Is Facebook Responsible for the Economic Downturn?

In 2008, the world economy slipped into what some have sacrastically called the Great Recession, to further prevent agitations to the Global Markets.  While I am not an economist, I can certainly tell you my doctor has not prescribed to me any anti-recession medication; so whether or not this is another Great Depression is strictly semantics.


The upshot to this are mass riots in Europe, rampant home foreclosures, sky rocketing debt, the Occupy Wall Street movement, unemployment hovering somewhere between 8-10%  (the exact number varies because the department responsible for keeping track of these figures has been outsourced & downsized.)  If I was more of a religious person I would swear that we are mere days from the Fourth Horseman, and Tom Cruise returning to the spaceship.


While one would be hard-pressed to find a single growth industry during these troubling times, one seems to stand head & shoulders above the rest ... the Social Networking Media!


Dig these numbers :  (according to Quora.com ...)


              YEAR:                                                 FACEBOOK Usership (estimated)


               2006                                                            12 million
               2007                                                            50 million
               2008                                                            100 million
               2009                                                            350 million
               2010                                                            500 million
               2011                                                            799 million
               2012                                                            835 million




Please note the 2008-2009 statistics.  During the beginning of the Global Economic Depression, Facebook Usership over tripled!!!  Mere conincidence??!!


What's even more telling is, according to Neilsens.com, the average user spends 7 hours per month on facebook.  Other statistical data puts that number closer to 8 hours per month, but even at the low end of that figure, we as a species spend 5.8 billion hours per month, and a staggering 70 billion hours a year plugged into the electric teat.

Are we fiddling while it all burns???

Hail Xenu!!!

The Fat Police is Watching ...

*** Lionel's Commentary, 11/11 on Channel 11.

&

*** Lionel's Commentary, 7/11 on Channel 11.

The World is a Business --

the Money Speech
by Ned Beatty
from the film  "NETWORK."


&


I'm Mad as Hell!

Is it CHARLIE MANSON or is it OPRAH???

The Rules of this game are simple :


 I will give you a list of quotes, and see if you can guess if the author of the quote is Serial Killer Oprah Winfrey, or Media Mogul Sir Charles Manson...?

"It all depends on how much love you have...and when you can admit that we will all be free."

                                               CHARLIE OR OPRAH???

"...A red triangle, now open your eyes...what did you learn???  the observer is the same observer who observes the same thoughts jamming you up."

                                            CHARLIE OR OPRAH???

"...I am transcending...!"

                                          CHARLIE OR OPRAH???

"If I had one wish, I'd probably stop the rainforests from being cut down."

                                           CHARLIE OR OPRAH???

"There is a force consciousness divine thread that connects all spiritually to us all...and by that I mean that every thought I think I have is going to create an equal reaction.  It's the golden rule on steroids.

                                         CHARLIE OR OPRAH???

"We'll be right back after these messages."

                                         CHARLIE OR OPRAH???

          (See...not as easy as it looks!)                                           

The Electric Teat

The WPIX -11 commentator was the inspiration for this blog*.  Two nights ago he did a piece about morbid obesity in America, and in it he made the observation that 50 years ago our parents didn’t eat healthy, smoke & drank while they were pregnant, never went to the gym, but they were thinner.

Of course Lionel ended with a flurry of fast-speak, and blamed the usual suspects like fast food and a fast-culture, but he fell short of actually fingering the true culprit for the absolute explosion of flesh in America today.

It couldn’t be evolutionary, because fifty years is not nearly enough time for the Darwinian scales to be so morosely tipped.  Whatever is the cause of this modern day plague is cultural, affects us on a bio-medical level, and causes increased food-intake, increase of junkfood, and promotes an all-around seditenary lifestyle.

The easy answer – is Television!

Whatelse in our lives has the power to tell us to sit down, sit still?  – tell us what to eat and when ?  Something that reduces sleep and raises stress?  And the one main difference between our parent’s generation and ours? 

Our parent’s had one color tv per block if they were rich!  We, in one generation, have gone from one tv in the house, to one per room, to the frightening proliferation of the portable internet.

 We are the first generation to be plugged in, from womb to tomb, to an electronic titty!  The long term ramifications of such a shift into the tv-culture is only now being realized. 

Something to think about … on your way to McDonalds.  Operators are standing by…

* See Lionel's Commentary -- 

The Postman Always Ring True...

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions". In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.”

                                                                       --Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

ARE YOU A TV JUNKIE???

ARE YOU A TV JUNKIE???






Take this brief test and find out whether or not you might need a television intervention!




1)  How many times a day do you watch tv?


2)   Do you ever watch tv alone?


3)  Do you ever lie about how much tv you watch?  


4)  Does tv ruin your relationship?


5)  Does watching TV affect your health negatively but you watch it anyway?




How did you do? 


        1-2:  Eat any good books lately?


        More than 2:  Take Two & a Half Men and call me in the morning.