The last couple of days, I've noted through various German news media publications....that folks wanted to cite the number of Facebook friends of Pegida.....the anti-immigration folks out of Dresden....as a significant factor. I guess I've come across this quantity of Facebook friends topic....at least a dozen times. Bild, Focus, the various German state-run TV folks, and numerous newspapers....engage in this odd measurement.
If you are a Hollywood-type individual....you need to show a minimum of 100,000 Facebook friends....to have any significance. I noted reading some guy's comments.....talking about his daughter's Facebook account back in December....that she now had over 1,500 friends....but he just couldn't figure how she knew that many people unless she was a bartender at some local college bar. I noted today that basketball great.....Larry Bird......has roughly 103,000 Facebook friends, which sounds impressive but does it really mean anything?
So, the German news folks want you to know that there's only 3,500-odd friends of Pegida in Dresden. Then they wanted you to know that the anti-groups that hate Pegida.....have more friends. Sometimes, they cite the actual group, and friends involved.
I might stand here and note....few newspapers....even German newspapers.....like to cite their subscription levels or daily readership. The harsh reality is that the year-by-year trend tends to go downward. Newspaper "friends" aren't something that you brag much about.
How many Germans even participate in Facebook? In 2010, there were barely eight million users....for 2014, the number has managed to get up to 22 million.
How many are fake Facebook accounts? Well, normally....this topic doesn't come up but some folks have done the research and note that between 5.5 and 11.6 percent of all Facebook accounts.....are fake. It's Facebook that admits this.
So you can assume that a minimum of two million of the 22 million German Facebook accounts are fake.
The number of folks who are friends of Pegida but fake? Unknown. The number of folks who are friends of the anti-Pegida folks? Unknown.
The sad truth? Well....fifty percent of Pegida friends might just be imaginary or fake. Thousands of the friends of the anti-Pegida crowd? They might be imaginary or fake.
So all this pumped talk by the news media? It's not concrete or really factual....just opinion, because you can't conclude anything. If you want critical thinking.....you start with accurate information, which you don't have here.
We are living in a society where an odd measurement has popped up.....Facebook friends, and it might be the most untrustworthy measurement ever devised, in the history of mankind. Luengenpresse, anyone?
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