Randy Smith: Facebook Should Be Renamed "Fakebook"

Randy Smith

I joined Facebook back in 2009. The original intent was to see what my friends and family were doing and I found it really enjoyable to reconnect with old classmates and old friends from back in the day. It was before ads and before all the "fake news." I'm not talking about just the political news out there. I'm talking about the AI generated stories about Peyton Manning who is a fine man and great individual but according to some of the memes I've seen lately, he's now in the same league with Mother Teresa and Pope Francis. He visits sick children, sits in the rain with a crippled youngster who came to watch him practice with the Colts. I could go on and on but you catch my drift.

Almost one-third of the posts I see now are not accurate. They're made up stories and since I'm a sports nut most of them are about my favorite teams and players. There are stories about athletes feuding with each other and perhaps the most popular memes are regarding Caitlin Clark and her running drama with Angel Reese. Clark has been spit upon, knocked to the floor countless times and always made to look like a victim, while Reese is always a villain. I assume that some people are getting posts the other way around that portray Clark as the villain.

I also didn't know that Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello was such a scoundrel. He's made to look like the dirtiest coach in America and enemies with every coach in the SEC. And if the Tennessee football and basketball programs actually signed all the athletes that are portrayed on Facebook, they would easily be national champs every season. In addition, I've seen several memes claiming the Tennessee Pride of the Southland Band had been named the best in the country. Great....but who named them? I'm sure they are but the "fake" memes are not needed just to make someone interested enough to read the propaganda.

The site, "Reels" is one of the worst you can see on Facebook. Their AI generated memes about animals in the wild that are covered with bee hives and bees or the cleaning of horse hooves which are infected and covered in bugs and worms. Politics is hands down the most misused and misguided subject on Facebook and you can easily find both sides of every story out there.

I prefer to read what my cousins in Nashville had for dinner this week or get reminders of their birthdays rather than continue to see stories that you know right away are false. It basically is an insult to our intelligence and I've heard the phrase, "But I saw it on Facebook," too many times when someone is telling you an outlandish tale.

I wish I could withdraw from Facebook and never look at it again but I would love to know what my cousin Greg had for dinner last night.