The term 'social network' was coined by professor J.A. Barnes in 1954.
He defines this as a social structure made of nodes that are generally individuals or organizations. He also stated that a social network represents relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, animals, computers or other information/knowledge processing entities.
Now, today, when we hear the term 'social network', we instantly think of websites directly associated with our interactions with friends; like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.
At least, that's what I used to think.
What changed my mind, was an incident where I was sitting in an airport lounge, facing directly across from one of the terminal's bars.
Two women who looked to be in their later twenties or early thirties, were conversing over cocktails, until one of them said they had a message on their Facebook page. So this woman clutched her phone closer and began gazing into it. After about five minutes, her friend took out her 'ipad', saying she wanted to 'Tweet' something.
After I finished looking over my magazine, it was thirty minutes later, and my eyes went back to these women.
Both were facing away from each other, while still staring into their devices.
Now, beyond this example, I can't tell you how many people I've actually had to say, "watch out" to, because they were either texting, or looking at a text, or they were on some social network, while they were walking directly into me. I've seen people nearly walk into walls trying to text 'hello' to a friend.
But this isn't a coincidence...and let me explain why...
These social networks were designed by elites to actually pull or draw people away from others, and into a virtual realm where the only person that really exists, is them.
See, if the public at large can be kept on social networks and in a feigned sense of connectedness, they can be lead into what I call a 'hyper-narcissism', where they're not concerned about the welfare of others. And they can be conditioned into literally hundreds of pseudo-relationships that don't require any real intimacy.
Basically, these social networks were created to make us 'individualists'. 'Cause when you're constantly obsessing over yourself, you don't have to care about anyone else's plight. So, old African proverbs like, 'It takes a village to raise a child', go right out the window.
And exactly how do they have us embracing 'individualism' via these networks? Notice now, how the average person, especially young persons, 'talk' to their friends less and 'text' them more. Now understand, the sound of your friend's voice evokes emotions and releases certain types of stress relieving chemicals in the brain. Moreover, there's a bonding effect that happens upon hearing a person's voice; and this doesn't take place when you're just looking at a text on a screen.
The elites understand how important this is to a child's development, that's why they continually give our young people mechanized sounding music to listen to.
I remember when the first 'synthesizers' started being produced...now what's this instrument's real job? Not only to act like a classical piano keyboard, but to produce 'synthetic' music; 'mechanized' sounding music to get the populus into more of a 'mechanical' mind-state, so it would be easier to turn us into automatons, or robots. The more we learn to 'compartmentalize' our emotions, the easier it is for the elites to maintain control.
And all of this is especially detrimental to the Black Diaspora. Here's why...
Beyond the nearly two decades of conditioning we get in pre, middle and high school(s) to hate ourselves, we're also exposed to the media's mediums like TV and movies, which are rife with these messages directed at us. And let me add again, even though I've said this ad nauseum; the conditioning we get to hate ourselves is TEN TIMES WORSE than any other ethnic group gets. We literally are made to hate ourselves more than any other kind of person on the planet.
And this conditioning HAS WORKED!!
It's worked and is working too damn well!
I was thinking the other day, I can't remember a time in my life, when Black men and women didn't have a deep rift between them. And actually, this rift has gotten deeper! So much so, that what I'm hearing continually from Black men is 'we're done' with Black women, and Black women in turn are saying they're done with Black men in droves.
Now, with this being a reality for our Diaspora, the last thing we need is some 'social network', which is really an 'anti-social network', to aid in deepening the schism between us.
If you're a Black man reading this, understand, if you can be kept obsessing exclusively on Black men's issues, you can be kept hating Black women; and ditto for a Black woman who's kept obsessing exclusively on Black women's issues...you can be kept hating Black men. That's the game white supremacists are running on us, and their campaign has been wholly successful. Once more, if we're kept in a 'hyper-individualism', we'll never think about the whole of the Black Diaspora.
Now, when I first started this Blog, my intention was to offer a meditative solution to the problem of self-hatred(s) that plagued us. But what I'm finding is, not only is our Diaspora not receptive to doing this kind of work at the subconscious level, but the majority of us don't even wanna' acknowledge how white supremacists have conditioned us to hate ourselves.
I'm thinking okay, people aren't open to the idea of meditating, but if we don't at least see how we've been made to hate ourselves more than any other ethnic group walking this earth, then we have NO CHANCE AT GETTING RID OF OUR SELF-HATRED.
The majority of us are so comfortable in our self-hatred, that we think this mind-set will benefit us more than learning to love ourselves and each other. We still think our closer proximity to whites will guarantee a better life, even if it means they're coming into our neighborhoods, buying up its properties and kicking us out.
So let us, the Black Diaspora remember...THE VIRTUAL WORLD IS NOT REAL!!
YOU DON'T HAVE FIVE HUNDRED FRIENDS LIKE IT SAYS ON FACEBOOK! More than likely, you really have about five or ten REAL ONES!
Individualism is what whitey has taught us to embrace, and it's the very thing that's killing us and our communities. And it usually manifests in Black women saying, "I don't need no man", or a Black man saying, "The only thing a Black woman can do for me, is show me where a white woman is".
So, let's come up out of this individualistic mind-state, so we can at least acknowledge what's been done to us by white fascists. And let's at least make an attempt to get back to loving ourselves and each other again.
'Cause our UNITY is the ONLY thing that will save us, not our money...and certainly not some damn social network account(s)!
And let's also remember, saving the Black 'nuclear' family...IS ALWAYS WHAT'S UP!!
Sutekh!
MontUHURU Mimia
P.S.
If you need another reason to get your personal information off these 'anti-social networks', and off Facebook especially, here's a bit more of an incentive. This vid will tell you where all that info. you're feeding Facebook really goes. Just a 'head's up', this vid officially ends at 4:04.
P.P.S.
For those who forgot, here's the now infamous vid of that silly spaniard, Cathy Cruz Marrero, falling into a fountain while texting and walking. What's even funnier is, she WORKED AT THIS MALL when this happened! So you'd think she'd be a bit more familiar with its layout...lol! Yet another example of how these 'anti-social networks' pull you out of reality, instead of enhancing anything in it.
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