Book of Faces...

I'm stuck in the Bangkok airport today... lots of not so exciting. When leaving my hostel this morning a few of the people I met and I exchanged emails so that we could find each other on facebook, one of the girls is going to India so maybe I'll meet up with her. It got me thinking, as facebook banter often does, about if I really think facebook is a good thing or not. I swing back and forth on this one. I'm a traveler and facebook is THE way I stay in contact with people. I keep up with my close high school friends that I sadly only get to see once or twice a year now. I am able to stay in contact with people from around the world that I have met during my travels, people I'm sure I wouldn't stay in contact with otherwise. If nothing else it's convenient to have a place where people you meet on the road can find you and you can maybe one day reconnect with them. It's also a great place to share photos and the facebook groups are a great way to communicate with a large number of people.

That being said, facebook scares me for a few reasons. The most important is that anything you put on facebook (photos, status updates, personal info, location, relationships, friends) are no longer yours, they are legally facebook's property. The new timeline feature (which looks very nice I must say) makes it clearer than ever how easy it is for anyone to look at every. post. you. have. made. sense. creating. your. facebook. This is unsettling for a two reasons. First, do you really want all of your hip new friends looking at awkward 16-year-old you posting melodramatic statuses? I don't. Second, and more importantly, anyone doesn't mean any of your friends. It means the government and third party organizations. It means employers and Universities.

The facebook policy states that:

"We may also share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activity, to prevent imminent bodily harm, or to protect ourselves and you from people violating our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, courts or other government entities." 

I can't say that I am totally apposed to facebook being used as a place to gather evidence for court cases. For example, a kid in my high school raped a girl during my senior year. He was dumb enough to post about it on facebook. The court were able to use his facebook history as part of the case. This is, I think, a good thing. If you are stupid enough to discuss your illegal activities online then it's at your own risk. What worries me most is that it's not just courts that can access this information but companies and other government entities. That is vague enough to be worrisome. There is no way to know if facebook passes on information about you, when they do, or to who they pass it. In the wrong hands it is a very powerful tool.
 If you watch any of the videos from this post, watch this one. It explains not only how facebook is can use your information, but how facebook is funded. Big brother, some may say, is watching. True, that's not great and I'm not a fan, but if you REALLY don't want people to know something don't. put. it. on. the. Internet.

On a different note, it also is a form of marketing yourself. It takes consumerism and brings it to a new level. People post pictures and statuses on facebook to create an image of themselves, an image that looks appealing to others even if it isn't totally true. It is proven to lower people's self-esteem, but did you really need to do a study to tell me that? I mean, it's a website where everyone posts their best, sexiest, most artistic, insightful material in attempt to make people think they are a certain way. When you get online and see everyone else's perfect life then of course you will feel down about your life. You know the truth about your life, but other people's lives look more like fantasy on facebook. People claim that facebook feeds their depression, anorexia, and bulimia.

This last concern is a problem, but I think it's more of a side affect of our social norms based on a consumerist, figure obsessed society than an issue with facebook. Facebook does provide a convenient and popular vehicle for these social norms to thrive. Is it really something we want to support? I mean, we can't help seeing the billboards with photo shopped models, it isn't a personal choice to have television be more commercial than shows. It is however, a complete personal choice to have a facebook.

These two dudes on youtube lay it down pretty well. The first one (the one that looks like a hobo) is anti-facebook, the second one if pro. I can see both sides and I keep my facebook... for now. It's days are numbered though.