By Martin H. Levinson

Had Facebook been around during the time of the Crusades, at the start of the American Revolution, or right before World War II those events would not have happened because Facebook is about building community and bringing the world closer together. With access to Facebook the Moors and the Christians, the British and the Americans, and the Allies and the Axis powers would have been friends, exchanging photos of puppies and babies, rather than mortal enemies who wanted to annihilate each other.

Facebook believes people are good and kindhearted. In helping folks organize an insurrection at the US Capitol, disseminate false information to sway elections, and cancel individuals who have made a mistake in their lives, Facebook is spotlighting human compassion. From its very first inklings in 2003, when Mark Zuckerberg created an online program at Harvard called Facemash that allowed users to objectify fellow students by comparing photos of their faces and selecting who they deemed as “hotter,” Facebook has sought to increase love and understanding in the world.

Facebook wants everyone to know everything about everybody, which is a good thing because if people keep information about themselves private, how can you get to know who they really are. Other than people in witness protection programs and drug dealers, who has anything to hide? Your life should be an open book and people should be able to look into that book and check out each and every sentence and if they find a typo they should let others know about it. Everyone and their mother, who is probably also on Facebook, should have a chance to review your manuscript.

Cynics say Facebook’s goal isn’t to provide users with a place to connect with friends and family but rather a place to sell ad space to companies. “Facecrook,” they say, is a virtual stalker who wants to see what you like so they can monetize it.

Hey, if Facebook can make a little dough from the data they collect from you and then sell it to others what’s the big deal? People should be flattered that a big corporation is willing to take the time and effort to track both users and nonusers on other sites and apps. Who else in your life, other than perhaps a partner you are in the process of separating from or the Internal Revenue Service, is interested in following you around on the internet?

The algorithms Facebook employs are finely tuned to favor content that creates strong emotional reactions in its users, which precludes any possibility of rational analysis. And that’s great because reason had its day with the Enlightenment. Today it’s all about fear and outrage and Facebook’s News Feed is more than happy to oblige those inclinations with dramatic, attention-grabbing leads that bypass the cortex and go straight to the amygdala, a word that if you don’t know you can look up on your smartphone.

Speaking of things that are smart, Facebook has figured out how to bring together groups of like-minded people whose members sometimes post weird and crazy stuff. That’s not a problem because no matter what a person posts the rest of the group will defend them even if what they posted is demonstrably false. Tribal loyalty trumps verisimilitude, which is as it should be because constancy is hard to come by, and what is truth but a seven-letter word fit for fairytales and Facebook groups into unconventional spelling.

Every Facebook user has a chance to voice their opinions and have those opinions spread like wildfire across the virtual world. Dousing those fires so they don’t lead people to worry over the incessant stream of stressful news in their Facebook feed, waive in-person connections to individuals who can help in time of need, and forgo vaccines that could save their lives is not Facebook’s, or anyone else’s, problem. These are small prices to pay for a social media service that keeps people away from the horrors of thinking deeply about themselves and what is going on in the world. Engaging in those activities can only come to no good and will cause a person to be trolled on Twitter, denounced on Facebook, and result in the total demise of contemporary civilization as we know it.