Pneumatised!

A commentary regarding “Facebook’s Gone Rogue; It’s Time for an Open Alternative”

I’ve been peeved at Facebook since they decided to make my profile picture public. I’m just lucky that I know how to fiddle with their other privacy settings, but all the same, I’ve been peeved at Facebook for a while now. I’ve been even more peeved since they decided to change how filling out the “Info” tab works. Anything you put in under your interests must be linked to a public page. I’m actually considering removing entries in my “Info” section now. This saddens me as I was one who told friends that facebook had some pretty good privacy measures. Now, I have to recant that. I agree with the writer in the article above that in changing the “Info” section the way they did, they limited choice for the Facebook user. I either enter the information and have myself added to a public Facebook page or leave it out entirely, making it seem like I have no interests, that I’m a blank slate with no sense of identity.

I’ve since decided that a better platform for social networking is needed, or maybe not at all. As someone on Slashdot pointed out, this is the World Wide Web (www). We have webpages and email. Getting a website is not as costly or as hard as it used to be. We still have instant messenging, just as good as a phone call. Additionally, there are some websites that do various things better than Facebook. For example, there are better sites to put photos up on, better sites to showcase your art, better sites to showcase your writing (or even use your own website or blog). And heck, if you like games just get an Xbox or Playstation, they have better games. (Even my new Android phone has better games, I will have a blog about it.) Simply put, why does there have to be one place for everything you do?

I originally signed up for Facebook to keep in touch with friends and to see their photos. I barely use the news feed anymore. It comes up with the “top news”, however that is determined, when I rather prefer the “recent news”. Plus, some people update their status much more than others that my other friends sometimes don’t even show up on there. Speaking of the news feed, I have two options for my friends on there. I either show them or hide them. Another limitation to choice. Maybe I just want less updates from them, so I have a chance to read about my other friends. Thus, if I care to find out about someone I will go straight to their profile instead. I also originally signed up for Facebook because it is supposed to be a social networking site where people can find my website and contact information. I highly doubt people even know that that information is there nor would they even think to look.

For now though, I’m resigned to keeping my Facebook for a little while longer, though I’ve been gradually weaning myself off it. I am thinking about revamping my website a bit and I hope to be blogging more than I have in the past year.

~~~C