Dear Facebook, It has been a lot of Politics as of Late…But.
Yes, it has. In the past month we have talked about the horrors that be in Arizona, abortion in Oklahoma, and President Obama being tried for treason in New York. I would like to think that each article, essay, post, what ever you choose to label them as, have given pleasurable experiences to those readers that manage to stumble upon this treasure. I say treasure, because I would like to think this blog o’ mine is a diamond in the rough, is it? Today, I would like to write something just a little bit different… Stray from the norm.
Let’s talk a little bit about Facebook, and spend a little less time on it for the next few moments. It is the social website we all hate, but are secretly nursing deep affairs with. We bad mouth it to our friends, like we do that one girl from that one night who wore that heinous outfit and said those stupid things but secretly we dish with her every night before we fall asleep. Facebook is that girl.
I remember the day I created an account for Facebook fondly. My account was made when you were required to have a college e-mail, for my high school class, Facebook was a technological rite of passage. Now, just about four years later, 60% of current Facebook users are considering leaving. And, on May 31st, more than 11,000 people have committed to Quit Facebook Day. To complete the downward slope, according to Search Engine land blog, ‘how to delete my Facebook account’ has become an ever-popular search.
Dear Facebook, what happened?
One, Big, Happy Family?
It was probably somewhere along the lines of turning every interest in to a ‘like’ page, or allowing everyone in the world access to my photos, or maybe, it is the fact you have sold me and my profile out for a few shiny bucks. Ugh, thanks a lot.
I used to believe that only friends could view my profile. Then it became friends of friends could see my where abouts. Then, those in my ‘network’ or in my school. Then, it just got really confusing and I stopped keeping track and just set my profile to private. But, alas, in Facebook world private is not included in any dictionary. Facebook has taken the stance that people enjoy sharing, sharing is caring. How far is this sharing going though? Well, if you have given up on the tedious task of privacy control, pretty damn far.
In case you were unaware, Facebook is probably responsible for some of that lovely spam you receive in your e-mail inbox. It is normal for websites to share a small amount of information with advertisers, such as the advertisements most clicked from a URL. Facebook is different, in that it gives advertisers the unique profile number of its users to advertisers, allowing them to access personal information… Unless you protect it, but honestly, have you ever tried that? It is complex, and forces you to be rather bitter towards even having a profile.
On that topic of sharing is caring, here is some food for thought straight from the Facebook Privacy Policy:
“Pre-Approved Third-Party Websites and Applications. In order to provide you with useful social experiences off of Facebook, we occasionally need to provide General Information about you to pre-approved third party websites and applications that use Platform at the time you visit them (if you are still logged in to Facebook). Similarly, when one of your friends visits a pre-approved website or application, it will receive General Information about you so you and your friend can be connected on that website as well (if you also have an account with that website). “
Of course you can opt out of this ‘social experience’ but should you have to? Why Mark Zuckerburg, why have you done this to us faithful Facebook users?
“Six years ago, we built Facebook around a few simple ideas. People want to share and stay connected with their friends and the people around them. If we give people control over what they share, they will want to share more. If people share more, the world will become more open and connected. And a world that’s more open and connected is a better world. These are still our core principles today.”
From Facebook… Mark Zuckerberg
That explains it; you want us all to be interconnected like one big, happy, advertising supported family. I do not want that family, I would prefer to stick with the close knit group of Facebook friends I have currently. We talk, we do lunch, and they are not willing to give my name away for money just for a ‘social experience’.
Tomorrow afternoon Facebook has promised to unveil a new way of handing its privacy settings. They have “heard the feedback” of their angst filled users, demanding a well deserved change. (We have put up with your disarrayed privacy settings for long enough, you know.) Who knows what that change will be, if any. For now, it is just promised to be a simpler way of controlling your settings. How about just going back to the old Facebook? Ah, the good ol’ days.
But, I digress. As much as I am willing to complain and weep over Facebook’s fast deterioration, I still cherish my moments with it and do not see myself deactivating my account anytime soon. I just hope that they learn, and soon, that my profile is private, and that means no to third parties and just about every one else that is not on my friends list but on that 400 million users list. No Facebook, no.
September 21, 2010
Never, Ever Lie
Talk about irony. There are not moments like this, at least not often enough, where a candidate for a Government position gets themselves mixed in to such a comical sort of mess. The influxes of video clips that have been floating through the media this week and last are hysterical. They create that sort of picture you do not often see about a political candidate. You know, their bedroom practices, or those shady characters they hung around with after high school biology. That sort of thing. Then again, none other than Sarah Palin supports Christine O’Donnell… So who wouldn’t expect something a little nutty?
If you have not seen these viral video clips, well, take a gander:
Now, what have you learned?
1. AIDS comes from sexual relations outside of marriage.
2. Masturbation takes away the necessity of pleasing each other. Why play with someone else when you can play alone?
3. Masturbation is adultery… Why? Because it is lustful.
And, what else?
1. You can dabble in witchcraft.
2. A good date can involve a satanic alter… Picnic included.
By the way, there are twenty-two episodes with clips featuring Christine O’Donnell from Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect that promise this same type of goodness.
Of course, these clips are all good and fun, as they do not reveal much about O’Donnell politically. Even O’Donnell has taken to laughing at her witchcraft related remarks. Could these clips even hurt O’Donnell’s campaign goals? Well, probably not.