[Air-L] and now for *the dark side* of facebook

[Kimberly De Vries]

While I recognize a lot of reasons to critique facebook, I take issue with
some of these claims, for example that Facebook "mediates relationships that
already exist."

Some of my relationships that are mediated through Facebook would barely
exist or would not exist at all without it.  And Hodgkinson himself sems to
imply it creates relationships when he says Theil is trying to create
communities without borders.  In fact I have experienced this happening and
while the ads now reaching all of us are tiresome, I barely notice them most
of the time.  I'm not running out for a coke just because a few lines about
it appears in my news feed.

I'm not going to go through every point with which I disagree, but I feel
impelled to also note that the closing paragraph was yet another delightful
example of the argument that we should all unplug and read or talk, or (as
suggested early on) we are all pathetic losers drinking alone in front of
the screen.  And I love the assumption that many of us don't read, write and
talk aloud with friends as well, and/or we have unlimited time and money for
trips and long distance calls.

I don't think anyone claims the Facebook TOS or Privacy Policy are good, and
yes, the data retention issue is a real concern, but these real issues are
couched in such inflammatory terms, which Facebook fans will stop to really
think about them?  (you know, apart from us?  ;-) )

Best,
Kim

On Feb 19, 2008 6:00 PM, nativebuddha <nativebuddha at gmail.com> wrote:

> some dirt on the facebook:
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook
>
>
> -robert
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