Facebook – a modern dilemma
I am not a fan of Facebook but after waiting by the sidelines for years I have finally broken down and joined the foray. I did so out of sheer necessity as being on Facebook makes it easier for me to get in touch with people for writing projects. My big fear in joining this social media online feeding frenzy was that it would take away from my privacy and open the floodgates to contact with hundreds of people.
The fact is that as soon as I opened up an account under my name I received a deluge of friend requests when all I wanted to do was to have a presence to help access information and photos and to provide one more avenue for people to read my work.
Suddenly, I was faced with a dilemma. What on earth do I do with all of these people coming out of my past – many that I do not even know very well – wanting to be my friend on Facebook. Don’t get me wrong: I like people and find it wonderful in a big picture way that so many would want to befriend me. Still, I also realize that Facebook is a very strange type of friend contact.
Many people I know have Facebook accounts that boast hundreds of friends, dozens of photos and there seems to be a lot of very frequent postings that detail every part of their daily activities, thoughts and actions. I don’t really understand this. I am not sure many of us really get what Facebook is. Considering that a decade or so ago hardly anyone knew about this phenomena, today we all find ourselves tied to Facebook in one way or another through work, family and friends. It is as though Facebook always existed and was a daily part of our existence.
I think there are many good things about Facebook but the fact remains that it is a very powerful media, marketing, data collection tool that has captured most of us. Most of us don’t really realize how far reaching Facebook is in terms of creating profiles that are shared with huge companies that target us with their products. A couple of decades ago, companies spent millions of dollars every year trying to find out what we like, dislike, love and hate; now we offer up that information freely every single day in great detail.
The data collection also poses a problem in terms of what governments and the people who control Facebook can do with all the information we share and that is shared to us on Facebook. In many ways Facebook fits nicely into many science fiction books I have read about dark worlds where people have no privacy, no free thought and were bound by lives dedicated to those in power. The books 1984 and Brave New World come to mind.
Many of us don’t realize that the information we share about ourselves is documented forever in our Facebook postings. For those of us who are young and starting careers, Facebook is the go-to source for information on us by potential employers, the government and of course those that want to sell us everything from a pill to an automobile.
Facebook can also be a very nasty medium for some people to vent their anger or discredit others. This happens a lot. We should all be mindful that the same rules of law regarding slander and libel apply to people who say things about others on social media. You have to be careful what you say about others because you could end up in court being sued for your comments and the proof is right there in print on social media.
Social media plays a role in connecting us but it is up to us to decide just how much we want this to dominate our lives. If you find yourself going to your Facebook as soon as you wake in the morning or many times during the day to check out what everyone is doing or to let the world know what you are up to, perhaps it is time to step back. Maybe reading a newspaper in the morning, listening to a good radio show, calling up a friend on your phone to chat for a few minutes or walking out to visit someone would be healthier for your mind and body. There are a lot of very smart, rich people making money on our love of Facebook. Go a little old school once in a while and give that Facebook addiction a break.