Saturday, April 28, 2012

Stop Blaming Facebook!



A few weeks ago, I saw was reading some news on the internet and came across a couple of articles about some disgusting, horrendous acts of violence.  Here’s an excerpt from the article about a Hyderabad techie who is beaten to death by his girlfriends’ parents:

The victim, Satish, was murdered by his lover Lavanya's father Yadaiah and his associate, Raju Goud, on February 1 after abducting him from Ameerpet, police said on Thursday.
While the two killers were caught, Lavanya, her mother Manikyam and cousin Sravan, who misled the police by concealing facts about the killing, are still at large, Saroorangar ACP J. Amarender Reddy said.
Here’s another one about a couple in Tennessee, USA who were killed for simply ‘unfriending’ someone:

A Tennessee couple who 'unfriended' a woman on Facebook were murdered in their home by the jilted woman's father and another man, police said on Thursday. 

What do both of these have in common?  Facebook!  Yep, that social networking tool that everybody wants to hate but most of us still use anyway.  The first article was shamelessly entitled “Facebook friendship costs techie's life” as though Facebook was the cause of the murder of the poor techie instead of the girl’s parents.  In the article, the guy not only met the girl in Facebook but also several times in real life too.  Even though the girl misled both the guy and the police… and even though her dad and a bunch of goondas beat the poor guy to death, the article somehow blames a social networking tool as the root cause of the murder.  No one held the girl's parents or the social system responsible.

As for the other article entitled “Facebook 'unfriending' led to double murder”, this article blames the Facebook “unfriending” feature as the cause of the couples’ death.  It doesn’t blame the scumbag loose cannons (pun intended) who pulled the trigger… the ones whose egos are so fragile that a small thing like a Facebook unfriending causes them to go into a mad fit of rage and go on a killing spree! No-o-o-o… once again, it’s the fault of social networking!

There was yet another article that blamed Facebook as the reason for one-third of the divorces across the globe.  This one was the worst! It didn't blame the couples' lack of communication, extramarital affairs, or any other root causes.  No-o-o-o, it would be too much to account for the fact that divorces used to happen long before FB.  Nope... once again, Facebook was to blame... and this time for one-third of the world's couples' inability to keep their marriages together.

So what are we, as society, supposed to do?!  Live in fear and reluctantly accept any friend request so that our lives will be spared for another day?!?!  Or maybe… just give up our Facebook accounts altogether out of fear of being killed or divorced?!?! Better yet, let’s go over to Palo Alto, CA and arrest Mark Zuckerburg and shut down Facebook completely!  That’ll solve all our society's problems, right?!?! 

Give me a break!!!  Anyone who thinks that Facebook is at fault in any way… or that not having Facebook will prevent divorces or these senseless acts of violence is kidding themselves! These unfortunate events have been happening for decades, long before the era of social networking sites.  In the case of the Hyderabad techie, do you really think that the techie guy would have been spared if he had met the girl in some other way besides FB?!  

It’s time to stop using Facebook as a convenient scapegoat for the ills of society.  Whether it’s heartbreak, murder or divorce it’s time to take action and show responsibility instead of just sitting back and shamelessly passing the blame.

22 comments:

  1. Why blame Facebook? It is just a means to an end! An Anders Behring Breivik will find one excuse or other to butcher people en mass.

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    1. Exactly, well said. But as usual, people always blame the "means" rather than the root cause.

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  2. Certainly Facebook cannot be blamed for these unsavory incidents/murders. Facebook has become the latest punching bag. But like internet & blogs, Facebook has opened up new and easy avenues for making friends & associations - and in face book people become very open and share personal & intimate secrets with people they do not know nor have met, which otherwise they would never reveal face to face. Facebook therefore is an added medium for communication. This is a evil social happening aided immensely by mediums like FB.

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    1. Hi Ramakrishnan, good to hear from you again!

      You're right, it's easy medium for evil elements of society to do their heinous acts. Facebook becomes the punching bag because it's so much easier to blame it than to pursue the evildoers. Going after the REAL criminals is what takes real work!

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  3. I totally agree with you that Facebook cannot be blamed for all the untoward incidents that happen. There are so many boons that Facebook has. We need to take these into account and use it in a better manner. Nice post. And a nice topic too.

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    1. Thank you so much, and you're right. Facebook gets a bad rep just for being a means to an end. Because of that, people overlook its plus points.

      Welcome to my blog site, hope to see you more often! :-)

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  4. Woah. About time some one wrote about this. I totally agree with you.

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  5. The media's mantra - sensationalist headlines, even if they compromise on veracity, catch the eye and are okay. My Fb is for close friends and family and only gets annoying when people put up about 15 forwards a day so that you can't see what the rest have put up. That's when I simply tick the "only important updates" box for that person.

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    1. Yep, the media is largely responsible. They live off sensationalism, and many of the ignorant populace just blindly buy into it.

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  6. A wise write ... it's not FB or any other means ... it's just us ... we human beings!

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    1. Exactly, glad we agree. You can't blame the means to an end, only the instigator.

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  7. What!!! How can anyone blame FB? Right, we should not use it as a scapegoat.

    www.sarusinghal.com

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    1. Exactly! But people fall for sensationalist headlines and just blame the means because it's so much easier than looking beyond and finding the root of the problem.

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  8. You can use a hammer to drive a nail into the wall or smash someone's head in! So who would you blame, the tool or the convoluted head?

    Murders, betrayals are nothing new but Facebook is a new excuse.

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    1. Exactly, blaming the tool is so easy to do, so everyone does it because it's so much easier than removing the root cause.

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  9. Yes, agree fully with you. I guess its in human nature to blame someone else and end the matter. Sort of trying to run away from reality. So much ill has been spoken about facebook, but has that dissuaded people from joining or visiting it? Lets admit we more or less can not do without fb. Crime has been committed from time immemorial and will continue. We only find newer/easier tools to blame, so this time the easy target is fb. Its rather time consuming and an arduous way to actually removing the root cause, hence, the blame game.

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    1. Hi Ruprekha, welcome to my blog. Thanks for stopping by and for your insightful comments. Hope to hear from you more.

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  10. The murderers are never to blame. It is what makes them commit murder - like, their "good" name in society being at stake or their daughter's reputation or their government's policies and now, fb?! Bizarre

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    1. Well said KayEm! I know -- it's ironic yet disturbing, isn't it?!

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  11. Humans live on excuses, don't they? They need someone to blame... so they blame something that makes news. How freaking common it is becoming these days. Nice article, btw!

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    1. Well summarized.. thanks Vaishali, and welcome to my blog site. Hope to see you more often! :)

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