Social media is evil.

[Robin4]

@Kath9 from Albany made a great comment today! She said...."Hang in there @Airbnb - this to shall pass!."...and it will.

My concern is that social media sites...and I guess we could put the CC in this category, search for dud content.

If I use America as an example, over here in Australia we only see the best and the worst of America, we don’t get to hear or see that vast middle ground where nothing newsworthy happens. For that reason outsiders tend to see the US as a nation of extremes.

For argument sake, a Utube video will show a street interviewer in Chicago, Memphis, Wichita, asking those that pass on the sidewalk, “Where is Australia?” and half of them don’t even want to volunteer an answer they just shrug their shoulders. Of the other half, 50% of them will say it’s in Europe or in the south Atlantic ocean, only 5% will have a stab at where on the globe Australia is.

We in Australia look at this and go….”You have to kidding, how does the bulk of that nation actually make it to adulthood!

The thing they don’t reveal is 80% of the people stopped knew exactly where Australia was, the video producer just didn’t think that 80% was worth showing in the video clip.

We don't get an accurate representation on social media, we see the extremes.

Airbnb has done sh*t loads of good, I have loved my association with Airbnb, and they have never done the wrong thing by me.....they send me guests and pay me....all 370 of them over the past 4 years, never missed once!

I am cross that the management try to fudge their way around issues, but @Kath9 has a good point, the company have been good for us, sure it hasn't been perfect, and there are many legitimate complaints in any business venture, Christ, I copped enough in mine! Running a business is hard, you can't be all things to all people.....and at times I think we need to remember that! 

Social media does not necessarily makes us better informed, it just polarises us!

Cheers.......Rob

[Pat271]

@Robin4  Good points, Robin.  I feel this way about other aspects of the media also, even the COVID coverage.  I know COVID is important and newsworthy, but is it really the ONLY news in the world right now? COVID is the subject of all programs, channels, web sites, commercials, etc. right now here in the US.  Surely there are other things going on?

You might answer that the media is only presenting what it thinks we want to hear.  Or...is it actually the other way around...they are only presenting what THEY want us to hear?

[Robin4]

@Pat271 

Pat it is that way because we are desperate, we are looking for answers and the media play on that.

Help could be on the way, but have you heard of it? I doubt it!

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/coronavirus/2020/04/04/coronavirus-head-lice-drug-ivermectin/

Ivermectin Pronounced (Eye-ver-mec-tin) has been around as a treatment for head lice and scabies for 30+ years and has been administered to children safely over that time. It is not a cure, it isn’t a vaccine but, it does destroy the virus within 48 hours, and in most cases, before it has a chance to overcome the sufferers lungs….People will stop dying from it……it will become just like a bad cold, and this may be the silver bullet we need until a vaccine comes along in a year's time. I stress this is not a cure Pat, it is a way to treat this outbreak and it may become available after a bit more testing, it could be a stop gap measure to get us through for the time.

I understand that the media will not make this public because there will be panic buying of Ivermectin , or generic equivalents and supplies won't be available for traditional users.

Stay safe Pat, there is a way out of this, I don't make silly off the top of my head predictions like Donald Trump, but it is possible that relief could be not that far away.

Cheers......Rob 

[Bob40]

Airbnb has done loads of good??? Is it a charity? Have I misunderstood all along? Airbnb is a business!!! It makes money from commission on  rentals - and rather a lot it would seem! Were there no rental agencies in your part of the world? They've been around for quite a while you know.

[Luke279]

I believe airbnb alone donated $20 Million in the US last year, let alone its social impact experience scheme in the UK. So yeah maybe you can say it has charity intentions rather than profit as a business? 

[Gerhard4]

ehh.. just so you know, the hosts are the ones doing the donating ! which is not a problem, we are doing our part where we can! don't ask anything in return for it.. but nowadays outside airbnb, we have our own network. the sad part  is , airbnb is taking the credits for a number if it. 
simple example , every year we have hurricanes, we provide shelter for evacuees , we actually only take evacuees with pets since they can not go anywhere else) but on tv the news says " airbnb provide shelter for evacuees...

[Juan63]

Yes @Bob40 . They have provided a way for many to feed their families, have a roof over their head and experience the world one guest or stay at time. 

[Bob40]

Indeed, like all letting agencies. I'd suggest that the advent of cheap air carriers like Ryanair did far more to make travel affordable. Airbnb just added to the range of places to stay when you arrived.

[Juan63]

@Bob40 Ryanair doesn’t exist in America nor was the argument about who made traveling cheaper. You should tag the person you are responding to, because we can’t tell tell who your reply is for.

[Fred13]

Airbnb has been a Godsend to millions of people thoughout the world; whether it came about out of greed, vanity or ego is another matter.

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  Some months ago I read a article where the guy who developed the Worldwide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, said that the whole idea was to connect the world in a positive way. Share information, provide online learning experiences, etc, etc. But that it wasn't foreseen that it would become a platform for disseminating hatred and being used in a negative way. 

That was pretty naive, it seems, not to realize that human nature, being what it is, would lead to every Tom **bleep** and Harry thinking his views were earth-shattering ideas that everyone would want to read or that the majoity of the general population would be more interested in reading about the latest exploits of Kim Kardashian and her ilk than on informing themselves on more serious topics.

Anyway, he said that this was not the direction that the worldwide web was intended for and that there needs to be a concerted effort to somehow change what this technology is being used for.

I don't know how that could be done, but I thought his comments were interesting.

[Fred13]

Any invention with the good of mankind in mind deserves our accolades, the fact evil humans will use some of them in evil ways is to be expected. Thank God that is the exception.

[Kath9]

Thanks for the acknowledgement @Robin4, but I should have written 'This too shall pass'. I really should stop using my phone to post things!

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Robin4 / Rob, you said a mouthful, you speak only the truth from the land Down-under, thanks to folks like "Men at Work", many Americans that knew nothing about Australia wanted to learn more about your world!.  Unfortunately, lots of folks are walking around with lens caps on and cant see the trees through the forest.  Chesky and his crew grew the forest so many of us have rooted our trees in. Others may offer alternatives, Airbnb is the real deal as far as I'm concerned, they have created a platform that actually brought a gently aged farmer couple from a tinier town than Munnsville from the boonies of Australia to our home and we had some awesome chats during their short stay.  We've had hundreds of enriching experiences (Both Sociologically and $$$) along with the many good but not memorable but still highly acceptable stays we've hosted here At Bearpath Lodging  over the last 4 years, I literally couldn't have done that without Airbnb. 

I digress, Back to the tree metaphor,  Airbnb (the Forest Keeper) knows that there are other woods from which our guests can choose to do their "Walk About" (thank you Crocodile Dundee) and the only way to call folks back to ours is to treat them well and give them their money back, the customer is #1.  It might have been advisable to tell the trees about the plans before they were enacted but these are tough times and everyone needs to put on a face-mask and take off the lens-caps because as @Kath9 wrote nearly perfectly, "This to shall pass"!  Everyone stay well and good!  JR

[Fred13]

@Kath9 I was having convulsions over that 'to', in fact I was so out of balance I was afraid to get on the scaffold of the upstairs studio we are now building because I may have lost my equilibrium.  Thank you for fixing it, I have returned to balance now. 🙂😄