On Facebook, no-one can hear you scream...

...primarily because no-one is listening. The wonderful thing about "democratic" forums such as blogs, Facebook, YouTube, cubicle walls in public school toilets, is that everyone can have a say - if they have a permanent marker handy in the case of the toilet wall.

As I like to say, the wonderful thing about democracy is that it gives everyone an equal opportunity to disagree with each other. Which is precisely why the rail-link from Downtown to Mt. Eden etc, will not get done until Steve Jobs has had his brain removed and preserved in a robot made from recycled iPod nanos.

I'm going to be slightly cynical here. YouTube comments rarely dip into anything that could be called... thoughtful. Often the height of intellectual endeavour tends to be "LOLZ, TEH KAT Fe!! down Lolz!!!!!!! ^^ XD." Only a truly twisted mind would use that many exclamation marks. Facebook "likes" and groups are, as rightly pointed out, not a statistical reference. They are products of the moment, something that rallies or amuses people for a split second. Personally I have over 400 likes and I could probably name about 12 or so.

Everyone has a say. So chances are no-one is actually listening. You have to be of unusual skill or just post at the right time, self-marketing is extremely important. Being hot is an easy form of self-marketing, because every guy on Facebook wants to be friends with that girl with a chest big enough to crush his head.

We are supposed to be "prosumers" or perhaps even... The Engineers of Generation LOL. I don't believe in this model, or the producer-distributor-consumer one. Everyone is an audience member at some point, even the producers. And not nearly everything that gets produced gets consumer. Look at this blog. We all contribute and that's fantastic. But no-one comments. We all stand and give grand speeches while those who aren't orating block their ears.

I'm not saying that it should be a utopia where everyone posts carefully thought-out comments with well-considered arguments and opinions. Hell no! Actually I don't know what I'm saying, but I do know that we have a lot of crap to wade through before we find that post/comment/rant that is a little diamond in a bucket of pointy LOL-shaped rocks.

Just make sure it is a diamond, because often the sparkle sells better than the stone.

P.R. (Post-Rant): This blog would be a lot more interesting if people actually commented on stuff. Just saying.