NEWS: Damn you Zuckerberg!

CULTURE: Damn you Zuckerberg!

by Bob Suicide

I have this love/hate relationship with all kinds of social networking -- mostly because I'm anti-social. But, also because I often feel like new "features" are thrust upon me when I never felt like I was utilizing the existing features to their full, socially invasive potential.

So it goes without saying that I warily accepted an invite to Google+. And, even now, I'm not entirely sure that it's a platform I want to "boldly go" to. You know what they say: "MySpace me once, shame on Tom. Facebook me twice, shame on me."

Every time I check my RSS feed I find out Facebook has "secretly" rolled out some new "awesome" feature that I have to go through seven rings of hell and the fires of Mordor to de-activate. It drives me crazy -- although it does give Lifehacker something to blog about. The geeky side of me wants to be involved in the ongoing evolution of online interaction, but the 70-year old man in me wants Zuckerberg to get off my virtual lawn.

So, with Facebook's recent implementation of face recognition functionality, and the announcement of a Facebook phone and rumored new Facebook integrated Skype-powered video chat feature, I fear that I for one do not welcome our new networking overloads, and a little bit of geek in me dies.



Speaking of the face recognition functionality, it might just be the code that triggers the robot apocalypse according to Sarah Jacobsson Purewal, of PC World magazine who said:

She also warns:

While I don't quite share Sarah's doomsday view, I do sense a lack of control over my own data -- which is unnerving. When I can't even control what groups I belong to (something new social media mogul Justin Timberlake needs to sort out to get my sexyback on MySpace), or when the content I post on my page ceases to be my own, or when people can pigeonhole you and tag you without your ability to filter their choices, you loose your own individuality (albeit an often manufactured internet persona --but it’s one all your own!).

With the advent of these new features and the integration of Facebook into a cell phone with all the grace and class of a giant Facebook logo-shaped zit protruding out of your nose on prom night, there is a worry that we're giving too much power to a platform that doesn't have any regard for the ethics of privacy, or feel any responsibility towards the individuals their social networks purports to serve.

So, what is a geek to do? There's the rub. The complaints that go along with Facebook’s onslaught on our personal privacy fall on Zuckerberg’s selectively deaf ears, so the company’s attitude towards the protection of rights and information with regards to the individual are not likely to change in the near future. The only surety that we have as users is that some new feature will roll out soon and we may or may not have the ability to mitigate its affect on our usage.

While I'll continue to use Facebook and Myspace, and will test the waters of Google+, I dream of a future where Zuckerberg isn't watching – and data mining -- my every post.

Until then? GET OFF MY LAWN!

[Image: icanhascheezburger.com/]

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Good article.

i donno with some new laws in canada that might pass soon being scared of a big brother dooms day may not be too bad

Well written.

Is it a bit sad that the main reason I remain on Facebook is to keep in contact with relatives of my parents' generation?

Please have many, many children.

A somewhat related joke:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

I love the Onion.

*applause for Bob*

Great article. It makes me think that my decision to avoid the more mainstream social networking sites is a good one.

I always wondered if I was somehow missing something by not getting into all this online social networking. This article makes glad I have this far resisted my curiosity.

Face recognition? A Facebook phone? WUT WUT?? It's just absurd. Another few reasons to deactivate my facebook. Thanks for sharing lady, really well written.

Every time I think of reactivating my account and diving back into the Facebook world, I read something like this and quietly freak out. I don't like the idea of someone being able to plug my name into a search field and find out anything about me.

I read a profile of Zuckerberg right after The Social Network came out. The author noted that the one urge Zuckerberg didn't seem to understand was the urge we have to conceal information from people. I continue to be amazed that someone as smart as he obviously is could miss something like that.

Here here!!! Well spoken.....

The latest BlackBerry adverts boast that SMS messages have an indicator to show when they are read.

My first thought was of the nuisance that will be caused, because there are times when you don't want to reply immediately and too many people over agitate themselves if they don't get immediate feedback on their comments.

There are merits to a slow paced world.