Facebook: Positive or Negative?

[Syrinx]

I was watching the (very) late replay of O'Reilly. And I'm sorry for the sin, but nothing else was on. I have about 200 channels, but half of them were trying to convince me my penis is too small, and most of the others wanted me to buy overpriced fake jewelry.

John Stossel was Mr. Bill's guest. Stossel was defending Wall Street and the banks "occupying" Wall Street against the "dirty hippies," while O'Reilly, very unconvincingly, played the good cop.

Stossel said that without those nice bankers directing money into productive sectors, we would be left without great things like Facebook.

I don't know if Facebook ever took out a bank loan or not. I've never read any of the histories of that company that have been published. I did read one entertaining book about the temporary rise of MySpace, but that seems all very moot today.

But forget about how Facebook was financed, and all that.

In your opinion, is Facebook, net, a positive or negative force today?

Some good things have happened on Facebook. For example, a lot of money was raised for the victims of the tornadoes that tore through my area six months ago yesterday.

But in the larger picture, I see Facebook as a net negative. Mark Zuckerberg believes that any notion of privacy is an outmoded concept.

That sounds to me like the ravings of a lunatic... a madman.

Facebook is soaking up intimate details of the lives of all of its members, and selling those details to all comers. It's all up for sale.

I think that is a revolting development, but it has been achieved with the acquiescence of it's participants.

I've never joined Facebook, and I never will. I think it is a commercial effort to subvert the internet, to turn it on its head, and to rob the privacy and freedom of its users.

I think poorly of Facebook. Do you call it a net positive, or a net negative?

[eShirl]

1. Facebook is a piece of crap that a critical mass of people have joined

good luck to any better social network trying to attract users to leave that sucking black hole

[Syrinx]

7. I like sensible people like you

But please note that just because I like you, doesn't mean I "like" you. :)

[Selatius]

2. Facebook does have some subversive aspects to it, though.

Protesters worldwide have used it to coordinate mass strikes and marches. In Iran in 2009, it allowed protesters to coordinate protests against their plainly rigged elections. Then there were the protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and now Syria. In fact, if it weren't for Twitter or Facebook, we would not have known some of the names of early protesters in Iran killed by the army.

[Syrinx]

3. Does twitter sell personal information?

Maybe they do. I don't know.

[Selatius]

6. I'd imagine they track your favorite topics, music interests, etc. like any corporation.

I don't think they'd give out things like your street address or phone number to advertisers though.

[madrchsod]

4. the wisconsin revolution is fueled by facebook and the twitter

most national unions and many locals have facebook pages. my wife is developing a facebook page for her union. let`s not forget the arab spring was reported across the world on facebook and twitter.
like it or not facebook will be here for a long time until someone comes up with something better.

[Syrinx]

5. like the internet?

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. I get the feeling that a lot of Facebook is people pretending they are celebrities

I'm sure it provides entertainment for a lot of people and also a way to look up long, lost friends. I just find a lot of it pretty silly.

[IndyPragmatist]

9. Facebook is what you make of it

If you link everything to your facebook profile and provide all kinds of personal information, that's your doing. I don't do that. My facebook profile is pretty basic. I don't really list anything on my profile, it's just a way of keeping in contact with others.

If you have concerns about your privacy on Facebook, don't give facebook information you don't want them to have...it's really simple.

[Darth_Kitten]

16. Smart.

Yes indeed, Facebook is what you make of it. :)

[JCMach1]

10. The Arab Spring would not have happened without Facebook

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/2011/02/201121614532116986.html

[redqueen]

19. Yep. How quickly people forget.

[eShirl]

23. Of course it would have.

If you argued it would not have happened without the internet, I would agree.

[JCMach1]

33. Watch the Al Jazeera special...

[Quantess]

11. Many people have the mistaken idea that they have to give out vital information.

But all you are required to do to set up an account is a name and email address. You don't have to be completely accurate about your birthdate and your name, either. Of course, facebook knows your IP address, so that's hard to avoid giving out. After that, it is mostly up to your own discretion how much information you want to reveal about yourself. Of course, your list of friends can be analyzed as well, and a lot of info can be generated from that. I didn't plan to reveal my High School name and graduation year, but since someone else already placed me in the HS 19XX group, that cat is out of the bag but really, I guess I don't care that much. I doubt anyone else does either.
I never "like" anything commercial. Except for Jon Stewart & The Colbert Report, of course.

I post all kinds of photos, and I really don't care what any outsider chooses to make of them. I post photos like "Look at this 3-legged dog I met on the sidewalk!" Most of facebook is trivial diversion. I have many friends and family who live far away from me, and so I say facebook is well worth it. I don't really care if authorities have figured out I'm politically liberal.

I do not want to imply that the fears of loss of privacy are overblown. All I am saying is that (for me at least), why would anyone care?

[Hestia]

25. You do have to give up your town & state, but DH & I have different one's

and aren't linked. The only thing on my profile is I love to read books, but if you really know me, that is info that is not surprising. We went and changed everything about who we "are". I do link to like democracy now, afl-cio, etc. You know all the groups that will make it impossible to market to me.

[pipi_k]

29. Not really...

I have a real page there, and I have one that's for more silly fun. My silly one has absolutely NO personal information posted, so anyone I've friended with it doesn't have a clue.

And it's also PRIVATE, so anyone doing a search will see only the name and nothing else.

[Quantess]

35. No. No, you do NOT have to give that information out.

However, the information based on your internet connections...that was all they needed to know, LOL! Too late!

[Quantess]

36. I never gave out the name of my town, I never gave out the name of my city....

I never gave out the name of I never gave out my former state of residende. the country in which I now live.
Just because Facebook pretends to demand your personal information doesn't mean you have to give it to them.

[MedleyMisty]

12. It's both

Yes, it's a terrible invasion of privacy. It's also a place where Arabs and Americans alike put up pages calling for social change and share information and media. The We are all Khaled Said page was an important part of the Egyptian revolution. The youth of Libya put up a page calling for February 17th as the Libyan day of rage, and now Gaddafi is dead and they're free. However, there were rumors that the activist who put up a Facebook page calling for a day of rage in Saudi Arabia was shot to death by the authorities there. People were tortured to get their Facebook passwords and thus information on their friends.

Nothing is easy. Nothing is black and white. I believe Anonymous advocates that if you do use Facebook, you do so carefully and with a fake name and fake information. It's a double edged sword, a great tool for social change and also a great tool for those who want to stop social change.

[quaker bill]

13. I use it to get updates and photos of my granddaughter

and I let friends know when I will be exhibiting at a local art show. Otherwise, I have little use for it.

[taterguy]

14. The only "intimate details" that FB soaks up are the ones people are dumb enough to provide

In and of itself, FB is neutral, but the ways that it's used are positive and negative.

It's beneficial for me.

It's a way of connecting with long lost acquaintances and an efficient new mode of communication.

[Lucinda]

15. Love it!

Incredibly useful tool for me.

[lynne]

17. Absolutely a huge net positive -

- been on FB for years. Communicate with my family - especially my young adult children - on FB, have been reacquainted with cousins and my childhood friends. Great place for finding out latest news and local information. Most organizations I participate in are on FB so I am able to keep current with their events. Wonderful way to network for jobs and volunteer opportunities.

As far as soaking up intimate details, it can only soak up what you put out there so you are in control. There are numerous ways to control who sees what on FB so you are in control of that, too.

I find that most who dislike FB have never used it. Much like judging a book by its cover, IMO.

[Atman]

18. Would you buy a sign in Times Square and post your name and address and phone number?

No sane person would, but it is always your option. I enjoy using FB, have been able to stay in touch with friends and family, but I simply don't post personal info. I don't understand why people would post their addresses and phone numbers, or "check in" with their every movement...and then whine about FB invading their privacy. FB is what you make it.

[blogslut]

20. Social Networking is good

While Facebook is, at the moment, ubiquitous, it is not the only social networking platform.

[eShirl]

21. +1

[pmorlan1]

22. Facebook just another tool

The only thing I post on Facebook are links to news articles that I hope my Facebook friends will read. If nothing else they do see the headlines.

[bigwillq]

24. It's what you make of it.

I like it. I think it's a big positive despite some of the drawbacks. At least folks have a choice whether to join or not or how much information they put on their account.

edited

[guardian]

26. Negative

I've never understood the fascination with Facebook or Twitter. I think people that use these things are basically insecure narcissists screaming "Look at me. Look at me." Frankly I'm just not that interested in you, what you are wearing, or what you did last weekend.

[LanternWaste]

34. Much like the telephone...

Much like the telephone which may be used for precisely the same things. This new technology stuff is horrible...

[NeedleCast]

27. I Like Facebook. As it applies to politics, it's a great organizational tool

When I was working for Obama in Virginia in 2008, we used a lot of social media (Facebook, Twitter) to coordinate operations like registering voters at subway metro stations and just to give an organization that was geographically spread out through a large metro area a chance to socialize with each other.

[Lyric]

28. It has good points and bad points. I'd say that the positives outweigh the negatives.

Many people misuse it, but it has incredible value if used conscientiously.

[Skittles]

30. superficial garbage

[Innoma]

31. On balance, I Say Negative...

...but with some heavy qualifications. I mean, with a computer I can singlehandedly put together, say, a professional newspaper. I can write the articles, edit it, typeset it, generate graphics ... the whole nine yards, where as little as 20 or 30 years ago that endeavor would have realistically taken a team of people dedicated to their craft quite some time and effort to accomplish. Pretty cool, isn't it?

Except that desktop publish did put a lot of old-school people out of business, and the technology then put the capabilities into the hands of anyone whose only qualification was that they happened to have a computer handy. In the right hands, a beautifully designed computer publication is entirely possible, and there are plenty of examples out there to prove that, but in the wrong hands ... *shudder*

And I'm sure that when the Wright Brothers shoved off from Kitty Hawk, they never envisioned heat-seeking missiles, and I'm sure the person who invented the crowbar never realized how handy a burglary tool it would make, or how easily it could be used to bash someone's skull in.

So, while I say that something like Facebook is, on balance, bad, there's nothing particularly wrong with Facebook itself as a tool, but rather with the people who choose to use for inglorious purposes.

[TK421]

32. I never had a desire to post on that piece of shit...first it was MySpace, this is just

another version, IMHO. Negative

[PeaceNikki]

37. Jesus Christ, why does everything have to be "good or evil" - some things are both.

There are negative and positive things that come out of social networking. I get that you're looking for a "net" positive or negative, but that's just silly.

The world is a tighter knit community because of the information age - that includes blogs, Twitter, forums like this and yes, even Facebook. The end.