Sou assinante de várias das newsletters de Perry Marshall, que recomendo. Numa delas vem uma história surpreendente sobre um efeito que o Facebook estará a ter sobre os velhinhos – que aparentemente, com tantos amigos disponíveis na rede, se recusam a morrer. Não sei se é verdade, não conheço os números (havemos de falar sobre números neste blog) – mas é bastante plausível. Veja a história toda:

“Jayme,

Yesterday I heard from a very reliable source that Facebook has triggered a sea change in the nursing home industry. This comes from a client of one of my business mentors.

The #1 reason people die is their friends have died or been dispersed to the four winds; their family doesn’t visit them anymore, and they have no more reason to get up in the morning. I’m sure all of us have visited long-term care facilities and seen the blank stares and hopelessness of aged people living out their last days.

Facebook has changed that. There are many, many 77 year old folks in nursing homes who now have 60 Facebook friends and interact with them on an hourly basis. This is literally extending life spans – to the point of wreaking havoc in the long-term care industry.

This is because many of the payment models are based on people living only so long and their communities on Facebook are literally extending their lives.

(It’s also creating some interesting social gaffes. Like after a person dies their friends are still getting reminders: “You haven’t reached out to Ethel for awhile. Send her a note. Click here to POKE Ethel.”)

It’s also obliterating illiteracy. Kids might be able to fake reading books in school, but they can’t fake writing comments on their friends’ pages. I seriously believe that within 5 years, nearly every single kid in the developed world will be able to read, write and type – because of Facebook.

Within 10 years, the same will be true in developing countries – because of mobile phones. Yesterday I saw a video of men with pickaxes in Rwanda digging 6 foot trenches for fiber optic cable. Rwanda is rapidly becoming the most wired country in Africa.

To hard-core, driven business types, Facebook might seem like a toy. That’s what most people thought about the Internet 10-12 years ago. It turned out to be something much bigger than that, didn’t it?

I don’t know if Facebook is a perfect fit for your business or not, but if you haven’t taken our free self-evaluation you might want to do that right now. It literally takes 60 seconds and you can do it at https://www.IsFacebookForMe.com.

Perry Marshall”