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I don't do Facebook. I simply don't get it.
Ok I'm from a generation before FB existed and never grew up in an era where I felt the need to show a picture of my car/dog/lunch/shoes/baby/funny shaped carrot/or anything else for the whole world to see.
During the referendum though (certainly in the area that I am in) apparently word had been put on FB that polling stations had been issued with pencils (instead of pens) for people to mark their ballot papers because once the poll had closed, the ballot boxes would be opened and secretly numbers of people would rub out the pencil crosses in the 'wrong' box and put a new one in the 'right' box - a government conspiracy I was told, as 'they' already knew what the outcome would be.
I am aware of people coming into the polling stations and asking why pens were not provided to mark the ballot paper (they never have - it is usually a stubby black pencil often tied to the voting booth with a bit of string to stop people wandering off with them) and people even queuing up amongst themselves to share a pen that someone had brought in to specially mark their ballot paper with.
I actually thought people were pulling my leg when I was first told this but I later saw these things happening for myself.
Of course most people may not be aware of the process of what happens after they put their vote in the ballot box until it is emptied out in the public hall to be counted but surely common sense should have told people that it would take an army of people to rub out hundred of thousands of votes in order to influence of the election and that that number of people would hardly be able to keep it a secret unto themselves?
I still to this day can't believe the sheer gullibility of people who accept as gospel something they have read on the internet no matter how stupid it seems.
Has society in general dumbed down because many people seem to let social media live their lives for them or is it me being an old dinosaur and simply outdated in the way I simply don't take what I read on social media as fact all the time?
Ok I'm from a generation before FB existed and never grew up in an era where I felt the need to show a picture of my car/dog/lunch/shoes/baby/funny shaped carrot/or anything else for the whole world to see.
During the referendum though (certainly in the area that I am in) apparently word had been put on FB that polling stations had been issued with pencils (instead of pens) for people to mark their ballot papers because once the poll had closed, the ballot boxes would be opened and secretly numbers of people would rub out the pencil crosses in the 'wrong' box and put a new one in the 'right' box - a government conspiracy I was told, as 'they' already knew what the outcome would be.
I am aware of people coming into the polling stations and asking why pens were not provided to mark the ballot paper (they never have - it is usually a stubby black pencil often tied to the voting booth with a bit of string to stop people wandering off with them) and people even queuing up amongst themselves to share a pen that someone had brought in to specially mark their ballot paper with.
I actually thought people were pulling my leg when I was first told this but I later saw these things happening for myself.
Of course most people may not be aware of the process of what happens after they put their vote in the ballot box until it is emptied out in the public hall to be counted but surely common sense should have told people that it would take an army of people to rub out hundred of thousands of votes in order to influence of the election and that that number of people would hardly be able to keep it a secret unto themselves?
I still to this day can't believe the sheer gullibility of people who accept as gospel something they have read on the internet no matter how stupid it seems.
Has society in general dumbed down because many people seem to let social media live their lives for them or is it me being an old dinosaur and simply outdated in the way I simply don't take what I read on social media as fact all the time?
