Posts Tagged ‘f8’

Cindy West

The Love And Hate Relationship We Have With Facebook

05.16.10

I have watched the debate over Facebook Privacy issues all week and it is fascinating.   It’s like a  feeding frenzy, probably one of the dilemmas of Social Media. From so called “influential’s” canceling their Facebook pages, to let’s burn CEO-Mark Zuckerberg at the stake for his evil intentions.  All this consternation triggered by f8 and an exposed  foolish chat post.  I guess he wasn’t thinking about his own privacy when he posted that.

It shouldn’t come as a big surprise to those of us that regularly surf the internet, but the majority of our data has been collected way before Facebook came to the web. To raise such a fuss now is making ourselves look foolish, since we actually opted in from the beginning.  Common sense tells you nothing in life is free. It is illogical to think you can provide a service to millions of people at zero-cost to anyone.

A lesson I learned a while back, is when you get something for free it is easy to get addicted and hard to go without when the owners of that service, decide the free ride is up and now you have to pony up to stay connected. Darn that GM for putting a “free” satellite radio in my car.

And what’s been the upside? I have met some amazing people on Facebook.  I have connected with relatives I haven’t seen for years and my classmates from 19XX…(gotta go to Facebook if you want me to share that!) People have reunited with each other, all possible because of Facebook. Since when have you had so many friends?

Want PRIVACY? You’re in control because you are the one that hits UPLOAD & SHARE.  By adjusting your settings you decide whom you want to share it with and what others can share about you.  And if it goes beyond that…maybe you shouldn’t have posted it to begin with.

I agree with one thing. Facebook could make the privacy settings easier to navigate. And those oversized pop-up ads are a little much. I would ask that they be balanced on the side of the page and not allowed to exceed the width of the column.

But seriously, if you truly want to have an opt-in or opt-out on privacy, then maybe Facebook should become a platform for which you pay. Although, you could always go back to typing emails.  Now there’s a fail-safe platform for privacy.

Here’s my revolutionary suggestion if you really and truly value your privacy …don’t post it.  I have a friend, quite intelligent and very social, but has never once communicated via email or ever made an online purchase…and certainly doesn’t socialize on Facebook.  He’s digitally disconnected, but content.

But for me a life without Facebook… would be frankly…boring.

Categories: pr marketing

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