I’ve been telling people Facebook is twisted for a long time. The problem is most people are willing to give up privacy for convenience This is especially true when one becomes convinced that he or she needs Facebook or any other social media in their life. What really frustrates me, is that Facebook has been known for doing shady shit for years but the world only cares now because the shady shit might of helped Trump. We have to stop being sheep and take a little action before disaster strikes and not just afterwards.
And the reason everyone is upset is that "privacy" and "convenience" are not binary states. How much privacy? How much convenience? If you've been really following Facebook, you know that the answer is "a lot of privacy" and "not a lot of convenience" but if you aren't paying attention, "not a lot of convenience" is concrete and "a lot of privacy" is abstract. Now? Now it's not so abstract. Now it's "Facebook has been keeping a record of every phonecall and text message you ever send for some reason undisclosed to you." In my opinion, it's perfectly reasonable for normies to freak out about this. Back in the early days of online dating there was a girl who decided to play coy about who she was. So I decided to play along and use what I knew about her to tell her where she went to high school, what she'd lettered in, who she went to prom with, what cities she'd lived in in the past four years and, if I recall, that she'd gotten a speeding ticket in some small town in Idaho. Now - this was information readily available to me with her name, ten minutes and a Google. But she lost her shit. Reported me to match.com as a stalker. Deleted her profile. Apparently I was her wake-up call that she had created a presence on the Internet. When we agree to play Mafia Wars we get a pop-up telling us all the things Zynga gets access to. It is right there. but most people can't draw a direct line between "Mafia Wars" and "my gran-gran gets a completely different Facebook graph because data scientists in London figure she can be influenced to vote for a reality TV star." You're right. You're absolutely right. But you also need to recognize that the freakouts are an essential part of de-sheeping. I know it's frustrating but it's not a "wake up sheeple" moment it's a "reinforcements are arriving" moment.The problem is most people are willing to give up privacy for convenience
What really frustrates me, is that Facebook has been known for doing shady shit for years but the world only cares now because the shady shit might of helped Trump.
We have to stop being sheep and take a little action before disaster strikes and not just afterwards.
I appreciate the response and agree on all accounts. I am digging the format of Hubski as an alternative to Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. Part of what may have come out as anger in my post is the people with whom I work. Many of them up until this point have seen Facebook as wholly benevolent and essential for peoples day to day lives. Perhaps I should be less frustrated and more pleased that people are coming to see the damage things like Facebook can cause.
