Facebook Enemy of Privacy
If you've been on the internet for more than a year you probably remember when Facebook was lauded as the superior MySpace, protecting the privacy rights of it's users when MySpace was opening everything up?
Well, things have changed.
Facebook, while exploding in popularity as anyone who has befriended their grandmother or aunts and uncles can attest to, has been living off of venture capital not quite knowing how to make their massive network of interconnected relationships work for the bottom line.
Buzz by Linda Lawrey
Until now. Unless you've been out camping since the snow started melting or one of the eight people in America left without an internet connection, you know Facebook has been implementing changes. These changes are not only allowing you to connect with long lost college buddies and your great aunt's favorite dog, but with companies and website content from across the web-o-sphere. And they're doing it without your consent. In actuality, you can adjust your privacy settings, but
the default mode is set to be as open and inviting as MySpace ever was.
I see two problems here:
1 - People who aren't active FB users won't be aware of this and won't adjust their privacy settings; or, as in the case of my mother, won't know how to change the settings. This means your grandpa and uncles will start feeding you information on their newfeed that will appear to very much like spam (and it may well be considering recent reports of "Like" button misuse). This may quickly earn your grandfather, mother, old military buddies a quick de-friending.
2 - I am somewhere in my 30s, too young to be a Generation-X and too old to be Y. And yet, I feel my age is somewhere at the fulcrum of techno-savvy: those older than me either avoiding it or picking it up slowly or sparingly and those younger than me having never lived without cell phones, desktop computers and automated this-n-that. This means those older than me, those in their 40s, 50s and 60s who are using social networking sites to stay in touch with scattered relatives or reconnecting with long lost friends, are probably going to be more hesitant to be as open and sharing as Facebook is looking to make them. Ironically, these are the same people who probably won't change their settings. However, the younger generations are used to massive sharing: email, IM, MySpace, Facebook, etc. These are Facebook's (and Google's) target audience when referring to open lives and easy networking. And yet, these are the people who will probably openly share, not caring if anyone knows they visited controversial or risqué websites, thus fulfilling Facebook's dreams of marketing on your connections.
At least when Google does it, it's tailored to you: you're emails, you're images, your search results. They're not trying to feed you information from all over the web, essentially drowning you in streams of what your friends are doing at any given time of any given day.
Some people think the internet is "information overload," but I think Facebook's move will make you hate your friends.
I'm just saying...
Well, things have changed.
Facebook, while exploding in popularity as anyone who has befriended their grandmother or aunts and uncles can attest to, has been living off of venture capital not quite knowing how to make their massive network of interconnected relationships work for the bottom line.
Buzz by Linda Lawrey
Until now. Unless you've been out camping since the snow started melting or one of the eight people in America left without an internet connection, you know Facebook has been implementing changes. These changes are not only allowing you to connect with long lost college buddies and your great aunt's favorite dog, but with companies and website content from across the web-o-sphere. And they're doing it without your consent. In actuality, you can adjust your privacy settings, but
the default mode is set to be as open and inviting as MySpace ever was.
I see two problems here:
1 - People who aren't active FB users won't be aware of this and won't adjust their privacy settings; or, as in the case of my mother, won't know how to change the settings. This means your grandpa and uncles will start feeding you information on their newfeed that will appear to very much like spam (and it may well be considering recent reports of "Like" button misuse). This may quickly earn your grandfather, mother, old military buddies a quick de-friending.
2 - I am somewhere in my 30s, too young to be a Generation-X and too old to be Y. And yet, I feel my age is somewhere at the fulcrum of techno-savvy: those older than me either avoiding it or picking it up slowly or sparingly and those younger than me having never lived without cell phones, desktop computers and automated this-n-that. This means those older than me, those in their 40s, 50s and 60s who are using social networking sites to stay in touch with scattered relatives or reconnecting with long lost friends, are probably going to be more hesitant to be as open and sharing as Facebook is looking to make them. Ironically, these are the same people who probably won't change their settings. However, the younger generations are used to massive sharing: email, IM, MySpace, Facebook, etc. These are Facebook's (and Google's) target audience when referring to open lives and easy networking. And yet, these are the people who will probably openly share, not caring if anyone knows they visited controversial or risqué websites, thus fulfilling Facebook's dreams of marketing on your connections.
At least when Google does it, it's tailored to you: you're emails, you're images, your search results. They're not trying to feed you information from all over the web, essentially drowning you in streams of what your friends are doing at any given time of any given day.
Some people think the internet is "information overload," but I think Facebook's move will make you hate your friends.
I'm just saying...
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