Fundamental issues of privacy forcing people to opt out from Facebook

AZ — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:58:33 +0000

Almost a year ago, I created a Facebook profile and began greedily gathering of friends strokes like poppies in Oz Dorothy meeting, starting from the flowerbeds different life. But now, what I liked about Facebook is also what I’m starting to hate about it.

It used to be fun to accumulate a large amount of contacts, to be back in touch with old friends, see the degrees of separation between this person and that one. I love that I have all my friends and contacts in one lifetime, without limitation, connected digital Rolodex. But increasingly, it feels like too much work.

Facebook, if you have not taken a turn not, is an online network of some 62 million active users. It connects us with old and new friends as well as those who work, go to school, share interests and live nearby.

Incredibly, for example, I met a guy I met in high school. He is a man, and lives across the country – and although we have not spoken for 30 years (actually, I’m not sure you really never spoke in 7th grade, either), however, happens to know a lot of people I’ve come to know. What is strange is that?

Then I met a college friend who moved from Boston to South Dakota, and I “met” their children, too. I forged a couple of really great new friends in Facebook, since I hung out with offline. And on my birthday … so, with all the blessings “Facebook” and greetings rain on me, I never shone with more love.

It’s times like that sometimes pause and think what none of this would be impossible without the great gift that is the digital age, and I say a silent prayer of thanksgiving for the life now and not, for example, when all you had to communicate was a lump of charcoal and a cave.

But there’s a downside to all this glorious connectivity. First, my teenager has a Facebook page, and I’ve met him and his friends a few times. I want the child to privacy (in, you know, the limits), so I always politely turn aside as if I saw him, something like if you accidentally entered him in the bathroom.

I also occasionally ran into an old boyfriend on Facebook. Although it’s been years since I saw (which is definitely good), it seems that we are still in contact with some of the same people. Therefore, small windows that had long ago closed and open pried? briefly closed. I want to know that he and his new girlfriend went to see Cloverfield? No – but there it is. And when you drive by an old love, it’s hard not to gawk.

My friend said Nedra that manages this by maintaining two levels of privacy settings on social networks. “I will only allow access to things like my status updates, personal information, photos, etc. if they really have a preexisting relationship with someone,” says Nedra.

Add to my friend Ryan, “When you change the scale of these difficulties by 400 (or 4,000) of friends, suddenly you have a bit of mess on your hands. And the more people you meet, the harder it gets.”

Danah Boyd, who studies social networks at UC Berkeley, calls this “context management”. In other words, suddenly the work to manage the context of their online profile, “which, curiously, seems to have its own life.

Social networking sites can be just fun and games and connections. But at the same time, make you consider some fundamental issues of privacy, access and personal privacy – or lack thereof. It’s a job to manage the privacy settings and requests for access to their personal and professional life. It’s a job to think about who you see and how they see you and you see … , And often, says Danah, flat-out Unfun ”

It sucks for teens trying to balance mom and friends. It sucks for college students trying to have a social life and not disturb their teachers. It sucks for 20-somethings trying to date and the balance of the presence of his boss.

And increasingly, it sucks for us, too, that are somewhere north of 20-ish.

Facebook could choose to complete, I know many people who have or are thinking about it. But I’m willing to do that, because I’m not willing to have the facility to which social networking virtual Rolodex torn from my hands.

What is dawning on me is a recognition that there is a fine line between what is Facebook – and what’s in-your-face … book.

sickfacebook.com » opt out

Fundamental issues of privacy forcing people to opt out from Facebook

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