Tuesday, May 18, 2010
EfFacebook
My friend [Spaghetti Western] used to post blogs online of his misadventures in the funerary world, mishaps at [Bric-a-Brac University] or hilarious tirades about everything else on planet earth. Eventually he stopped. I asked him why one day, itching for some vitriol to tickle my funny bone. He said he still did sometimes, but had been posting them on Facebook. I heard that name floating around quite often. And so I said, "Alright... You got me... I'll join this Facebook everyone speaks of." Later that day I did. What started as reading rants (which he eventually gave up on doing), ended up as me thinking up names of people I'd known in the past, and snooping to see what they were up to. There were groups like "Charles Bronson Fan Club", "Atheist Libertarians", "The Toxic Waste Guy in Robocop is awesome!" I could join which I started collecting for the sake of collecting. All was fine and dandy for a while.
Eventually, I started noticing how overwhelming it started becoming to me, and how annoying its prevalence had become. Wherever you see someone doing inconsequential texting, beside them you'll see somebody else on Facebook, updating their status with mundane details. Facebook started adding applications. Application, after application, after application. People passing them around like STDs in the early 80s.
I started feeling uneasy about how much people were putting out there, and how often they were. I alluded to my reservations of cellphones and texting, and I admit, I'm a bit of a Luddite. I like technological advancement, but I know that in most cases, if it's an advancement made for mass use, it becomes trivialized. This is why I project the 21st century predicted in the science fiction of the late 20th century will never come to be. Anything significant will not be in demand or get funding, and shiny objects which cater to the mundane needs of the hoi polloi will totally get abused and commodified.
Besides being a Luddite-Lite, a LudLite, I like privacy, a lot. I haven't reached the point where I burn my paper trail, file my fingerprints off, obscure my face in public, and go to live in a log cabin in the woods... yet. But I don't like to put myself out there. I'd rather not even let most people know the last time I sneezed let alone any other personal detail. My life isn't anything worth writing about... so why speak about it? And so for status updates, I usually had random statements or quotes.
For a couple years now, I've had my account set to "deactivated". I've snuck on a few brief instances, maybe once per quarter year if that, to see or read certain things posted by people who tell me to. Or sometimes I go into creepbook mode and "vet" certain people. Not something I can say I'm proud of, but we all have our dark secrets, most of them just seem to be posted on your Facebook accounts.
I had mostly been sitting with a sleeping account because I could never find how to delete it. But then the face of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg said something which creeped me out. He said:
"People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time."
What the Zuck? Count me out. That was a while ago, but the news only hit me recently. That was enough for me to finally go on Google (a company which ironically has its wacky ideas on how to treat privacy) and find out how to close it down for good. I found this link.
That was over a week ago, and now I have to wait another week for it to finally be gone. I still have to wonder how gone it will really be, but I'll just have to keep my eyes open. I don't count this as a victory against Big Brother. Obviously there's so much out there about me and of me that they could make a digital clone of me, and nobody would know any different. But this is a small step into the caves. Until then...
See everyone in hell, and not on Facebook!
