Facebook Rant

I have to go off on Facebook every now and then. I mostly refrained from doing it in yesterday's post, because I didn't want to dilute my point. But I can't hold back any longer, so here goes....

I am not, as many people know, on Facebook. I've pondered it briefly on numerous occasions, most recently and most seriously after returning from my high school reunion. I didn't want to lose touch with all the amazing people I had just reconnected with! But I also thought about (a) how much less interesting the reunion would have been if I had known what everyone had been up to for all those intervening years, and (b) how I'm still very unwilling to publicize all the details of my life to anyone who cares to investigate.

I know all you Facebook fans will say "but you can set it to super-private!" True. But once you start friending people, it's all over. Your network inevitably expands; it's like there was a Facebook Big Bang, and it just keeps getting bigger. People post pictures and tag you in them. People comment on your wall. People will say "how does it feel to be 30?" on your birthday, even though you deliberately did not put the year of your birth under the "birthday" section, because you didn't want that information broadcast. Once you have friends (and who doesn't want to reconnect with 1,372 of their closest friends?), it's impossible to police your own information. There's just too much of it. And what's more, if you're logged into Facebook and start cruising other sites on the internet, Facebook tracks that. It knows what you buy. It mines your address book for contacts. It suggests people it thinks you should be friends with. It knows where you live!

And this, people, is just Facebook. It's probably the most badly behaved of all the social media/networking sites, but it is by far not the only one digging for dirt about you. Even the beloved Google reads your e-mail to provide targeted advertising.

But here's the thing about Facebook taking over your life. Pretty soon, despite my best efforts to avoid it, it's going to take over mine, too. It will find my e-mail address in your address books. It will know who my friends are. It will triangulate. It will create a Facebook page for me, whether I like it or not. It's coming. Just you wait.