Alright, let’s face it. The way we communicate has changed. We have changed. Now we can share tons of information about whatever with any number of people. And that’s great. I like sharing because through other people’s suggestions I have read some great stuff I would never have found otherwise. Well, yeah, I am still struggling to find a better way to share certain stuff with certain people, but mailing always does the trick.
I hate people complaining for the sake of it. You log in to your Facebook account just to feed your cows. Then you read an article on the web saying how bad Facebook is. And then you realise that all of it is true. Your very private pictures and, and, oh, yeah, your mood messages might be visible to everyone on this virtual planet.
May I ask you something? How many people have seen your childhood pictures? Yeah, the ones you are naked on? Not many. Why? Because they are not posted on your front door, that’s why. Pretty simple. Common sense, people would say. And it’s not like you haven’t thought about that. You like “Tokio Hotel”, but you don’t want other people to know you do? Just don’t then, they are disgusting anyway.
Now it’s advertising’s turn. People seem to be afraid of all those really well targeted ads. Companies know you like red socks and offer you some from the sidebar, be it Facebook’s or any other’s. Do you click on them? Do you even see them? I guess not. I hope not. Because, otherwise, you belong to this surprisingly big group of people who do click on random links. So long as this group of people is that big, companies will still use those boring methods of attracting attention and driving sales. And, hey, why do you add information about yourself anyway? Do you really need to have it there, under the “Info” tab? Nope.
What I am afraid of is the so-called “herd behaviour”.
Thing is, you always have a choice. However, if you want to live in a cave, don’t look for one on Facebook. As far as I know, caves are not available in FarmVille either. Yet.
If you are a good programmer, build a better Facebook. If you aren’t, you still have plenty of options. Sharing of pictures? Print and deliver them to the door of your friends. On foot. Just don’t be narrow, please.
9 May 2010 at 2:39 pm:
I really like this post because it makes me think. What I understand is that FB is an innovative platform, and because of it’s success it’s become a monopoly and thus hegemonic. And you can’t really fault them for that, right?
But I also read that article; yes it was convincingly written, but another function it had was that it was eye-opening and a wake-up call or just a reminder. Why? Because of the sheer fact that it raises your attention to the dangerous side of FB, which I would say for the bulk of the unreflected users on the site, don’t see or even realize. Considering the fact that most of them are just on Farmville or posting pics and clicking on “like” (which is ingenious because it only takes a second to click, and people click for different reasons, but that’s a different story), FB looks benign, fun and safe – probably the reason that I joined when I joined. The article serves a good purpose, so I don’t see it as complaining at all, but one person raising the awareness of others.
And the fact is, I am not against FB making money (that’s what businesses do), I’m not against them upgrading and improving their site (because optimization is also part of the game), but what I *am* against is their seeming lack of respect for the privacy sphere. And also taking advantage of unreflected users who don’t think of the implications of their actions. Maybe the point is less about FB but more about consumer awareness. It the traditional world of buy and sell, the terms and conditions of sale are hard and concrete, they don’t change every couple of months – at most they could change after several years. (Ok, banks in the past year did change their interest rates every couple of months, in response to the financial crisis. You could argue they did that for survival and also the damage to consumers was not at harsh.) And at least there is an awareness for the concrete products. Before you go out and buy something, you know to compare prices and reviews etc. WE could also shift the notion from buying (offline/real) products to consuming (online/virtual) products.
Now that we are consumers of online products, but we are new to this type of consumption, so we need to learn and share ideas and advice about how to “consume” online products. There needs to be more consumer awareness built – how to detect frauds, to tell the difference between a good product and a bad product, only clicking on the “I agree” button after you’ve read the terms, stuff like that.
Ultimately, I agree with you, as a FB user you *do* have choices, just not many.And many a time I have thought of boycotting and deleting my account, giving it up all together, this alternative form of “socializing online” and the time sink that it is. But of course, everyone else is there. (If anything, this is herd mentality). For the time being, I’ll stay, but the more they change, and the more fake accounts there are, the less authentic the site becomes. It’s this authenticity that got people here in the first place, because you have real people sharing real facts and real photos. The less of it you have on the site by the developers themselves, the more it will attract the wrong kind of people and wrong kind of behavior.
But only time will tell. Thanks for the opportunity to voice my opinion. :-)
9 May 2010 at 10:30 pm:
Hey, Kim! Thanks a lot for you comment. It adds up to something I forgot to even suggest, I guess.
I didn’t mean to sound like a Facebook-fanatic. I am not and you know it. And it is true, that Facebook’s privacy policy sucks. The good thing is that soon they won’t have any other option, but to change it, to adjust it to their audience.
Ethics is important, but in this case it is not everything. Facebook is a closed system. As each and every system, it faces improvements over time and the need for them, too. That’s what that guy suggests – an open substitute. From that perspective, the article is really helpful.
You see, I am not a particular fan of this “adjust yourself to your audience” idea. Especially in such a dynamic context. It is like worrying about people who don’t worry about themselves. Ignorance has always been a big thing, I don’t see a reason to give it a hand today. And, frankly, who really cares about that?
Like, today I saw a tweet saying that today the only book teenagers read is facebook. Seriously. We need education, modern education, and it doesn’t take the form of “here, your pills for being conscious”.