hexstatik

while I’ve been on facebook (sometimes also known as crackbook for its addictive nature, or “the facebook”) for quite some time now, it’s not nearly as consuming as it was initially, but i still find myself visiting on a fairly regular basis to see what is going on. of all the technologies and sites on the internet, facebook has managed to completely enthrall and estimated millions of people around the world. last month alone, facebook registered 26.6M unique visitors and over 15B page views (wow!) and the last I heard, had an estimated value of around $6B.

facebook is the one site on the internet that I think makes people feel safe enough to dump crazy amounts of personal data into. it has enabled its users to easily find old friends, make new ones, share photos and is changing the way people communicate using electronic means. there is currenly a shift away from email to facebook, instant messaging and text messaging. you could say that the shift to IM and texting began before facebook, but facebook is now influencing how these technologies are used.

although many have lauded facebook, it is not without its critics - the facebook website has been blocked by businesses and government agencies, criticized for it’s privacy policies, and several facebook consipiracy theories have also sprung up.

I was a little hesitant at first, then I put tons of information up, but that scared me, and I ended up removing most of it. I am quite careful about the information about me that exists out on the internet. sure, I have a blog, a flickr account, etc… so I can’t exactly say that I’m operating in stealth mode. However, I do hate having to give up my email address, and my information on facebook has been filtered out.

In many ways, I think that people also want to be able to trust companies on the web, and companies like Google do have the trust of many of their users. I even want to trust facebook, and so far, they have done a few things to instill that trust. However, I still get that burning sensation that one day, when someone with a big enough cheque comes knocking, they will sell out and everyone’s private and personal data will be sold and data mined and we’ll never see the end of the spam and advertising.

What’s your take?