Well did Clinton get the results of the primaries falsified by the Russians so it looked like Bernie Saunders lost (who would have won the Presidency)... well no, but did that happen... well yes... but that isn't as worthy or has as much traction as blaming the old enemy, the Russians... that isn't the narrative.
Like the JFK documents that were released, claiming Lee Harvey Oswald was possibly trained by the KGB, even though he was a CIA agent, yes but, also... KGB so it's there fault, not too much about the fact that actually he couldn't have done it, but still.
A more interesting document in that release, was the one regarding the CIA suspecting Hitler was still alive in 1955 in South America, and not dead in a ditch in 1945 due to a cyanide pill and his own gun, which funnily enough was a story clarified by the Russians... so maybe it has been them all along.
If there was doubt, and there always has been, why is it still taught? Why wasn't he at Nuremberg? Why? Why? why... because he had served his purpose, and no-one looks for a dead man.
Oooh ouch cynical me.
Well now i've lost my reader i'll get back on point.
My point is that in order to see posts by anyone you have liked or followed the only way to be sure of seeing that post is, to visit that page. Or if you are trying to get a post out there, get it shared by personal pages on news feeds as this still might almost work.
Next week i will be discussing Cognitive Dissonance and the discomfort of hearing something you don't wish to hear and deciding it was nicer taking the blue pill and living in a dream world, or i might talk about a track we recorded and how utterly inspiring the world of EOTA videos are... I haven't decided yet, if i'm still cross, who knows...
With Peace in mind
Love and Light
Tin
