At last, something real
I have spent the past few days taking long walks in the Cotswolds, in England.
The nice thing about England (one of many) is the ‘right of passage’ laws that allows you to cross otherwise private property as you hike
As a result, I have spent a great deal of time surrounded by sheep, cows, dogs and fields of rye and wheat.
It can be pretty overwhelming.
I am also doing all of this hiking at the same time that the financial markets are gyrating wildly and people are burning cars and even buildings in many cities in the UK.
It’s an interesting contrast.
It’s an interesting contrast because all of this is real.
Wheat is real.
You can touch it, you grow it and you eat it to live.
Facebook is not real.
Facebook is an illusion.
It is a false world.
When you peel it back, there is nothing there.
It is, in a word, bullshit.
But it has a valuation of $50 billion. Some say $100 billion.
At $50 billion dollars then, Facebook is worth 10 billion bushels of wheat.
And how much is a bushel?
You get a yield of 30-50 bushels of wheat per acre.
So, in effect, Facebook has a value to us equivalent to 200 million acres
And how much is 200 million acres?
At 640 acres per square mile, Facebook has a value equivalent to 312,500 square miles.
And how big is 312,500 square miles?
Well, all of Britain is 80,823 square miles.
So, in effect, in our own minds, all of the UK is worth about 1/4 of Facebook.
The land of the UK produces things we need to live – fresh water, food, land.
Facebook produces nothing.
You can’t eat it.
You can’t wear it.
You can’t live in it.
It doesn’t do anything.
It is like air.
It is like MySpace before Facebook, or after some smart kid from Brazil makes the next ‘social medium’.
In the meantime we spend billions of hours wasting our lives away on Facebook (and it’s friends).
What kind of strange civilization are we building?
Is it any wonder that our financial institutions are a house of cards?
There is nothing real there either.
Derivatives. Facebook.
A world built totally out of thin air.
It all reminds me of the Dutch Tulip Craze.
One day, we are going to ask ourselves how we could have been so stupid.
I think.
7 Comments
Michael January 11, 2014
Facebook is total bs bc people make their lives picture perfect on it. It’s all an illusion!
I.M. Pistoff March 03, 2013
Yes, FB is bullshit, but not for the reasons stated. As a means of communication, it is no more or less bullshit than this blog, which may or may not have any more value than to simply allow Rosenbloom to vent, which is his right. FB is bullshit because of its arbitrary nature (white-bread homogenization and censorship based on nothing more than whim), its privacy violations, and the fact that Zuckerberg is a plagiarist, having stolen the idea from the people who had contracted him to help develop it.
As for wheat, it’s a nutritional detriment to humans; worthless except to the parasitic professions which benefit from human illness.
Bignatz August 08, 2015
Zuckerburg didn’t so much steal the ideas for Facebook as he was in turn contracted to do so by the American CIA and NSA. One important point that all of you are missing is that Facebook is, in addition to everything already said about its purpose, and excellent means of social control and intrusion into your privacy…which you give up willingly by posting on it. It’s a wonderfully useful tool for repressive governments. Yes, it can be used to a small degree for getting the word out while you’re otherwise meaningfully engaged in social activism, but just remember that you’re giving people who don’t have your best interests at heart full access to whatever you share.
Sticky August 26, 2011
I think you hit a bullesye there fellas!
Eric Blumer August 11, 2011
I was thinking more about this as well. I think Facebook is “reconnecting” the social fabric of our peoples. It is awfully easy… in a big city… to become isolated socially. Sure, some people are more social than others, and there are other social venues (churches, schools, work.) But Facebook allows people from around the country to socially discuss topics, share big thoughts and little tidbits. That social “fabric” might be valuable.
But I was also thinking… I remember hearing Facebook has not made a nickle of profit (a while back.) Is that still true? Is it true that there really is no “value” to facebook…since it is free and always will be? What are they selling? Ad space? Marketing information?
In the end, however, all we have is meaningless..because we can’t take it with us…where we’re going. That’s for sure.
Bill Gentile August 10, 2011
Michael,
Facebook is a tool. It has value only when used as a means to an end, as opposed to an end unto itself. You can stand on a corner yelling your message to 50 passersby, or you can post that same message on Facebook and reach 50,000 passersby. Or 50 million passersby.
If one believes in his/her message, one will use Facebook to disseminate it.
BTW, good to see you taking time to smell the wheat.
Best,
Gentile
Eric B August 09, 2011
Interesting comparisons and topic!
“Meaningless, meaningless. Everything is meaningless.”
(Ecclesiates) That is one of my favorite passages…
It summarizes what man finds …. when pondering life’s “meaningful things.” Many things we “live” for… in the end are meaningless. (Although as Ecclesiates eventually points out… there is a deeper, religious meaning for life and treasure… but that’s another topic.)
Back in the here and now… Facebook.
Facebook is basically a means, a pipeline.
Pipes are needed, to transport oil. Factors turn wheat and water into bread. Trucks transport them…using oil that was transported via pipes.
Facebook is a pipeline, for communications…between family and friends. Advertising space as well. Information is valueable.