This started out as a reply in another thread, but as I began to write, it became something else. So I leave it here for your consideration and random pondering.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be), I don't do Facebook. Their (Mark Zuckerberg's) position on privacy and security is obscene. Zuckerberg's stated goal is to live in a world where everything anyone does on the Internet is shared with his company. They are obsessed with tracking cookies. If you delete all of your cookies and then visit a Facebook page, or even a Web page that's linked to a Facebook page, you'll get a minimum of six Facebook cookies. If you delete those cookies and leave the Facebook page, they're kind enough to give you one cookie to go, so you'll always have one with you. If you delete that one, they know, and they'll give you another one at the first opportunity. Every time you visit EO, for example, Facebook knows.
Inadvertently sharing private information with other members or the public is another issue. But what does stick out in this regard is that the frequent changes to the Facebook interface are (or at least certainly seem to be) designed to catch users off guard. Only the more technically savvy are able to protect themselves. It should be noted that the coders who write this software are among the world’s best. Whatever the software does is because of what it was intended and directed to do, not because of errors or lack of skill – despite Facebook’s protestations to the contrary.
The amount of data they are collecting on the more than one billion users, and those who don't use Facebook, is staggering. Facebook gets their input from the people themselves as well as “friends”, vendors, and miscellaneous other sources, and the online tracking of those individuals is a significant commercial enterprise. The volume and depth of the material collected is quite considerable. For example, one 24 year-old Austrian on Facebook was able to get some of the information that was kept about him. He received a CD filled with 1,222 PDF pages of data. The filelog included deleted private messages, deleted pokes, deleted relationships statuses, deleted friends, applications that his friends use, old chat conversations, past GPS coordinates, and more.
All this data on more than a billion people is correlated, and forms an immense database. It is, in fact, the largest and most detailed database of people and their interrelations with each other ever compiled. Not only that, but that very detailed database is available to one particular government, who is here, of course, to help you.
I'm not sure how wise it is to acquiesce, throw your hands up and say, "Well, we don't have any privacy anymore, anyway."
In 2012 Facebook had revenues in the $6 billion range. The quality of their product is high and worth a good price. Users, and others, have given Facebook $6 billion worth of their private intellectual property, for free. The fact that this database of personal information is the largest and most detailed ever collected in the history of mankind is worrisome. One can form all kinds of ideas about the evil lurking in this scheme, but the reality is that because of it’s value, we cannot be sure that it will not fall into the wrong hands at some point in the future. History shows that it will, and that it won't be used in the best interest of the public.
But even more basic about the use of Facebook is how we think about ourselves. Facebook is, largely, nothing more than chasing a carrot that never satisfies the appetite. Social Media, Facebook in particular, becomes the means to look outside ourselves to prove our worth, to prove we exist, to prove we matter. It's a means, but, really, towards what?
People use Facebook to prove they matter, in fine self-focused fashion, as Emerson once said, we create our own sunshine and thus have greater shadows. What do you do when you don’t have responses from others? Do you worry that suddenly something is wrong? That no one likes you? “I haven’t heard back from them for 3 hours! OMG!” Do we think about ourselves more now with social media? Is our self-worth tied to "Likes"?
The allure of social media, and Facebook, becomes what grabs, the quick image, and what ‘feels right.’ An overindulgence in social media without an accompanying pursuit of intellect is dangerous. We lose our ability to reason, we develop an intuitive theology/philosophy of life, and transcendent values and beliefs can be quickly discarded. And we wouldn’t even know it. Or why it is bad.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be), I don't do Facebook. Their (Mark Zuckerberg's) position on privacy and security is obscene. Zuckerberg's stated goal is to live in a world where everything anyone does on the Internet is shared with his company. They are obsessed with tracking cookies. If you delete all of your cookies and then visit a Facebook page, or even a Web page that's linked to a Facebook page, you'll get a minimum of six Facebook cookies. If you delete those cookies and leave the Facebook page, they're kind enough to give you one cookie to go, so you'll always have one with you. If you delete that one, they know, and they'll give you another one at the first opportunity. Every time you visit EO, for example, Facebook knows.
Inadvertently sharing private information with other members or the public is another issue. But what does stick out in this regard is that the frequent changes to the Facebook interface are (or at least certainly seem to be) designed to catch users off guard. Only the more technically savvy are able to protect themselves. It should be noted that the coders who write this software are among the world’s best. Whatever the software does is because of what it was intended and directed to do, not because of errors or lack of skill – despite Facebook’s protestations to the contrary.
The amount of data they are collecting on the more than one billion users, and those who don't use Facebook, is staggering. Facebook gets their input from the people themselves as well as “friends”, vendors, and miscellaneous other sources, and the online tracking of those individuals is a significant commercial enterprise. The volume and depth of the material collected is quite considerable. For example, one 24 year-old Austrian on Facebook was able to get some of the information that was kept about him. He received a CD filled with 1,222 PDF pages of data. The filelog included deleted private messages, deleted pokes, deleted relationships statuses, deleted friends, applications that his friends use, old chat conversations, past GPS coordinates, and more.
All this data on more than a billion people is correlated, and forms an immense database. It is, in fact, the largest and most detailed database of people and their interrelations with each other ever compiled. Not only that, but that very detailed database is available to one particular government, who is here, of course, to help you.
I'm not sure how wise it is to acquiesce, throw your hands up and say, "Well, we don't have any privacy anymore, anyway."
In 2012 Facebook had revenues in the $6 billion range. The quality of their product is high and worth a good price. Users, and others, have given Facebook $6 billion worth of their private intellectual property, for free. The fact that this database of personal information is the largest and most detailed ever collected in the history of mankind is worrisome. One can form all kinds of ideas about the evil lurking in this scheme, but the reality is that because of it’s value, we cannot be sure that it will not fall into the wrong hands at some point in the future. History shows that it will, and that it won't be used in the best interest of the public.
But even more basic about the use of Facebook is how we think about ourselves. Facebook is, largely, nothing more than chasing a carrot that never satisfies the appetite. Social Media, Facebook in particular, becomes the means to look outside ourselves to prove our worth, to prove we exist, to prove we matter. It's a means, but, really, towards what?
People use Facebook to prove they matter, in fine self-focused fashion, as Emerson once said, we create our own sunshine and thus have greater shadows. What do you do when you don’t have responses from others? Do you worry that suddenly something is wrong? That no one likes you? “I haven’t heard back from them for 3 hours! OMG!” Do we think about ourselves more now with social media? Is our self-worth tied to "Likes"?
The allure of social media, and Facebook, becomes what grabs, the quick image, and what ‘feels right.’ An overindulgence in social media without an accompanying pursuit of intellect is dangerous. We lose our ability to reason, we develop an intuitive theology/philosophy of life, and transcendent values and beliefs can be quickly discarded. And we wouldn’t even know it. Or why it is bad.
