It was a few days ago when a friend sent me the link to a new social media, called Minds. Of course, it's terrible news that a new social media platform appears in 2015. But the difference with Minds is different: it has the support of Anonymous, it promises to abolish social media and its goal is to look Facebook in the eye - let alone eliminate it from the social media map.
OK, although at first this disappearance seemed to me to be something from difficult to a science fiction scenario that only George Lucas could have thought of in his good old days, the truth is that the question arose in my mind: What would our lives be like without Facebook? What would we miss? For what reasons would we be happy about its end?
So with that thought in mind, I decided to make my own list – a list of the 5 good and 5 bad things if Facebook were to shut down forever today.
The Good
The end of cyberbullying
Social media is great, we don't say, but shortly after their birth they became the refuge of every bully. The guys who played it tough and cool in school, while in the nineties they felt their dominance ending with the end of the 3rd year of high school, today they continue to relentlessly terrorize and intimidate anyone they don't like. Of course, behind a fake name and profile because it is known that the first bullies are the bullies themselves.
But if Facebook were to shut down, all of them would immediately return to obscurity and the misery of their daily lives. Goodbye.
The end of stalkers
I still remember those innocent, romantic evenings in the pre-social media era. Back when you wanted to go for a walk and you chose who you wanted to go with and you didn't have to answer to anyone. Now, you go out for a drink and every bitter person knows it. And well, that's it, you've screwed up. But if the other person has told you "let's go for a drink and see each other", you act tired and then the friend comes and tags you "we're having a good time at Key Bar" and then you have to deal with the whining and the nagging "oh, you finally went out yesterday? Why didn't you tell me? I wanted to come too. You probably weren't too tired, huh?" What do you think? Huh?
The end of spoilers
Monday morning at the office, you look at the clock and beg for time to pass, to go home, order pizza, drink an ice-cold beer and enjoy the last episode of the 5th season of Game of Thrones in the dark. And just when your fantasies are running wild, Agathocles pops up, that cool friend you have on Facebook, who works in creative advertising (whaaat?), goes to all the fashion blog events, drinks cocktails in Agia Irini Square and constantly changes his profile picture - meaning he does nothing and watches series all day - and posts "RIP Jon Snow".
What are you saying, asshole? What's wrong with you that you ruined my evening? How stupid are you? Because you have no life and you watch the series 3 minutes after America, why should I have to pay for this? Come on, hello to you too.
The end of the omniscient
It is well known that we Greeks know everything. OK, we don't, but we have an opinion about everything. It used to be seen in the old days on news reports, when the reporter asked passersby "what would you do with the economy" or in monthly magazines that published specials "if you were prime minister for a day". Everyone believed that they would be the best.
But since Facebook appeared, the know-it-alls in Greece have multiplied at a crazy pace. I guess social media struck a sensitive Greek vein and suddenly everyone became analysts, economists, sociologists, saviors, experts, big-name journalists, not to mention futurologists, who had predicted what they were saying in a post they had posted on April 3rd at 4:34 PM.
Of course, now, despite all this knowledge, as a country we are going from bad to worse, something I can't explain. Not even science.
The end of isolation
You see a 20-year-old on Facebook and he's so cool and easygoing, you think "nice guy." And you catch up with him outside, at a bar, and he reminds you of the loser from your childhood. Isolated in a corner, not talking to anyone and looking at his phone.
If Facebook were to finally shut down, one thing is for sure: young people would have to learn to communicate. That's not a bad thing.
The Ugly
The end of the update
Let's not hide behind our finger. If Facebook were to shut down, 90% of Greeks would not know what's going on in this country – that is, the 90% who don't buy newspapers and don't watch the news. We're going bankrupt, there's a trend, an emergency summit, we're going to elections, a strike, is it the end?
We wouldn't notice anything, we would live in a world of three talking and two dancing.
The end of the political upheaval
And I'm not talking about this among the stars - let's say now - of television. Here we are talking about political debauchery. Because look at how it is. A few years ago in the πsm era, what did you know about politicians? That they say things that you don't understand, but they will probably say them correctly because they are serious, knowledgeable, scientific people.
While with social media, the masks fell. Political debauchery? The best you'll get. Threats, slurs, trolling, bullying, or even hooliganism in coffee shop discussions.
The end of friendship
Yes, we love our best friends. I don't disagree, but let's admit it: without Facebook, many friendships would have ended. Are you looking for the reason? Get the answer with a trick question: how many of your friends' birthdays do you remember? How many?
The end of entertainment
If you're 30, you'll always remember with nostalgia the hours you spent in record stores checking out albums and at the end playing heads and tails to decide which one to buy. Maybe you also remember the evenings you spent at the video club and thinking "Too Tough to Die or Lethal Weapon?". Yes, there's romance in those, with the difference that you were watching Lethal Weapon 1, when Part 2 had already been released, and you were fucking Kurt Cobain and "Nevermind" when in the US they were celebrating his 40th birthday because he had committed suicide. True story.
The truth is that without Facebook we probably wouldn't know what True Detective and Game of Thrones are.
The end of easy flirting
We all do it, we all know we will miss it.
Frixos Fyntanidis Vice Online Editor
