On Facebook
I say this without one iota of sarcasm or exaggeration: I think Facebook might be the greatest thing to come out of the internet.
Now this might come as a surprise to you, seeing as how I A) complain about Facebook a lot, and B) don't really use it all that much.
But the reason I complain about Facebook so much is not because I think the premise is faulty, I'm just upset with many of the decisions the people in charge have made in regards to privacy and openness. Considering 100% of the content on Facebook is provided by its users I wish Facebook had its users' interests as its main priority. But Facebook is a company and thus it is supposed to make money; and in that regard the more Facebook locks you into its system the more secure its position is financially. So, that's why Facebook sucks.
But as a means of connecting you with people in your life, Facebook is incredible. Because the Facebook world is generally speaking 'flat', you get to know the same information about someone that any of their other friends (many of them most likely better friends than you are!) get to know. This means you can participate (either actively or passively) in the lives of more people that you care about than you would have ever been able to in the past. There are many, many people in my life that I am very curious about, but for whom it would be weird for me to send an email or give a call. Maybe I don't really know them all that well, or we were once good friends and time and distance have made that friendship awkward. But either way, I can still see how they are doing.
And on that note, I think the Facebook "Like" button is the greatest thing to ever come out of Facebook. The Like button is what I had hoped the stars on this website would be. It is a way to participate in people's lives silently. You don't have to have a conversation, you don't have to be witty or deep, you just get to acknowledge some event happening to someone you know. It is pure brilliance.
So, why don't I use it all that much? Well, for two reasons:
- I already have a place for me to share my thoughts and feelings with the internet: This website. (Also, my wife's and my Flickr account).
- As much as I hate to say it, my friends as a whole are pretty boring. Really, to find the gems and interesting things happening on Facebook, you have to be on there all the time. Otherwise you miss the stuff you want to see. And I just don't have the patience for that. Now, some might think this is a knock on Facebook. That it is just full of trivial banality. Similar claims are made about Twitter. Now, I think that is just the biggest load of horseshit I've ever heard. Of course most of it isn't going to be all that interesting! How many people are there in your life whose every move and thought are of interest to you? One? Personally I'd put that number in the 5 person range. This means that most of what my 400-some friends are saying and doing isn't all that interesting. But the thing is, someone out there does find that stuff interesting. And then every so often, my boring friends do say something that is of interest to me, and I get to participate in that. I'd say that Twitter's and Facebook's biggest strength is exactly that volume of mostly stuff that isn't gold. If you get enough of it, you will strike rich.
Incidentally, in the last week I've had two conversations about Facebook.
My brother-in-law recently asked my what some of my favorite websites are (I think from my perspective as a web developer), and the first one that came to mind was Facebook. I think for the most part, and especially for a website of its magnitude it is very well made. Both from a design/interface and a programming point of view. To quote, "People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook." The fact that Facebook works at all, let alone fast and accurately is quite impressive!
And then I got in a discussion with my dad about the privacy implications of the internet and in particular sites like Facebook and Flickr. Privacy is a hard thing to get right, because really when people talk about privacy, they don't mean, "I want to keep this all to myself" (which is easy), they mean, "I don't want everyone to see this, just Bob and Joe and Jane and my mom and so on, and so on, etc" (which is hard). So, in response to that need, the internet has mostly just not made anything private whatsoever. If everyone is sharing everything you get a sort of privacy by obscurity. If you are standing naked in a field with 10,000 other naked people, odds are no one is looking at you. Odds are. But just ask the person who anonymously posted videos of him physically abusing a kitten and was then tracked down by outraged interneters and turned into his local police how his privacy worked out. So, I do agree that there can be privacy problems. You can however control these things on Facebook (For example, I have my privacy settings locked down pretty tight). Most people don't however. Most likely because they don't want to spend the time to understand how the privacy settings work (like I said, the kind of privacy they want is hard).
However, I think I would have to say that Facebook's biggest strength (connecting everyone, mostly equally) is also one of its biggest weaknesses. If I want to interact with just my closest friends, these days pretty much my only option is TSP or mass emails. TSP is great (the greatest!) but it is mostly one direction. I talk ramble, you listen (and hopefully comment!). Email, eveyone has, but it is kind of a pain. Google is coming out with something soon called Google+ which may address this issue. We'll see.
Anyway, there you have it. My thoughts on Facebook in 1,052 words.
29 June 2011 07:20am UTC • 173 views • 3 comments
Tagged with facebook, privacy, socialnetworking, internet, websites, onX
Add a comment!
You must be a member to do that! Become a member or login!
Subscribe to the feeds:
3 comments
Erik the Redish-orange
29 June 2011 07:31pm UTC
I have lots of thoughts and feelings on Facebook and was very interested to read yours. And, I'm going to take this as an opportunity to share mine!
I try very hard not to use Facebook very frequently. I have idealistic reasons for this, some of which I will get into. But the main reason I try to avoid Facebook is because I know it is something that can suck me in. And when I get sucked into something I have little to no self control. So I have to have self control on the front end. Hence I avoid participating on Facebook very frequently.
Now, as far as the idealistic reasons I try to avoid Facebook, there are many.
First, I feel like part of the success of Facebook is that its very nature plays to 2 characteristics that all humans have in abundance but that very few would be happy to admit: narcissism and voyeurism.
In my opinion, if Facebook is anything it is narcissistic. I mean, how ridiculous is it for me to think that anyone cares what I did today, what I ate for lunch, how far I ran, where I am going, who I am with, when I woke up, etc. etc? But, apparently people do care. Or at least a lot of people hope everyone else cares.
Which takes me to point number 2. I think Facebook feeds our voyeuristic tendencies. I would have to say that at least 80% of what all of my friends post on Facebook have no impact on my life what-so-ever. But I still go onto Facebook 1 or 2 times a day and see what my friends have been saying. Most of the time I don't comment, I don't participate, and I don't reciprocate. So I am strictly watching from afar without their knowledge. Is is just me or does that sound like voyeurism?
The fact that narcissistic and voyeuristic are 2 things I would rather not be and rather not be around people who are probably contributes to why I have some pretty serious negative emotions about Facebook.
I also have issues with privacy on Facebook. Benjamin and I discussed how easy to use Facebook is on your profile and news feeds page. But, when you try to make changes to your privacy settings it's like deciphering a secret code. And it's not convenient. And it's not easy.
What's more, I am not a fan of the fact that if I comment on Benjamin's post every one of Benjamin's friends can see my comment whether I know them or want them to see it or not. I do not like that anyone can post anything on my wall and I have to take it down, but potentially hundreds of people could have seen something I'd rather they not see before I take it down. I hate that if someone puts a picture of me on Facebook I can untag myself, but I cannot take down the picture.
I have issues with what I consider to be Facebook etiquette, or lack there of. This is related to what I said above about being able to put information about other people on Facebook without their approval, but it goes farther. There is enough anonymity on Facebook that I think it is too easy to make comments, participate in things, and do things that could injure, upset, or hurt someone else in many ways. And I don't think people are considerate of the many social webs woven by Facebook often enough.
Finally, I have very mixed feelings about how Facebook does what it is supposed to do: connect people. I certainly have Facebook friends who I never talk to but I feel like I have an idea of what they are up to and how their life is because I see it on Facebook. And I like that. I like that I can keep up on people I care about to a certain extent.
But I think there is an ulterior side to that. There are other people who I should call, get together with, or send an email or personal note to but I do not because Facebook makes me feel like we are in contact more than we really are. I think in these instances Facebook distills our relationships to status updates. Instead of actually knowing what someone is thinking, feeling, or experiencing; instead of knowing my friends hopes and desires; instead of having deep, philosophical conversations with people who are important to me, I end up leaving it at, "I tried fried ice cream for the first time last night. Loved it!"
The bottom line is I think Facebook is an amazing tool. But I think it has become more than a tool. I think it has shaped how we interact and how we have relationships. And I'm not convinced that is for the better.
Swabie Scabbie
29 June 2011 11:56pm UTC
I hate facebook mostly because it sucks up thoughts, conversations, pictures and videos but makes it nearly impossible to get them back out. I actually like the content I get there; I've blocked most of the friends who frequently post things I find banal or offensive, so my home page typically only has enough content to justify one daily visit and it's mostly stuff I'm interested in. I also think the communication I get on facebook is more representative of real communication I'd have with people than mundane stream-of-consciousness/activity logs, but that may be because of who I've friended and whose updates I've blocked.
I also hate the flat nature of facebook - I'm really optimistic about google+ because I could see it being incredibly functional for me professionally. If I can link all of google's tools with a widely used social network AND quarantine online interactions to just include people I want to participate, it would be way more useful than facebook. Plus, google typically seems more interested in costumer satisfaction than profits, so I could see extracting information (eg: downloading photos, videos and archived conversations) from google+ being much easier.
At this point, 50% of why I'm still on facebook is just so I can control my online identity - if I see most photos posted of me (because I'm notified when I'm tagged in a new photo), I can ask people to take down photos that could be damaging (or report them, if it comes to that). So I'll probably stay on and keep checking it regardless of how good google+ is. Which is unfortunate.
Boatswain The Fool
30 June 2011 08:16am UTC
I will have more thoughts when I have a bit more time (hopefully?), but really quickly, Blair: you can already export all of your data out of Google+. Take a look at your Google+ settings (the gear in the top-right corner of the screen).