I’m Ready to Bail on Facebook - the New Face of Evil

I’ve been seeing a number of articles on this topic, but I felt this recent one summed it all up rather nicely. Coincidentally, I’ve been seeing more and more of the people I know to use Myspace jump over to Facebook. Social networking revolution or not, there’s some serious problems with both. Myspace has been falling apart for some time, and even with an upgrade in the works, most people are getting tired of seeing their accounts get compromised.

I focused on Facebook here because since startup in 2004, this more private and originally college based network always seemed more secure than anything else. Top it off with some nice programming that actually takes advantage of web applications, and you’ve got something that appeals to a more sophisticated demographic. Naturally, this meant it took longer to catch on in an already flooded social market, but it did.

Of course they all sell out. I can’t blame them; if I had developed something and someone offered me millions for it, I’d jump in without question. The point is they all sell out to companies who want your personal data. Facebook collects tons of it, and it seems to be only a matter of time before this becomes problematic. I’m going to start pulling back from social networking because of all these problems. My web identity might not be substantially important, but I still want it to be my own, controlled electronic footprint out there. I’ll weigh the benefits, but I’m not going to invest anything more than I feel any company purchasing my information should know.

Filed under: Geek, Society