Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Facebook about face
It seems that just recently Facebook took off in popularity. Everyone it seemed, was asking me, "Are you on Facebook?" I never put much personal information on the site and I keep my profile pretty generic. I am not terrible concerned about privacy settings, but I do find it annoying that I am asked to change my settings frequently. Facebook is supposed to be entertaining and fun, not confusing. I feel like they have us where they want us: we've been hooked in by finding long lost friends and the trade off is our personal information. I found another post called "Farewell Facebook" that discussed this issue in more detail.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Facebook and Myspace were always somewhat of an interesting phenomena to me. A recent article in the NY Times makes me wonder what will come of all of this social networking. It reports that a research team from Carnegie Mellon could accurately predict full social security numbers of nearly 5 million individuals from what was posted online. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteFacebook is a new to me but very old to my 12 year old nephew. The idea of finding long lost friends and even estranged family members after decades is amazing. However, the chaos of being tagged on a comment or photo can be quite irritating when you have Facebook set to your Blackberry. I think the concept is a great one considering it was created by a twenty year old but could use some tweaking. Diaspora as mentioned in "Farewell Facebook" as a possible replacement but will it reach the masses of Facebook fanatics?
ReplyDeleteFacebook is an excellent reconnection tool. I have touched base with so many friends and family.
ReplyDeleteI am consider with personal profile information and security settings. Many of my students are Facebook users, 10 and 11 year olds. All have profile pictures and lists their hometowns. Is "facebooking" an open door to predators?
Audra
Facebook is more than likely just the base of the the social networking phenomenon. It will be the foundation of what is to come. It really puts things in perspective though. I too now find that more and more people are sharing information through facebook rather then other forms of media. For example.....I don't really get emails of photo's anymore from people on vacation. Most people just say..."do you have a facebook account? that's where I posted the pictures at"
ReplyDeleteWhat bothers me is this....I believe people use facebook for all the wrong reasons. For example..a post might read....
"Just put the kids to bed. Time for some R and R"
When what they really meant to do was Tweet. That is what is surprising...I think people enjoy twitter (or at least its purpose) better, but are confused of the application and instead post to facebook. Just a thought.
I was a member of Facebook for about 2-3 months my senior year in college when it was only offered to college students. When I was hired as a teacher, I got rid of it. I knew that I didn't have the time, let alone any remaining interest in poking friends, befriending virtuals that I never meet in person, and just updating a personal life that I don't really wish to share to other people.
ReplyDeleteJust the other day I asked my students what the big hype was over Facebook. They earnestly replied, if you aren't on Facebook, you don't have any friends.
So, jokingly, I said, well, I was a 2-3 month member and no longer have any ambition to sign on again. What does that mean?
They replied, 'You have no friends', but it's okay, we like you anyway. I said, 'well, I guess since I have no friends, it explains why I get so much grading done!'
Although in light humor, it did present a real concern that students have a difficult time connecting to others outside of technology. Are we headed in a real cultural revolution for the worse?
Facebook has allowed me to re-establish relationships with friends and family. Yes, it is an impersonal connection over a computer, but when we are hundreds or even thousands of miles apart, this bit of instant communication is much better than none.
ReplyDeleteYes, the privacy settings do concern me, so I frequently check them to make sure FB isn't pulling a fast-one over on us.
I'll take the trade-off. I have connected with people that weren't even in my circle of friends in high school. As adults we have a tremendous amount in common and can learn from each other.
As an aside, one friend recently posted as his status that he didn't really understand Twitter. He said it must be for Facebookers with ADHD :)
This was a great conversation about Facebook and social networking in general. Good point about status updates, Kevin. I am not sure why I would use Twitter when I don't even update my Facebook status, although I have an account and "follow" people. I might check it once a week. Holly, that's interesting that you students' perception of friends is being on FB or not. I am glad I didn't have to deal with it in high school..too much added peer pressure!
ReplyDelete