Yes I have a Facebook page....hell, who doesn't? If you don't, you're obviously in the minority and if you do, you know what it's all about or perhaps you're at least still learning about it. Even though I have a page, I invite you to learn this... facebook is freakin' annoying! It amazes me the types of things people will blast up on there for the entire world to see. Facebook is the Dewey Decimal system for humans. A way for us to catalog our entire lives in one concise place. But here is the thing... every picture you place up there... it's no longer yours. It belong to facebook and always has. And if you try to delete your account, your info and stuff stays up there.. so in a way.. you are now a prisoner to the program.
What amazes me the most about facebook and the folks who use it religiously, is that these are the same people who bitch and moan about "Big Brother" watching over them and how it is an invasion of privacy. Then they turn around and tag every possible picture of them ever taken so that, yup, big brother... and ANYONE out there can follow their hum drum little life. I'll admit it, there are some pictures of me on facebook that I care not for the entire world to see. I don't want future employers to see them, I don't think I'll ever be able to run for president. nor could any of the rest of you out there using the website. You can untag photos of you... but then your friends get pissed at you, retag it.. and of course the photo stays up there forever.
Then there is the status change. I'm guilty of it myself, broadcasting my every feeling and thought in a simple little status change, "John is: hating facebook." Sometimes I know when a friend is sick, going to the bathroom, drinking coffee, driving their car, hating work or is sick as a dog. I know everything there is to know about anyone. And even though it's supposed to be a great way to stay in touch with old and new friends.. I find that I don;t have the need to when all I can read is their damn status. The same goes for wall posts. You post on my wall how we had a wild time last night... and now the ENTIRE WORLD knows about our wild night. You tell me how much this weekend rocked... the whole world wants to know the rest, "Hmm.. wonder what they did." Its the famous MRs. Jones syndrome where the neighbors know everything... yet in real life.. we lock ourselves away form our neighbors and tend to turn ourselves into hermits.
What the big deal Sherpa John? You have your own blog! Yeah.. but at least with my blog I'm in control. I decide what gets posted here, what comments are kept for others to read.. on facebook... my control is limited and its really freaky. Just think about it before you put anything up there for the public to see. You never know who is watching!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
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ReplyDeleteThe thing with Facebook is there are controls. I have friends who have disabled their ability to have people post messages on their "wall" or people who limit who can see stuff tagged as them to people who added them as friends through their e-mail address. You can block certain friends from seeing certain aspects of your facebook. For example, there are several people who cannot see my status updates because I do not want them to see my status updates. There is a lot of controls in terms of privacy in Facebook, it's why I've always liked it more than MySpace. Maybe you should explore them more. And what other people want to post about themselves on facebook, maybe you should reduce your status updates on the news feed. You can actually receive less of them from people you don't want to read about. A lot of what I post on facebook is for other people's benefit. I initially tag people so that they are aware that I have posted the picture on the internet (and have had them untagged or I have taken them down more than once because I was asked). Sometimes I post status updates that may be a little TMI, but that's because I don't want all my facebook going coworkers to wonder why I'm not at work, or my friends to know how I'm doing. And don't worry, facebook is recanting it's policy on keeping everything in perpetuality for now.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the rant back, but I'm a big fan of some of the amazing privacy controls that facebook has. Although I do miss the original original facebook that had very minimal features and that only college students could get.