It turns out those people wearing the tin foil hats are right:

“They” are messing with our minds.

“They” in this case is Facebook, and “they” decided to find out how we react to an increase or decrease in positive or negative posts by manipulating the news feeds of 600,000-plus randomly selected social media lab rats…without telling us.

In case you’re interested, the more positive posts you see the more positive your posts will be. And as you might expect, negativity breeds negativity.

We only found out because the researchers published the results in a scientific journal on June 17, 2014 and the online anger has been building ever since. Finally, on Sunday, the leader of the experiment, one Adam D. I. Kramer, issued an apology: “In hindsight, the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all the anxiety.” Of course, he posted it on his Facebook page.

So, here’s the bottom line, fellow fodder: Facebook is altering the way we behave without telling us.

No reason to be alarmed…much. Excuse me while I rush to the supermarket to stock up on tin foil.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never trusted Facebook. It is sitting on the accumulated data of nearly 1.3 billion users, and you’d have to be pretty naïve to believe they’re just sitting on it.

The spectre of some guy in a white lab coat playing the emotions of 600,000 unsuspecting people like a cyberspace symphony is creepy enough, but what else are they doing? What else can they do?

Over and over again, we have allowed Facebook and friends to ignore all boundaries so we can communicate better, shop better, get around better, etc. We have committed this sacrifice with the understanding that they will respect us and, as the Google boys like to say, “Don’t be evil.”

Until now, this devil’s bargain was merely annoying. In return for a web site that connects everyone all the time, Facebook gathers intimate data and sends out embarrassingly appropriate ads for itching powder or toupees.

But once they start poking and prodding your mind for fun without telling you, it’s time to reboot. Facebook is starting to sound like the Borg, that alien presence from Star Trek that assimilates everyone in its path into the “hive mind” in the ultimate pursuit of machine perfection.

OK, we’re not there yet, but in Facebook’s creepy assault on our innocence we can see the way, and it’s not that far to go.

“Resistance is futile” intones the Borg. Well, maybe. But I have a new tin hat and a heightened sense of vigilance. I won’t get fooled again.

Right.