Social networking has followed its own pattern of boom and collapse: we built it up, but now the trust is gone
DERMOT AHERN warned people this week that they could be sued for defamation if they posted defamatory comments on their Facebook page. The reality that comments can come back to haunt you, especially online, is hardly a new one. And yet we keep putting them out there through Facebook, Twitter and blogging.
The recent liberal tweeting around the death of Gerry Ryan is just one such example of how far we might go and how quickly some people are lured into the deceptively cosy world of cyberspace. When we consider the messages we give kids about not talking to strangers, to be careful to whom they give their name and number, it’s hard to not feel hypocritical when confronted with the Facebook world. We put our information out in an environment we know has a habit of being awash with bugs and other creepy types, such as many money-hungry companies.
Social networking has had its own boom and collapse: we built it up, but now the trust is gone and we don’t really know what to do.
Would you put your bank details out over the internet? How about your home address? Would you give it to a 21-year-old stranger who was once photographed hugging a teddy bear in his pyjamas and who allegedly called you a “dumb f***”? Thought not – but that 21-year-old was Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder speaking two years into the site’s inception during his college years.
This week, Zuckerberg, now 26, rolled out new privacy measures for his 400 million-plus users. At least they’re not called “followers”, like on Twitter, it would just make the feeling that we’re being duped so much worse.
The story rumbled along for a month and last week it was reported that user names or ID numbers connected to personal profiles were visible when users clicked on ads. It was also revealed that Google was indexing Facebook user information; Google claimed it had no idea. Zuckerberg's defence piece in the Washington Poston policy and privacy in Facebookland only added to the mumbo-jumbo. "Our intention was to give you lots of granular controls; but that may not have been what many of you wanted. We just missed the mark." Yes, providing us with long, tedious privacy documents definitely missed the mark.
Facebook’s social plug-ins are meant to “create more social experiences for you”. The idea is if you are on another site you can let people know you by clicking the “like” button which appears at the bottom of the page. It shows you who of your friends have “liked” it before. Facebook is now assuring users that this does not mean your information is sent anywhere, despite the fact that you’re clicking this on an external site. The “Instant personalisation” aspect allows “select partner sites” to access your information to “personalise your experience as soon as you arrive”. So they can tailor their site to your needs, by using your information.
Zuckerberg says no one makes any money from this and you can turn it off fully or partially and prevent people from accessing information. So, the internet cares about us – there’s no need to get curious about the way Facebook acts or the fact that ever single tweet is being archived by the US Library of Congress. “When you share more, the world becomes more open and connected.” Doesn’t that sound like a tambourine-shaking, hippie mantra? It’s Mark Zuckerberg again. Facebook sounds like a place of fuzzy-wuzzy love, allowing us all to share and care. We don’t have to worry that Zuckerberg, who “missed the mark”, effectively owns our accounts.
And the fact that Facebook is a bit like a bank that’s appearing to behave recklessly – that shouldn’t concern us either, it seems.
The Facebook spokesman telling Sky News yesterday that they’re working on a child protection “panic button” is meant to bring on a case of the fuzzy-wuzzies. It does little to soothe the consumer frustration that comes from the social networking faux pas that has raged over the past month.
The excesses of social networking don't seem strange to the 20-something generation, of which I am one. Shows where Oprah and Dr Phil talk about feelings and the Sex and the Citygirls talk about their sexual adventures ingrained themselves in our youth. Boundaries broke way back and social networking didn't seem like a big deal. Bebo was the tester, Facebook the sleek transition and Twitter the Mercedes of the microblogging highway. We were entitled to knowing, to keeping up to date, to having knowledge about others. Zuckerberg flourished during this time and now after his muddled privacy adjustments he says he wants to give us back control, that it's about us. Those 4,000 college students, at whom Facebook was initially aimed, have become millions of users worldwide. Facebook is the behemoth of the social networking world, bragging that it is "not going to debate claims from anonymous sources or dated allegations that attempt to characterise Mark's and Facebook's views towards privacy".
It’s International Quit Facebook Day on May 31st and some 22,798 people have already committed to leave. It’s just a thought, but it could be a triumph for the only real currency we have left.