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Sunday 5 July 2015

A little of What You 'Like'

There's no cost to 'liking' or 'favouriting' something is there? It's all too easy to skim down Facebook and Twitter and randomly scatter approval and agreement in all directions. Often 'likes' are used to encourage people or to add weight to a cause that has caught on in the social media sphere. Equally often a 'favourite' just indicates 'This got a nano-second of my attention'. 

Today I liked a photo that's doing the rounds showing a group of Muslims (and, I think, some Christians too - the dog collar was a bit of a give away) holding a banner proclaiming 'MUSLIMS AGAINST ISIS'. As I tapped my ipad, I got to wondering whether any of our more political 'likes' will ever catch up with us. What we like is recorded, measured, monitored, used to frame statistics and used to control what we see on our screens. We are committed. More than we think! If what I say I like today shapes what I am directed to read tomorrow, today's likes will undoubtedly affect my attitudes, contacts and range of knowledge in the future.

Who will notice that you 'liked' certain things 5 years, 10 years, 35 years from now? Maybe, one day, we will unexpectedly be called to account for what we 'like'.