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Isn’t it interesting to talk about Facebook to those who don’t know other than – ‘I am addicted’: ‘I put all of my business on Facebook’:’ I spend all of my time on Facebook’: ‘my friends and I talk all the time on Facebook’: ‘I used to email, but Facebook is so much better’: ‘with Facebook I feel as though I belong’. But it is sensational to talk to people who have a deep, historical, psychological and cultural knowledge of Facebook.
There is nothing like a bit of breakfast conversation among strangers. People who will probably never meet again but are together for a short period of time and who use that breakfast conversation to sort through complicated societal, cultural and economic institutions and/or the development of cultural and social mores. Especially if those conversations are honest with nothing held back.
We had no idea how invasive Facebook is becoming and how indispensable it has become to this society – both to individuals and large corporate conglomerates. It is developing its own niche – especially amongst the young but also gaining ground amongst the older crowd.
We had a very disturbing experience with Facebook recently and started poking around to understand what happened. At the same time we threw Facebook out as a topic for breakfast conversation and the response was electric.
At breakfast, one person said – I used to post a lot to Facebook. I don’t anymore. I only post very generic, announcement things. I have gone back to email, which may not be entirely private but at least I know someone will have to have a court order to see what I have been emailing. When I have something to say to friends, I send them an email. Just think, we used to be concerned about the lack of privacy emails produced. They seem like Fort Knox compared to what Facebook has introduced into society. My friends could send my emails on to others without my knowledge, but they can’t send thousands of copies of my emails to others, which is the affect of Facebook on what I post out there.
During this breakfast conversation we discovered there are several ways Facebook totally invades your privacy. The basic one is, they have privacy guidelines and from what we heard, it is a word game because they don’t follow and apparently don’t intend to follow what it means to have privacy laws.
They will scream loudly at this because Facebook claims to have solid, written and circulated privacy policies – which they do. What is not showing in those policies is that they are subject to constant change and the change looks suspiciously like a company encouraging you to trust them with your information because they handle it with care and totally within their privacy laws and at the same time, it looks as though they will change those privacy rules when enough information has been accumulated to justify new and expanded contracts with the large corporate entities who can use that information to exploit John and Jane Q. Public.
When you join this corporate entity called Facebook, you discover that it is full of people who have given no thought to the institution to which they are contributing all of their life’s information. That can be a horrifyingly mysterious experience, until you begin to understand the lay of the land. How does one discover that? Look into how Facebook makes its money and that will clearly lay out its priorities. We discovered, at breakfast, that Facebook makes billions selling your private information.
Once you join Facebook, all over its pages you will find there is a strong pressure for you to “like” some group, business, industry, celebrity, etc. What happens when you do that? The entity you have ‘liked’ has a Facebook page on which they post much – and what they post shows up on your Facebook page, whether you understood that was what you were really allowing or not when you clicked that ‘like’ button. No wonder there is such an intense push to get people on Facebook to ‘like’ so many things.
To “like” anything on Facebook gives that entity the right to post to your Facebook page and whatever you post in response shows up on their Facebook page – sometimes. It can be very disconcerting to have all of this stuff showing up on what you thought was your private page for you and your friends. Now you realize, it is open to the world and you only have to “like” the rest of the world for them to partner with you on Facebook to receive what you share with friends.
How do so many entities have so many “likes” on Facebook? You advertise for them. We wondered why one advertised on Facebook since it rarely brings increased business. It does bring hundreds of new “likes” to you and those “likes” are what give you access to hundreds of people. People whose Facebook pages are now your personal property to do with what you ‘like’.
Facebook also has what has become a ‘tradition’. It guarantees you privacy; has a very distinct and well written privacy policy so you feel comfortable with what you post within those guidelines; and once you have joined and set up your page you are very comfortable knowing the parameters of what you can do and what will be kept private and sacrosanct by Facebook.
HYPOCRISY ALERT: These privacy guidelines are temporary. Once you become comfortable with your personal information being kept private by Facebook and you begin to reveal more and more that you would not reveal if you knew what was coming, those privacy guidelines change and there you are in the middle of your Facebook page with – symbolically – no clothes on, because Facebook has changed its privacy laws and protections and what you thought was private is now out there for the world to see and use. Well, not really the whole world, only those who have bought contracts with Facebook to receive your information within seconds of your postings. But – you are not fully exposed because you are still ‘protected’ with their new privacy laws. Except lots of marketing and other institutions now have information which you didn’t intend to provide, but which they now have and can use because Facebooks’ privacy laws changed and now allows them to receive that much needed information.
And now Facebook has the possibility of gaining new contracts from ever larger and some smaller entities because those entities can now see how this business can work to their advantage.
Another wrinkle discussed at breakfast is what happens when you sign in to the different groups to which you belong on the internet – not Facebook – but you sign in with your Facebook password. What does that do? It allows Facebook to send to the large marketing, retail and other large corporations just about all of the information on your Facebook page. Information they could not otherwise access, such as – your ‘friends’ and other stuff that is off limits to those individual people who want to join your merry band and who would like to see that info before deciding to befriend you. They can’t see that information because of Facebooks strict privacy rules, but those large corporate entities can access all of it because of your tendency to be a bit lazy and want just one password to remember – Your Facebook password. Large groups can now access everything you thought was private and there are no restrictions on what they can do with what was your personal and private information. Actually, that information is still off limits to the little person, but the large corporations now can access it all – if they are paying Facebook properly.
Another new wrinkle and new opportunity has popped up. When you join a group which is a mini-facebook, – such as is now becoming more common – such as your Church, club, social group, companies you buy from with a password to their site and more – a part of what those groups can offer is for you to link your Facebook page to the information or your profile on their site. What does that do? Think about your bank! It allows Facebook to give them, not just what you post to your Facebook page, but all of the information you thought was private and members of those groups can now post to your Facebook page.
Small social groups, small Churches – Synagogues – Temples – don’t have the IT capability to do anything with this information, but the large groups which you access via a password, but now access using your Facebook password, can post to your Facebook page and those in the group can also post to your Facebook page from the Group’s supposedly closed shared internet space. This gives those with whom Facebook has partnered the most amazing and complete information about you. In affect it is everything you have on Facebook, including any new posting they or others can now make. It is quite powerful for these groups to be able to post to your Facebook page from your mini-group internet gathering place, but even more powerful for Facebook to be able to sell information about the groups to which you belong; the companies with whom you do business; the retail internet places where you buy and why you buy, etc.
I used to wonder how some companies received so many hundreds of millions of dollars to develop their start-up idea. After this breakfast where everybody shared what they knew about Facebook, I now know how one group is selected to receive and one group must struggle. To receive huge amounts of money from ‘venture capital’ groups, or individual investors who want to contribute mightily to your idea, you must have a start-up idea which rips off the public for the benefit of these large institutions . It has very little to do with anything else.
Facebook was an electric idea. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Facebook opened your private world to marketing, advertising, strategic planning groups with the kind of information they had not previously dreamed they could ever access.
The minutiae of your lifestyle; your choice of friends; things you talk about to those you know and trust; your likes and dislikes and how and when they change; what you buy or have just bought and why. Facebook is also constantly coming up with new and different ways to satisfy this bottomless pit of the need for your most private information. You – your friends – your family – your professional associates are all the subject of marketing mining; of giving up your most private information so the multi-nationals of the world will know how to manipulate your desires, wants, needs, to increase their bottom line.
The most lethal part of Facebook is their constantly changing privacy rules, because there are always new people joining who have not experienced the jarring instant change of privacy rules which allows those with contracts with Facebook to gain massive new information about you which you thought would always be kept private. And that information is gained by those contract holders in seconds. You can fight those changes in privacy laws, and possibly they will be changed back – rarely, but it is possible. That does nothing for you because your information went into the hands of those who could afford those very expensive contracts with Facebook almost immediately. And not just once, but every time you post anything to Facebook, it is in the hands of those marketing people immediately.
And we worry about identity theft? That is like worrying about the lone ant when the elephants in the room are sitting on your chest and destroying everything around you that you hold dear. We have created a world where most of us are prey to those who want to use us to be the consumers of the products, ideas, and more that they are producing without our giving thought to the basics of whether the product contributes to a good, healthy, caring lifestyle! – do we need this? is it good for us? will it enhance the quality of our lives or do the opposite? and more. Our payment? The ability to be rendered more and more thoughtless in the way we live through this psychological manipulation, with generations to come not understanding the history of our and their lives and who do not understand that this is any kind of problem.
The information flow continues through our continued use of Facebook and some other large groups like them, as they now stand.
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istant future and you want to preserve it so it can continue to be used and enjoyed. Pass your belongings on to those who either won’t or can’t pay the top dollars required of the people buying new stuff. What is this new stuff they are buying? Shoes full of chemicals way into four figures; New pocketbooks which show off a certain status costing into five figures. Instead of landfill, make sure those items with which you currently live are in such good condition they can be passed on to others to enjoy.
Melania Trump’s Convention Speech
Tuesday, July 19th, 2016An amazing speech! It had nothing to do with anything except a hollywood script writer planning a movie of pure fiction.
We watched her come on stage and the greeting by her husband was anything but warm. It looked like – don’t touch me, I am made up and dressed and don’t want you to mess me up. The rest of the evening and speech followed that pattern.
What most amazed us were some of the things she said with a somewhat straight face. For example: She emphasized the need to “pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow, because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and the willingness to work for them.”
We wondered if her life after she left Communist Slovenia and an upbringing which had nothing to do with a democratic election where you supposedly run on your achievements, ability to accomplish, and more, was an example of what we want to pass down to our children as ‘our’ morals and values. Certainly, the way she ‘achieved’ her goals says more about her and the man she married than anything else. It sets their moral values right up front and center for all to see.
She talked about her mother’s elegance instilling in her a love for fashion, etc. During the time she was on her own and had to make her own way, this is how she did it – acting out her morals and values and love for ‘fashion’. That is not how the fashion models we know live their lives and make their money. She was Donald Trump’s ‘hostess’ on his plane before they married. We hear it took her all of two years, after leaving Slovenia to become a billionaire’s mistress, girl friend, fiancé. We don’t know what to call that relationship before their marriage. It was certainly a time of Donald Trump exploiting a woman’s body and the woman allowing him to do that because her value of herself is on her body. An example for our daughters’ to follow?
Half naked with a box full of jewels on a plane represents what kind of moral value? Selling one’s body and showing the results of that sale?
Supporting your husband and his need to get support from the NRA? Passing these values on to our children? Whatever values her parents gave her – when she had to make it on her own she apparently made it by using her body. – and was it for sale to the highest bidder? And once that happened she could become the volunteer, the person giving to others, working for the needy because that supported her husbands goals and put the family in a better light? Seems to us that those values of her husband have been passed on to his children – especially with a son who, rumor has it, only dated models and in the end married one? Is that teaching your children to value people because of their work, accomplishments, because they are human? Or is that valuing women for what their bodies can do for you? Doesn’t bode well for women’s issues. If her husband is elected president, she would be the first First Lady who earned her kept so blatantly using her body.
Supporting her husbands’ support for the NRA? Showing how women can give their support to the NRA for their husbands benefit?
When a campaign has stolen the theme of a previous campaign and was not able to come up with its own campaign theme – is that how he will be President of the United States? Nothing will be sacred. Whatever Trump needs, he will take from whoever, wherever, for whatever reason he needs to take from others? Like the way his campaign has taken the lives of Blacks by stirring up old prejudices and giving strength to groups who are extreme racists? And extreme religious bigots? Did his daughter marrying an Orthodox Jew account for his spreading such hatred around the country in his campaign speeches and in other ways for Muslims? Is he using divide and conquer to become president? Use the old animosities and pit one group against another. So far he has been able to widen the gap between White and Black; Jew and Muslim; and who knows what groups are next as fodder for his power grab?
These are the values to pass on to your children? Use your body to get what you want? Melania talked about her interest in fashion. We know several models, none of whom earned their money using their bodies in this way! It did help her get a rich husband, however, who puts no value on women except to satisfy his ego and prurient needs.
The traditional photo of a nude woman on a bear rug is acted out here and destroys everything woman – trying to reach equality in this system based on their brains, accomplishments, etc. instead of the old standard of their body and how they are willing to use their bodies to succeed. These are the lessons Melania Trump brings to young women and young men. This was certainly her way to success and even today, dressed in more clothes which cost a small fortune, her message is – you are an appendage to “your man” and you live your life through him and his life, never on your own standing on your own two feet. Independence is not in the cards.
I can’t believe the Republican Party has stooped so low. It certainly gives a different meaning to their fight against abortion and all their other fights against the equality for women. This will bring the country back pre-1950’s. This is how women advertise who are looking to earn a living in prostitution. If they make it big and find that wealthy male to support them – fine. If not, they will be prostitutes for life.
These photos came from GQ magazine. We put their entire article on Facebook if you are interested in their narrative which went along with the pictures they published. We found more, but these, we felt, gets the message across. Know who you are voting for. You can excuse anything if you want power badly enough. But don’t you think a little honesty, morals, looking at the choices a person makes when they are on their own tells more than anything else about their morals? It certainly says a lot about Donald Trump and what he is interested in from a woman.
I am sure there were none of the Religious Right in the audience at the Republican Convention. Having seen years of what they are about this would be the ultimate hypocrisy. An act equivalent to Pontius Pilate’s washing his hands in that bowl. If there were members of the Religious Right on the floor and out in the country supporting this Trump campaign, they have gone further than Pontius Pilate did because they have not only agreed to turn Hillary Clinton (a devout Christian all of her life – working for justice, equality and for all of us) over to the most scurrilous comments and ugliest campaign in United States history, because they have agreed to help in that effort and are giving their time and money to achieve that goal. At least Pontius Pilate only washed his hands in that bowl and and then he walked away.
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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.
Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.
Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.
Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net
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Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bettina's Hall of Shame, Breakfast Table Talk, Donald Trump, Fashion, Guest comments, Hillary Clinton, Historical Homes, Kitchen Table Talk, Melania Trump, politics, racism, sexism, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Melania Trump’s Convention Speech