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Friday, March 10, 2017

An Easton Facebook Experiment

Currently, there are two Easton Facebook pages. I belong to both. The first of these is Laini Abraham's Easton, Pa group, and it has over 11,000 members. She describes it as "a group that welcomes civil discussions of issues relevant to the City of Easton and those from Easton's surrounding areas including Palmer, Forks, Wilson, Williams Township, and yes, even some Phillipsburg." The second group calls itself Easton Unsensored and has nearly 2,000 members. It prides itself on allowing anything except pictures of dead babies and porn. It contains very little information about what's going on in Easton. Though some of it is downright hilarious, it's fairly shallow. Though founder Scott Odenwelder claims he has no malice against Laini or her page, it's pretty clear that some of his readers do.

A few days ago, I decided to conduct a little experiment with both groups. I posted a link to my story about Taiba Sultana, who is running for Easton City Council. She is a woman and a Muslim. If Easton Unsensored members are bigoted and sexist, I would know.

On Laini's page, the link generated about 58 "likes" and a few positive comments. On the Unsensored page? Crickets.

My conclusion? though the Unsensored page likes to engage in outrageous speech,it appears to be only to make that point. When members had an opportunity to post all kinds of hate and sexist remarks, they passed. But the complete lack of interest in anything Easton-centric tells me it is no Easton page, despite its title. A more appropriate title would be "The Locker Room."
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4 comments:

  1. Bernie O'HareMarch 10, 2017 at 10:48 AM

    That's not what i said. In fact, I said the fact that there were no attacks is an indication to me that they are not racists or sexists or religiously intolerant. But they don't really care about Easton. The group should just call itself "unsensored."

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 10, 2017 at 12:09 PM

    It's more of a chore to be anonymous on Facebook than it is on a blog. That may be why there were no hateful comments.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMarch 10, 2017 at 12:40 PM

    Yep, if peoples can't say fuck you annonomously, they won't post.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousApril 2, 2019 at 5:05 PM

    Those occasional low flying helicopters are watching you, james.

    ReplyDelete

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