Facebook

[CharlesRivers]

Facebook, the great invention or the end of privacy? This is the topic for an argumentative essay so you must choose one or the other.

 

[Fukyo]

A great invention for the end of privacy.

 

[Jennywocky]

^^
it's hard to argue with that.

 

[The Gopher]

Yeah Fukyo nailed it.

 

[Jaffa]

A great invention for the end of privacy.

But you don't HAVE to use Facebook. If you want your privacy to remain intact then just don't use Facebook.

I was looking for a new Chess board earlier today and couldn't really find anything. I logged onto Facebook a little later and got an ad for chess boards on Amazon.... and I found a decent board and bought it. Perfect for your average consumer.

I think Facebook (and social media in general) is a great tool, especially for the introvert. I'm sure I speak for alot of Introverts when I say that a 10 minute browse on Facebook can satisfy any social 'itch' that I might get.

 

[Fukyo]

But you don't HAVE to use Facebook. If you want your privacy to remain intact then just don't use Facebook.

Did I say I use Facebook? What was the point of saying that to somebody well aware of Facebook's privacy problem?

I was looking for a new Chess board earlier today and couldn't really find anything. I logged onto Facebook a little later and got an ad for chess boards on Amazon.... and I found a decent board and bought it. Perfect for your average consumer.

Good for you. Zuckenberg is worth billions of dollars thanks to people who think that an insidious business based on selling people's data is "perfect for your average consumer". I don't. That's why I don't use Facebook. It's a matter of principle.

 

[Jennywocky]

But you don't HAVE to use Facebook. If you want your privacy to remain intact then just don't use Facebook.

The OP is assuming that you are using it, or otherwise there would be no invasion of privacy question to debate.

I was looking for a new Chess board earlier today and couldn't really find anything. I logged onto Facebook a little later and got an ad for chess boards on Amazon.... and I found a decent board and bought it. Perfect for your average consumer.

I think Facebook (and social media in general) is a great tool, especially for the introvert. I'm sure I speak for alot of Introverts when I say that a 10 minute browse on Facebook can satisfy any social 'itch' that I might get.

I find it helpful as my "personal index" of contacts from college and elsewhere, and to get snippets of what's going on with them without actually have to write to them (unless I want to comment). Kind of a boon for someone who just sits in her apartment doing other stuff all the time.

I used to play some of the games, found them repetitive as hell after awhile, and stopped completely. I spend only about 15 minutes on FB a day currently, skimming the new posts from the few people I have set up for my feed, and otherwise do other things.

Privacy to some degree is nil already if you bother to have an online presence, unless you're really really particular about it. It's just that FB tends to constantly stretch the boundaries... and they suck at informing the userbase about impending changes, they just roll them out and you find out after the fact that your posts and information has now been accessible by people who couldn't access that info in the past, etc. I think this latter part is what annoys me most about them; they don't give a shit about user concerns, they're constantly just changing their system based on some internal desires without regard for anyone on the system. They're fortunate they currently have a viable product and got the early lead; if there was a serious competitor who addressed these problems, they would be in trouble.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Join the right groups and you can get some pretty interesting feeds :P

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

It's useful for information gathering. When there is a need to know the changes in course schedule, etc. I don't have every fellows phone number, but when we are on the same facebook group then I can stay informed with minimal effort. Generally being informed of recent matters is not something I'm naturally good at.

Other than that I log in every few months for the above reasons and I didn't even fill the personal data, the only info there is that I attend a certain university.

 

[CharlesRivers]

In my opinion, Facebook is still useful enough for most people to disregard, or at least remain inactive about, the intrusion of privacy. Near-limitless freedom and free and easy global communication seem to be of larger concern than an invasion or privacy.

 

[Absurdity]

Totally sux use Twitter.

 

[Hadoblado]

...yeah pretty much... these things are far from mutually exclusive.

If I had to argue one in a void, I'd argue that it's a great invention. While there is substantial social pressure to use it, privacy still exists if you choose not to use facebook. It's not as if it burrows into your brain, you volunteer the information.

 

[wilsonwatson]

Privacy to some degree is nil already if you bother to have an online presence, unless you're really really particular about it. It's just that FB tends to constantly stretch the boundaries... and they suck at informing the userbase about impending changes, they just roll them out and you find out after the fact that your posts and information has now been accessible by people who couldn't access that info in the past, etc. I think this latter part is what annoys me most about them; they don't give a shit about user concerns, they're constantly just changing their system based on some internal desires without regard for anyone on the system. They're fortunate they currently have a viable product and got the early lead; if there was a serious competitor who addressed these problems, they would be in trouble.

This is what irritates me about Facebook. I used to not use it at all but then group studying became a necessity in college and my study group used Facebook to communicate about meeting up. No matter how hard I tried, they'd forget to text me in addition to the Facebook messages and it became a necessity for me to use an account if I didn't want to miss the meetings. Sadly because of Facebook's constantly changing settings, people know way too much about me and it's irritating. I never filled out large parts of Facebook's profile page, but even still I'm tagged in pictures and whatnot and I just find the whole thing annoying.

It also seems incredibly stupid that people seem to try and friend me the moment they acknowledge my existence. I have one conversation with a person longer than 15 seconds and within two hours they're friending me on Facebook. Why?? The number of friends a person has on Facebook should not be related to their life worth, and even if it was, friending people who are essentially strangers is still odd to me.

It's a great invention because people no longer care about their privacy, but honestly I don't gain any "social interaction" from Facebook. It makes me lose respect for the world and people in general.

I'm already in a bad mood, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

 

[Red myst]

What really gets me is the people I know who use social media for everything and also complain about the patriot act, NSA spying, and employer snooping on prospective employees.

 

[Fukyo]

What really gets me is the people I know who use social media for everything and also complain about the patriot act, NSA spying, and employer snooping on prospective employees.

Why?

Facebook is certainly not the only part of the Internet that gets spied on, and not the only part of the wider network of communications world wide that get spied on.

Why does a person's use of social networking (even extensive) disqualify them from complaining about large scale government spying that surpasses the bounds of social networking?

Also, what is wrong with complaining about about employers using Facebook to spy on prospective employees and to ask them to hand over their passwords? The practice is unethical and the fact someone has a social networking presence doesn't justify a third person's intrusive actions.

 

[Red myst]

Why?

Facebook is certainly not the only part of the Internet that gets spied on, and not the only part of the wider network of communications world wide that get spied on.

Why does a person's use of social networking (even extensive) disqualify them from complaining about large scale government spying that surpasses the bounds of social networking?

Also, what is wrong with complaining about about employers using Facebook to spy on prospective employees and to ask them to hand over their passwords? The practice is unethical and the fact someone has a social networking presence doesn't justify a third person's intrusive actions.

I don't disagree with you, I just would not make it so easy by offering up all of the details of my life so publicly where there's a chance it could be used against me directly or indirectly for sinister purposes by the government, or other criminals and enemies. I see a lot of drama come into people's lives because of social media.

 

[durd141]

But you don't HAVE to use Facebook. If you want your privacy to remain intact then just don't use Facebook.

Or you can just use facebook and only put up fake info...

Its a good tool for staying in contact with people and the real world .