Soft Facebook and hard news

There is a contrast in my media viewing of the last 15 hours which I am struck by. Last night around 11:00 PM after viewing on television people being viciously beat up and hearing the amplified rounds of gunfire in the early morning streets of Cairo, Egypt, I turned off the set and checked in with Facebook to find sunshine and humor joyously running rampant on all subjects but revolution. This is more of an observation than a condemnation and I can’t declare with ease that anyone is oblivious to major world events. I am just chewing on this from a lone perspective while knowing that Facebook is not the best medium for decent critical thinking or news analysis with its short statements and pokes. It appears life could be crumbling into chaos on television and various internet news sources, but still babies have birthdays, You Tube has real life slapstick, and posted statuses must go on with cryptic meanings. I am not sure that I am actually campaigning for Facebook postings of angst, doom, or sympathy for the human condition. In defense of Facebook as a whole, word is that the protests in Egypt were partly arranged via Facebook and there is real power in social media. Perhaps the public side of my Facebook pals by choice remains privately concerned about certain world events and believes that sunshine and slapstick should prevail as relief to broadcasted chaos, but still what a contrast I see now electronically delivered into my world, at least at this moment.