My Relationship with Facebook- It's Complicated

It seems that many people, both in the tech world and outside of it, have become increasingly more upset about Facebook. In fact, some people over at Wired, a prominent Tech magazine, have gone so far as to claim that Facebook has gone rouge.

 

Facebook used to be a small social network that allowed you to share your photos and events in your life with your friends and some of your family. You could poke people and even play a few games. You could have a virtual pet, pretend you are a farmer or a mafioso. It was like Myspace, only less spam and glitter. It was good fun, and no one got hurt.

 

Then your grandma joined, and next, that kid from grade school you sort of hung out with signed up. It wasn't long before that girl you hated in high school sent you are friend request. After that, it was your boss. Before you knew it, you Aunt Sally's next door neighbor with the crazy-looking dogs added you. Fast forward just a little, and now you see people getting fired all the time for things they have posted on their Facebook pages, and not even egregious things, but just general complaining about their job.

 

With Facebook changing its privacy policy every few months, making it more and more complex and difficult to understand, users are getting angry. When did Facebook become the landing pad for your online identity? Why can't users control who sees their information? What happened to our privacy?

 

There are some people who say that all you have to do is change your privacy settings to only allow friends to see what you are posting. While that is certainly a good idea, the problem is that it doesn't protect you. There is a great deal of information on your profile that is public, whether you like it or not. Speaking of liking it, did you know that any page you “like” instantly becomes public. If you want to keep it private, you obviously don't like it enough.

 

When you fill out your profile, you put in links to employers, colleges, clubs and organizations. All of that has to be public. When you update your status, there is a drop down where you can select who gets to see your message, but it is complicated and they neglect to tell you that anyone who is a mutual friend of both you and the person you want to see the status, will be able to see it as well. Here's the senario, I have two sisters, both of whom are on Facebook, and of course, I am friends with both of them. If for example, while having dinner at my middle sister's home, I update my status to say “This is so lame.”, and I carefully made sure that only my oldest sister would be able to see it, because my dinner host is friends with us both, she will see it in her time-line. Nice, huh?

 

Personally, I would like to be able to keep my friends list private, but can't do it. I want to support some groups that would may be controversial, but I can't because I don't want it to be public knowledge. I want to have a way to share who I actually AIM online. After years of high school and college, I thought I had finally become old enough to be free from the pressure to conform. I worked a way to present my professional self at work, and be my fun and casual self at home and with friends.

 

Facebook's popularity shows that we all want easy ways to share photos with our families, give quick updates about what is going on in our lives and to have a way to connect with each other in ways that are easy and still feel as intimate as a phone call. We want to express ourselves on the internet and not worry that we will be judged for eternity based on it. Instead, we only have the option to either let Facebook use us, or be left out entirely. Which, isn't really a choice at all.

 

What do you think about the Facebook privacy debate? I would love to read your thoughts in the comments.

 

 

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By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.