Let’s face it, Mark Zuckerberg needs our help

For Facebook, it’s been one migraine after another this year.

In March, 87 million Facebook users had their personal information sold to something named Cambridge Analytica. In June, 14 million users were affected by a bug due to something about a default sharing setting. Last month a breach enabled hackers to use login codes to access the information of 50 million users, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s.

Then last week someone posted a widely-circulated message that Facebook users’ accounts may have been cloned or hacked and told everyone to forward the message to all their friends. But then someone else purporting to be Facebook said the message was a hoax and people shouldn’t do that. Although maybe THAT message was a hoax.

I don’t know what any of those things mean. I don’t even know if the 14 million users were part of the 87 million and/or the 50 million. Or was the grand total of hackees 151 million? Don’t know, don’t care.

Perhaps I should care, because I’m one of the estimated 2.2 billion persons with a Facebook account. I signed on several years ago mostly due to pressure from my kids, who said if I didn’t use Facebook it was because I was old. But now, as I understand it from my grandkids, if I DO use Facebook it means I’m old.

And all that breaching and hacking probably means that my personal information — such as my phone number — may be in the hands of miscreants. But my guess is that probably anyone with the technical ability to hit “enter” on a keyboard , including hermits in Botswana, can find my phone number. Which doesn’t worry me, because I let all my phone calls go to message and if they don’t leave a message they’re never going to hear from me, anyway.

Besides, Facebook is a major contributor to unhappiness; it’s not all puppy videos and birthday messages from people you forgot years ago. Studies have shown that Facebook causes negative effects on self-esteem by triggering feelings of envy — with vacation and holiday photos proving to be the largest resentment triggers. Receiving photos of your family and friends is nice, but there’s not a lot of enjoyment in seeing pictures of them frolicking on a Caribbean beach while you’re stuck at home with a pile of bills and a clogged toilet.

Still, all these Facebook problems are causing a lot of angst and it’s up to all 2.2 billion of us to do what we can about them. So if Mark Zuckerberg needs my advice, he should feel free to call and leave me a message. I’m sure he has my number.