After 14 years, Facebook is still just a teenager. It was early in its existence that, out of curiosity, I test drove the program, created a page with minimal information and studied the developing interaction. What annoyed me about the program was that, when tiring of the experiment, I was unable to get rid of the test page. It goes on forever like something lost in space.
But it was obvious from its rough beginnings that Facebook was an invasive tool to be easily manipulated. It is like a vast pool of koi for predators. It is there to massage your ego, display your life in pictures and challenges you to win friends and “likes.” It profiles you and produces a commodity that Facebook can sell to those with the price. It has become a bottomless pit of commercial treasure.
You should think seriously sometimes about how much you want others to look in on your life. It is not just friends who are interested in your planned trip or your children or their friends.
I have always laughed at the rewards programs used by large retail organizations so that they can better tailor their directed marketing efforts. I was puzzled once that the drug store chain that we frequently use was sending me advertising and enticements to buy their cosmetics. The simple answer was that I had been taking the wife’s cosmetic purchases to the cashier for her.
But it made me think about how credit cards can tell the tale of your travels, your interests, your weaknesses. In our consumer societies, there are those who want us to become an open book.
It might not have been the original idea for Facebook. That appeared to have started because Mark Zuckerberg and his geek friends at Harvard University had problems getting dates. Today Zuckerberg is worth billions and he is still just a geek.
Rather than worry too much about those who exploit social media for commercial gain, the real concern today is the international hacking into government and other programs to influence political choices. Elections and referenda are constantly trying to reduce costs by using more and more computer services. These services need to be protected or they can be hacked to serve the needs of others.
Orwell described the situation in the book 1984. The actual year has come and gone but, if we are not careful, Big Brother will become reality.
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Copyright 2018 © Peter Lowry
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