{"id":19585,"date":"2012-12-12T21:52:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T03:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drishtikone.com\/?p=19585"},"modified":"2012-12-12T21:52:57","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T03:52:57","slug":"now-even-the-dead-cant-keep-away-from-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/drishtikone\/2012\/12\/now-even-the-dead-cant-keep-away-from-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Now even the Dead Can’t Keep Away from Facebook!!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In the past few years, I have seen and read about a lot of crazy shit happening on Facebook. \u00a0From stalkers to crazy people to love affairs to divorces. \u00a0But nothing could have prepared me for this bizarre-ness.<\/p>\n

It seems some dead people have started hitting like buttons on Facebook for things that they never cared when alive.<\/p>\n

Last month, while wasting a few moments on Facebook, my pal Brendan O\u2019Malley was surprised to see that his old friend Alex Gomez had \u201cliked\u201d Discover. This was surprising not only because Alex hated mega-corporations but even more so because Alex had passed away six months earlier.<\/p>\n

The Facebook \u201clike\u201d is dated Nov. 1, which is strange since Alex \u201cpassed [away] around March 26 or March 27,\u201d O\u2019Malley told me. Worse, O\u2019Malley says the like was \u201cquite offensive\u201d since his friend \u201chated corporate bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a screenshot:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was another dead person getting suddenly very interested in \u201cRepublic of Tea\u201d. \u00a0Maybe they don\u2019t serve that thing \u201cup there\u201d perhaps.<\/p>\n

Emma Kumakura, a game designer in Palo Alto, Calif., was outraged to see her friend Alice Mizer Stewart, who had passed away in March, shilling for a tea company.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Emma took a look at Alice\u2019s profile and it appears that she did, in fact, like The Republic of Tea. Nevertheless it\u2019s kind of disturbing to have people liking brands from beyond the grave.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not just that the dead folks have suddenly got active, but even alive people have been \u201cliking\u201d stuff that they don\u2019t like. \u00a0Worse, they don\u2019t even remember doing so! \u00a0A guy who has never bought a car in his life suddenly found that he had liked Subaru.<\/p>\n

I asked E.V. if he\u2019d pressed the \u201clike\u201d button for Subaru, and he replied:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Then he said that he went to his profile and \u201cunliked\u201d Subaru. I asked, shocked, wait, you mean Subaru actually went and \u201cliked\u201d themselves for you, without your knowledge?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, what\u2019s up with Facebook and Likes?<\/p>\n

Apparently, there is a racket going on at the Facebook. \u00a0This guy thinks it has something to do with \u201cSponsored Posts\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, in August I decided to give Sponsored Posts a try to promote Sensitive Skin. That\u2019s when the weirdness began.<\/p>\n

Strange Results From Sponsored Posts<\/h2>\n

My number of post views did indeed go up, according the statistics provided to me by Facebook. But these likes didn\u2019t seem like \u201cquality\u201d views or likes. I was getting likes from folks in South America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Comments were posted not only in languages I couldn\u2019t understand, but in alphabets I didn\u2019t recognize.<\/p>\n

This was suboptimal \u2014 not to mention extremely weird \u2014 for a literary magazine written in English.<\/p>\n

Then I started noticing something else. \u201cSponsored Posts\u201d were popping up near the top of my newsfeed, and some of them made no sense.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, please do check your Facebook \u201cLikes\u201d. \u00a0Who knows what you may be \u201cLiking\u201d, and what mess these likes can put you in with your spouse or friend!<\/p>\n

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