Social media and words out of context

Continually, when using social media, I see short sentences from well known figures and corporations used in emotive ways that are then re-tweeted, liked, re-posted etc. I often do this too but I also like to think I am discerning, that I do stop to think and find out more before I re-post.

Here is one emotive example:

While I have no love of Nestle I do have a love of truth and that this guy's words are continually posted out of context rather narks me. He was actually talking about how water needs conserving for essential human use - for life. The paragraphs from which one sentence was taken out of context are below. He did not actually say the specific sentence that is shown in quotes above, he does in fact say "I am the first one to say water is a human right." what he is arguing is that we do not as humans have a right to exploit water in an irresponsible manner.

[...]

"The fact is they [activists] are talking first of all only about the smallest part of the water usage," he says. "I am the first one to say water is a human right. This human right is the five litres of water we need for our daily hydration and the 25 litres we need for minimum hygiene.

"This amount of water is the primary responsibility of every government to make available to every citizen of this world, but this amount of water accounts for 1.5% of the total water which is for all human usage.

"Where I have an issue is that the 98.5% of the water we are using, which is for everything else, is not a human right and because we treat it as one, we are using it in an irresponsible manner, although it is the most precious resource we have. Why? Because we don't want to give any value to this water. And we know very well that if something doesn't have a value, it's human behaviour that we use it in an irresponsible manner.

[...]

Full article is here

"You can't stop the signal Mal"

It is not so far in the past that I was given odd looks (ok I still get them but not for this reason) due to my usage of the internet. For the last 25 years the internet and for the last 22 the world wide web has been a major part of my life. Yes, the web has been around for that long and in saying 22 years rather than 24 I feel that I'm a bit of a late adopter ;)

Enabled by the internet I have made friends, travelled to different countries, cried, laughed with joy, shared my deepest secrets (ok they were never very deep and they're definitely not secrets any longer!), found pleasure, sadness, learnt, lost, won, bought and sold, made so many friends (yes I know I've said that) but that is it really friends, community, people - its bloody wonderful!

People said "how can you spend that long online?", "how can you trust anyone you meet online?", "they could be anyone", "isn't it all a bit sad?" (cheers for that one btw), ...

My mind just returned to such memories which are only from about a decade ago, those things were probably said by people who now have Facebook accounts, know exactly what CandyCrush and Farmville are and have people in their friends lists they have never met. Something I thought very early on in my relationship with the internet has stayed with me...

The internet and it's most prolific child, the world wide web, have given a voice to millions. At one time I'd have particularly spoken of those who are shy, ill, lonely, disabled, single parents, people whom for whatever reason have some limits placed on their social interactions but now I should add to that list whole countries, those who are discriminated against, victims, politics, religions, education, opinions of ever sort, inventors, artists, charities, the list really is endless. How did the world function without it!?

The internet ignores borders (in most cases) and even when borders are placed upon it such as in the case of Turkey recently (BBC report) people find their way around them and the uproar such attempts at control create just go to further the wish and belief in our right to unrestricted access to information and communication. We live in a much more open world today, how much more open it might become due to people and organisations such as Edward Snowden and wikileaks will depend on how much we believe openness and transparency are more important than privacy and secrecy.

"You can't stop the signal Mal"