Back on Facebook (for my sins)
I know, I know.
I swore I’d never use the bloody thing again. And none of my past objections have suddenly become invalid. But a couple of things have arisen lately that forced me to reconsider my participation in the CIA’s big social media experiment.
Firstly… pretty much everyone I know has succumbed. Now, I’ve never been massively affected by peer-pressure, and it’s not the fact of their participation that has changed my mind. Rather it’s that I live in a different country to almost all my friends, and facebook has become the de facto medium of communication for many in my old social circle. Simply by excluding myself from facebook, I’ve ended up severing ties.
Secondly… and this is the straw that broke the camel’s back, not a reason in itself to join… as someone who presently earns a (meagre) living as a freelance web developer (WordPress customisation a speciality), facebook has become too big to ignore. Two clients in the past month have asked me how to integrate their websites with their facebook accounts, and all I’ve been able to do until now is shrug my ignorance. I have very little idea of what goes on behind that blue and white login screen, so can’t really advise anyone on how best to use the site.
So yes, I’ve reactivated my old account. But don’t take that as an endorsement of the sinister system… consider me ‘press ganged’.
I rather enjoy the social exclusion of not being on Facebook, the same way I enjoy it with not having succumbed to a mobile phone either. Partial Luddite-ism. Why make it easier than it already is for ‘them’ to track your every movement? But I think it’s probably more the mind-numbing qualities of Facebook and texting that makes me the equivalent of a backwoodsman with a Nectar card (I don’t care if MI5 know I bought tofu and potatoes last Monday, but I might care about them knowing who my friends are because I freely served them up).
December 8th, 2010 | 7:16am
by Joel
… but I might care about them knowing who my friends are because I freely served them up.
I don’t disagree with the spirit of your position, Joel. But in practice that horse has bolted. The vast majority of the people I know are already on Facebook. What’s more, when I reactivated my account I discovered several group photos that included me already up there. So my participation isn’t telling The Man anything he doesn’t already know about my friends. Though it may end up revealing things about myself.
Anyway, who knows how long my involvement will last this time? Once I’ve learnt enough about the mechanics of the site from a web development perspective I’ll have one less reason to use it. And as I’m extremely ambivalent about the whole thing, my flirtation with Facebook may yet turn out to be a brief one.
December 8th, 2010 | 10:59am
by Jim Bliss