On the Virtues of Facebook

[drmeow]

61. IMO FB is a tool to be used

with every effort to prevent FB from using me. It has changed things such that I'm not the one doing all the work keeping in touch (given how many times I've moved) and it was invaluable for tracking my friends in NY during Sandy. But I have almost no personal information there, do substantially more reading than posting, control my feed by hiding posts, log off every time I 'm done, don't play games, and try to have the most restrictive privacy settings I possibly can. If by doing so I fail to increase FB's revenues and they fail to thrive as a corporation, something else will come along to replace it.

I also don't carry on personal conversations on my cell phone in public if I can avoid it - same concept.

My biggest concern about FB is employers trying to use it to control employees in various ways - which is why I don't allow my profile to appear in Google searchers. I plan to go on the job market soon and if employers search for me I want them to find LinkedIn, not FB. What's on LinkedIn is their business. What's on FB is not - and never will be.

What I see as different about FB compared to former modes of communication is not unique to FB - and that is that the amount of personal information which can be compiled and the tools available to process and analyze that information is unprecedented and what is legally protected and what is not is largely unclear or not yet established.

FB is a tool but it also can be a weapon and I, for one, want to avoid being a victim of that (or any other social media) weapon.