So did you get caught up in all the hype last week and rush out to load up on Facebook stock? Me either. Nor did a lot of other folks. Good to see there’s still some sanity left in the world.
For instance, there’s Larry Thornberry at the American Spectator, who pondered the pending IPO last Thursday:
This is absurd. And a disturbing symptom of cultural decay. Can a company whose main achievement has been to turn an entire nation into teenage girls (Would you be my friend, please? Can I see your pictures?), wasted billions of hours of what might have been productive time, and has otherwise produced absolutely nothing, possibly be worth $104 billion? That’s more than five times the value of all Major League Baseball teams combined.
Absurd it is. Facebook’s opening valuation was the largest ever for an American company – $104 billion for what? The increasingly unlikely potential that the massive social network will generate serious profits from ad revenue?
Michael Deacon at the UK Telegraph suggested that investors might realize a more profitable result by buying shares in his brilliant new venture: a unicorn sanctuary run by Santa.
Even the technophiles in Japan were skeptical:
Click on [X] to close distracting Ads by Google
[Video via Zero Hedge]
Then there’s the increasing amoral aspect to Facebook. The adolescent melodramas. How many marriages and real friendships have been ruined by the site’s addictive nature and impersonal interaction? How many cyber-bullying incidents have we heard about? Remember the tragic case of the Irish teen, Phoebe Prince, who committed suicide after being relentlessly harassed on Facebook?
And of course, Pedophiles love hanging out online trolling for their next victims. Maybe Facebook can ramp up its appeal to that demographic!
Art Ally of The Timothy Plan (financial/investment advisers) seriously recommends that Christians avoid Facebook like Sodom and Gomorrah:
“There is no way in the world I would ever recommend anybody invest in Facebook,” says Ally, “either on the IPO or on down the road, because this has become an electronic superhighway that is full of abuse, garbage, pedophiles, hackers — it goes on and on and on.”
[Source: OneNewsNow]
From a user standpoint I much prefer Twitter, as does Deacon:
I’ve simply grown tired of Facebook as a user. It’s slow. People hardly have anything to say on it – compared with Twitter, which incessantly breaks and circulates news, and inspires instant discussion of (and bad puns about) that news between friend and stranger alike…
…On Facebook, meanwhile, you’re stuck with just your friends. Friends who, increasingly often, don’t seem to be there. Facebook is beginning to feel like the world’s loneliest party…
…I used to check Facebook all the time. Now I barely look at it. Here’s a tip: 10 years from now, Greece will buy Facebook. It’ll cost 50 drachmas and a bottle of ouzo.
By yesterday’s close, Facebook shares were down more than 18 percent, ending the day at $31.
Pass the ouzo.
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Related:
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg loses almost $2bn as share price falls ~ UK Guardian 5-21-12
Well, well….Facebook I.P.O. Raises Regulatory Concerns ~ A little insider info passed on to “certain clients?”
“Facebook friends” – no subsitute for the real thing
