Facebook: The Death of Logic and Critical Thinking

Don't get me wrong.  I like Facebook.  As a whole I find social networking to be quite useful.  However, sometimes I am frustrated by the lack of critical thinking displayed by a good portion of Facebook users.  We often see something that strikes us as humorous, or wise, and we share it without thinking about whatever it is that we are sharing.

It'll be easier if I just show you.  Example #1:

Here we have a verse from Frank Sinatra's "The way you look tonight" compared to a snippet of Justin Bieber's "Baby."

It's funny, and at first look we really wonder what has happened to the music industry.  Then you realize that the Bieber segment is just the chorus.  Here's an actual verse from Bieber's song.

"You know you love me, I know you care
Just shout whenever, and I'll be there
You want my love, you want my heart
And we will never ever ever be apart"

It's not Shakespeare, certainly, but really Bieber's song isn't as stupid as this graphic is making it seem.  I'd go as far as saying that Bieber's lyrics are comparable to Sinatra's, not quite the same level, but really not that far off either.  The truth is that there's plenty of brilliance left in the music industry, especially once you get away from the teen-pop-machine.  But graphics like this draw people into accepting a narrow minded perception of things.  (For the record, I do not listen to Justin Bieber.)

Example #2:

I am not defending Twilight.  However, the love story in Up (a lovely movie, btw.) is depicted through a filmic technique called a "montage."  The essence of a montage is to briefly hit a series of high points in a particular story.  Montages are very, very easy to do.  And they evoke huge emotional responses in the audience.  Ask people how pumped they are to work out after they watch a Rocky training montage.   The point here is that it isn't fair comparing an 8 minute montage to a 4 book series of novels.  Novels are hard to write, I know this from experience.  Characters, plot, tension, romance, intrigue, dialogue, and setting must be developed and created over a sequence of 100,000 or so words.  Montages deal with none of that.  They skip the meat of a story, which makes this a very unfair comparison.  Stephanie Meyer's novels may have a lot of issues, but we could create a Twilight montage that would actually be quite engaging.  That's why you should always distrust the power of a montage.

Example #3:

Here we delve into the realm of politics.  And seriously, this is what makes people stupid.  The sheer ridiculousness of the claims on this graphic speak for themselves.  Politics are a sticky mess because the issues involved have so many complex sides. It's pure stupidity to boil down the issues into simple power phrases that attack the opposition's stance.  In most cases there are valid points/concerns on every side, but it's all too common for people to get caught up in the rhetoric of posts like this.  Come on people!   Use your noggins and quite spreading this crap all over the internet.  
 

Example #4: 

What in the blue blazes???

There is no semblance of logic behind this.  Really.  Rapists already know they are breaking every societal rule.  They choose to do it anyway.  No amount of feel-good commandments posted on the internet like this are going to do anything.  I have no clue why this one spread so fast across Facebook.  Stupid.

Look, there are people out there who do evil things.  They choose that for themselves.  Logically, we should prepare for that, because at some point we will be affected by the evil choices of others.  Unfortunately, women will always be the targets of depraved men.  Short of a Minority Report society, the only way to stop them is if the victims take matters into their own hands.  Jiu-jitsu, knives, and guns are all rapist deterrents.  A combination of the three is what I would recommend.  That seems more logical to me than spreading a bunch of silly rules that rapists aren't going to follow anyway.  But that's just me.


In short, people should think more critically about the things they are posting all over Facebook.  If there isn't any intellectual depth to it, then don't waste my time.