Facebook

The first news I saw about the arrest of Carles Puigdemont under a European Arrest Warrant was on Facebook. The first pictures I saw of demonstrations in Spain against the arrest of Puigdemont were also on Facebook. Sky News Review had a little video footage of a demo on its 10.30pm edition. Its news website, like the BBC news website, did not carry any news of this. Clara Ponsati's decision to hand herself in was on the BBC Scotland website at teatime. The Sky News at 11pm had a short interview with her lawyer, Aamer Anwar. I don't watch BBC news any more so it may be they also featured these events.

I'm sure twitter was alight with comments but I don't use that.

The newspapers will catch up - at least partly - in the morning.

But the entire weekend, I've been reading about Facebook - mainly the evils of Facebook: how they set out to dupe us, how they work in cahoots with companies like Cambridge Analytica, how irresponsible they are, how they need to be curbed, etc. (I even read that Facebook needs to be controlled in the same way the BBC is controlled and my first thought was: Yes, that's working well, isn't it?)

I think I'd like to put the record straight: if you want a true assessment of what and how Facebook and other media forums are doing, you won't get it from newspapers or TV stations. Facebook etc are the principal enemies of MSM (mainstream media). MSM hate these Johnny-come-latelies. These online chappies, with their instant responses and up to the minute news, are responsible for newspapers closing, journalists losing their jobs and - above all else - a lot of the public asking awkward questions, like: Why did the BBC's Newsnight programme put up a picture of Jeremy Corbyn wearing a Russian hat against a Soviet backdrop? What message were we all supposed to take from that?

The way people in MSM talk about online entities like Facebook and twitter sounds to me exactly like how newspaper people used to talk about TV when it first got started in the UK. You may not remember - but I do - TV was blamed for everything: kids not working hard at school, not playing outside, having no respect for their elders, aping every fad and fashion from the USA (and later from Australia). Interestingly, my hairdresser (aged 30) liked the TV programme Gogglebox but had never heard the word and thought we were all talking about Googlebox. When I think that the gogglebox was what my elderly relations called the TV in an attempt to stop us watching it. (Didn't work, of course).

The anti-TV stuff died down when video games appeared. Now these 'violent' games get the blame for lawlessness or at the very least bad behaviour.

The fact is, the kids don't care about this MSM stuff any more now than they did 40 years ago. They still don't read newspapers. They never watch TV news. They may catch on to something on twitter that's 'trending' but there's a good chance they're not even interested in that. It's their phones they're into. Texts especially. Their mates, girlfriends and boyfriends. Facebook is mainly for the middle-aged and elderly.

It's worth remembering that the internet only went live in 1991. Facebook only started in 2004. Twitter in 2006. Facebook and twitter are, in human terms, adolescents and you know what that means: they've got a lot of growing up still to do, with a bit of sulking (as Zuckerberg showed this week) and the odd tantrum, but they're bright kids - they'll come through in the end.

They both need direction from wiser heads: get the trolling under control, not to mention the anti-semitism, the fascism and the jihadi publicity. Invest some of the money you're coining in making your bit of the internet safer for users. Because if you don't, you'll lose your audience.

Not me. I'm staying on Facebook. I use it to keep up with friends all over the world. I'm aware that there's no such thing as a free lunch and I keep an eye out for traps. I'm not interested in signing up for personality tests that allow a data grab to take place. I don't worry about my privacy. Seriously, as I already said to someone this week: if you're worried about your privacy, don't go on Facebook.