Facebook

[Lily]

gizmodo.com/5530178/top-ten-reasons-you-should-quit-facebook

[johnee]

One way people get caught in all of the crap Facebook is about, and has engineered, is by going into it without a solid reason for why you'd want to be there. Some folks are kids in a candy store, no matter their age. Using Facebook as a social networking site is fine - i have gotten back in touch with a few old friends, etc. it sorta makes it easy to stay in touch w/family. i resisted joining for a long time, feeling there were other ways on line to do practically everything Facebook offers, and this IS true. One of the most distasteful things (to me) about Facebook is its all-encompassing presence, and abilities. I used to leave a Facebook tab open alla time, no matter what i was doing. sometimes i could actually hear myself bleat, lol.

anyway, examine privacy settings VERY CAREFULLY and set them. this may take some work; stop yer whining. lol. DON'T USE ANY APPLICATIONS, and DON'T "log in" anywhere w/your Facebook account. Don't carry anything past "friend" level.

a lot of the article you've linked can be said about nearly any TOS - they're pretty much all covering their asses, and trying to extract as much as possible out of the user (used? lol). if you narrow your focus as to how you use a service such as facebook, there's little chance you will see any consequences above and beyond whatever is happening on any other site. don't give into the never-ending changes and bullshit. stay on your toes, if you'd like to use a site like facebook.

and a lot of that top ten list is irrelevant, like talking about ethics, etc. ha! ethics? we live our day to day lives nurtured by companies that have zero ethical considerations. we take all of that for granted. facebook:go narrow - corporations:look deep.

my top reason for disliking facebook is that it does take too long for pages (news feed) to load, and the stuff can get pretty quirky sometimes.

john e

[Lily]

I don't know too much about Facebook, except what I've heard. But it's the privacy issue that disturbs me the most. If you don't know how to keep yourself as private as possible on there, you could run into difficulties. Many people just don't realise how much is showing. I think it's way too risky. For those wishing to keep in touch with family and friends, a blog which can be easily made private, would be safer.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1197562/MI6-chief-blows-cover-wifes-Facebook-account-reveals-family-holidays-showbiz-friends-links-David-Irving.html

[johnee]

if someone wants to use facebook and maintain privacy, a bit of effort is involved. depending on why you want to use it in the first place this effort may or may not be worth the bother. in the future i'm sure there will be much worse internet demons to wrestle, as there are now horrible governments and unethical corporations everywhere. tread lightly, but do not be afraid to tread. a blog can do only so much. i'm not defending facebook - there's a lot of it i can't stand - but it depends on how you use something like this. without getting into bigger issues, the main thing is to KNOW what you want out of it, and set it up so that IT SERVES YOU (not the other way around) and ignore all else about it.

[Lily]

It's not only Facebook you have to be careful of in regards to privacy. Before joining a forum you should make sure that you can delete your posts and account if you so wish. So many do not allow for this, and that's just plain wrong. Everything you write in forums will pop up in a Google search, so don't use your real name.

Even before leaving a brief comment on a blog, make sure you can remove it if you want. It's so very easy to get something up on the net, but difficult to have it removed. I know of someone who left a comment on Blogger not realising that her principal email addy would display. The blog owner has ignored her requests to delete it, and she's had no luck with Google either.